GREER, SC -- What a long, strange trip it's been for one South Carolina cat whose cross-country journey made national headlines. "Kevin" the cat disappeared from his Anderson County home more than a year ago and was found all the way in California after WHNS reported that he hitched a ride in a U-Haul trailer and headed west.
"It's amazing, because he's definitely changed," owner Cheryl Walls, who thought she would never see her cat again, said. "I was sad, but I thought he was gone forever and then we got then message that he had been found in California."
The orange tabby ventured outside back in 2013 and didn't return, so his owner was shocked to get the call Monday that Kevin was found.
"I said how in the Lord's name did he get all the way to California," Walls said.
The stowaway cat was found hiding in the trailer during a routine inspection near the Arizona border.
"He survived a cross country journey apparently in a U-Haul trailer without food or water, so he's pretty resilient," said John Welsh of the Riverside County, Calif. Animal Shelter.
"He has pretty much seen more of the country than I have," Walls said.
Nobody knows exactly where he's been for a year and half, but he ended up in a California animal shelter, where they scanned his microchip.
"We were blown away. We didn't know actually the cat was from South Carolina at that point until we ran the microchip information and went back to Cheryl Walls," Welsh said.
The cat's cross country journey is not the only unique part of the story.
"I lost my fiancé June 2013 and his name was Kevin."
"Kevin" arrived back home in perfect condition from his flight. He traveled from Palm Springs California, to Denver, then to Chicago before finally arriving home.
