Miracle cat stays alive by a whisker
March 10, 2007

He's a miracle cat. A 4-year-old black cat named Mushi is lucky to
be alive after three weeks without food or water. His harrowing tale
began when his owners, Kristen and Greg Vicino, moved from Davis to
San Diego.

On February 12, movers packed their furnishings and hauled them away.

That evening, Mushi, a short-haired former stray whom Kristen had
rescued as a kitten in her office parking lot, didn't come home. The
couple posted fliers, alerted neighbors and friends, and called the
movers to ask them to check the moving van. All with no luck.

So, with heavy hearts they drove to San Diego. "I cried the whole
way down here," says Kristen, who describes Mushi as gregarious and
affectionate, "the ultimate lap cat."

Somehow, Mushi had crawled inside the mattress box spring. The box
spring then had been boxed and sealed, loaded in a moving van and
trucked to San Diego. Once here, it was put into storage until a new
roof could be installed on their newly purchased North Park home.

Rain postponed the roof work, however, and after three weeks, the
Vicinos decided to move in anyway. It was lucky they did, Kristen
says. As the box spring was unpacked, someone noticed a claw poking
through the fabric. Greg ripped it open and found Mushi - alive,
although barely. The 10-pound cat, who gave a weak meow, had lost
4 pounds, 40 percent of its body weight.

The Vicinos consulted experts before slowly reintroducing food and
water, with only a tiny amount of water every hour to preserve the
cat's kidney function.

A cat can live for several days without food, but water deprivation
is more serious. One feline-care Internet site said that a 10
percent to 14 percent loss of total body water can be fatal to cats.

As of last night, Mushi appeared fine. "He's incredible, full of the
devil and totally back in action," Kristen says.

So Mushi has a new nickname - The Miracle Cat.