My Very Luck Cat and Mirada RV Story-Today

[Hugh R]

So three weekends ago, one of our cats went missing for a few days. I figured the coyotes got it, its happened before. We'd had the Mirada 29SE open to do stuff and twice I went into it to see if the cat might have been in it. Couldn't find it. Closed the RV and I went on a two week trip to Vancouver and Toronto. Got home late last night.

This morning I open up the RV to put some stuff in it and the first thing I notice is severe scratching damage to the side of the couch (WTH, rats?). Then I see some cat poop and thought "ah crap, I've got a dead cat in here", but it doesn't smell like dead anything, so my son and I pull it out, level it and open up the sliders and we start hunting. I see the cat's tail sticking out from under the slide out bed (about a one inch gap between the bed and the floor). I touch it and it moves! So we take the bed apart and find the cat sitting there and not moving, but alive.

It was locked in there for three weeks!!!

We get it out and its pretty sedated/dehydrated and we think we might have to take it to the Vet for an I.V. or something. We offer it some water, it drinks a lot of water and in five minutes its walking around like nothing happened.

I'll call Coachman on Monday and see if I can buy new side arm covers for the couch or a couple of yards of the original leatherette (its only one year old) and have a local upholstery guy put it in. Might be a few hundred bucks.

While I'm glad the cat is OK, I'm much happier that it didn't die in there and ruin my relatively new RV.

Pic of damage




Pic of cat five minutes ago

[SKnight]

Awesome story!

But, my wife is a vet tech and brings home stories about cats and how sensitive their systems are. Give your vet a call tomorrow to see, two weeks without food is one thing, two without water is something else entirely.

[Hugh R]

Three weeks with food or water. But yeah, I'm calling the Vet in the AM. The cat has been playing with the new puppy for the last hour. I mean its amazing, this cat came out lethargic and we offered it some water and five minutes later it was walking around like nothing happened. Good thing the RV is parked in the shade and that its been relatively cool here (north of Los Angeles).

[Wiscampsin]

Glad you found your cat alive. I guess it's one life down, eight to go. Hope all goes well at the Vet visit.

[Oakman]

Cats love to find hidden places to take their catnaps. Glad your cat survived. I believe this is how the legend of cat's having nine lives began.

[Hugh R]

Took the cat to the vet yesterday. She was amazed, but checked him out and he is fine. I can't imagine any animal living in an RV for 3 weeks with no food or water!

To repair the cat scratch fever damage I'm looking at $300 for the upholstery work and about $100 (4 lineal yards) for the correct leatherette/vinyl material through a Coachmen distributor.

I asked Coachmen if they could make me new covers and they declined. It makes sense, they don't want to make something and then be responsible for the fit and finish.

Its only about a year old so the stuff should match pretty well. Should get the leatherette/vinyl in about a week. The couch came out and was disassembled in about 30 minutes.

[Ford Idaho]

That is one freaking lucky cat.