Cat Stows Away on PPG Delivery Truck; Found 160 Miles from Home
June 23, 2009

A cat named Stimpy from Redding, Calif., recently took a tour of the state—via a PPG Auto Glass Truck. The cat's owner, Missy Patten, owner of Platinum Auto Glass, noticed the cat was missing on the morning of Tuesday, June 9.

"I usually get up at around 6 or 6:30 and I went to feed him, and he didn't come when I called him," she said.

Patten, who's had Stimpy for nine years, said he usually stays in the front yard of her house, from which she runs her mobile-only business.

She searched her neighborhood and animal shelters for two weeks, and assumed he'd run away—or worse.

Fortunately, Patten's fears were assuaged last Thursday when she received a call from from a company in Sacramento, Calif., saying their staff had found the cat. They located Patten using the cat's collar, which included her phone number, but no area code, as she had assumed if Stimpy ever went missing, it would be locally.

"Luckily this guy randomly tried my area code and he got through to me," she said.

"I left right away and I just drove-I didn't stop," says Patten, who has one other cat and a dog.

When she arrived, she discovered that the warehouse where the cat had been found was right behind a PPG Auto Glass (a part of Pittsburgh Glass Works) distribution center. It was then that she realized, Stimpy must have hitched a ride on the PPG truck on Monday, June 8, when the truck made her 2 a.m. auto glass delivery—the night before she discovered the cat's disappearance.

Patten has since warned the PPG driver to watch out for Stimpy, to make sure he doesn't hop on the truck again—as she assumes he must have done—but isn't too concerned at this point.

"Since he got home, he literally will not leave my front porch," Patten said.

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