While maybe not as impressive of a feat distance-wise as the feline that spent much of last summer on an 800-mile trek from Yellowstone to northern California, Florida tabby George last week managed to overcome the fresh removal of his testicles and the aftereffects of heavy sedation from the procedure to escape from an SPCA shelter in Lakeland and make it back across some rough terrain to his home in adjacent Loma Verde, 2.7 miles away last week, the Miami Herald reports.
The reporting on this is a little fuzzy as some outlets identify Bob Beasock as George’s owner while the Herald writes he’d been “taking care of” the cat and he also wrote some of the press release. So guessing he’s a foster owner involved with the shelter if not the cat’s owner. Either way he was impressed with how the cat opened his cage and escaped “with silly drugs in his system” and rightly overjoyed to suddenly find George lounging in his usual spot at the Beasock home.
“There was George – stretched out in his chair in our carport, looking like he had just returned from a grand adventure,” wrote Beasock in the shelter’s release. “He was a bit thinner, clearly hungry, but otherwise no worse for the wear. The trek from SPCA Florida to Loma Verde isn’t terribly long, but for a cat, it’s a formidable journey. George would have to cross several busy roads, slip past barking dogs, and circle the vast shores of Lake Victoria – all while recovering from surgery.”