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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - Some kitty math: How many lives did little tabby Gracie Mae use up when she crawled into her owner's suitcase, went through an airport X-ray machine, got loaded onto a plane, thrown onto a baggage belt and mistakenly picked up by a stranger far from home?
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"She's got to be at four or five now," Seth Levy said after his 10-month-old pet was returned Sunday night by a kind stranger who went home to Fort Worth, Texas, with the wrong bag and Gracie inside to boot.
The last time Levy's wife, Kelly, saw Gracie was before she took her husband to the airport. The 24-year-old went back to her house in Palm Beach Gardens late Friday to find the bottom step, where Gracie would usually be waiting, empty.
She tore the house apart looking for the cat, who had been spayed just days before. She and her dad took out bathroom tiles and part of a cabinet to check a crawl space and papered the neighborhood with "lost cat" signs.
Then she got a phone call.
"Hi, you're not going to believe this, but I am calling from Fort Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband's luggage. And when I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out," Kelly Levy quoted the caller saying.
Rob Carter said he made it home with the suitcase before realizing it wasn't his and there was a big surprise inside.
"I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn't my suitcase," he said. "I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out and ran under the bed. I screamed like a little girl."
Carter said that he eventually was able to get the cat to come out from under the bed.
"In the morning, I got close enough to see its collar and the phone number on it," he said. "So I called the number and got a hold of the crying wife of the traveler."
The tabby made the 1,300-mile trip home on an $80 plane ticket. Carter said he considered keeping the cat before he knew she had a home.
Well I can believe it, 'cos my Granny's dog - a little black 2 year old spaniel got lost when they went out on a picnic whilst on holiday. My Grandpa spent hours walking the hills and dales in the area in the next four days of their holiday and the local 'bobby' [ that's colloquial English for Policeman ] continued for some days later whilst he did his rounds on his bicycle.
The long and the short of it is that some 15 weeks later, Wendy walked up to the front door of their house, some 90miles away from here they had lost her, where my Grandpa found her when he came home from work.
Her paws were raw and bleeding, she was scrawny and thin and matted with mud and no-one could believe it. My Grandpa rang the local bobby and told him and the whole village drank a toast to her that night at the local pub. It was incredible that she had found her way home. She lived until she was 14 years old.
I was about 7-8 when this happened and I have never forgotten the relief in my Granny's face and the tears of joy as she hugged this little dog.
WELL DONE GRACIE and for Rob Carter who had the decency to get in touch with the owners.
Heart
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"The highest form of wisdom is kindness." The Talmund
