Calico cat posted from China to Canada!

This is an extraordinary story but I doubt whether it is the first time that this has happened. This is a news story plus my opinion. Canada Border Services Agency officers at the Vancouver International Mail Center in Richmond, British Columbia contacted the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals when they discovered a calico cat inside a box that appears to have been posted from China.

Calico cat posted from China to Canada. They've named her Precious. Image: BC SPCA.

The agency workers noticed that the box was damaged which allowed them to look inside whereupon they saw two eyes blinking back at them! They managed to coax the calico (tortoiseshell-and-white) cat out of the box into a dog kennel in which there was bedding and water.

They say the cat was healthy but frightened. Unsurprising that they were frightened. The agency service workers contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the BC SPCA sent an animal control officer to take the cat to an emergency veterinary clinic.

She was stabilised in the clinic but nobody is sure exactly where the cat came from or how long she was in transit. Because of that she was vaccinated against rabies and given rehydration fluids and tested for diseases and parasites.

She started to settle down and was placed with a foster carer at the BC SPCA who intends to adopt her when she has fully recovered.

Under foster care she is improving and has started to eat and drink more and is becoming comfortable in her surroundings.

My opening words are that this is an extraordinary story but as also mentioned it is not a unique one. In 2018 people tried to smuggle in a tiger cub at the Texas border. And in 2022 there was an attempt to smuggle two toucans into the US hidden in a purse. That attempt was thwarted by U.S. Customs and border protection.

Source: Newsweek.