Crash cat found after two days in Everglades

[Dale_M]

He's a death-defying cat who stayed put and stayed alive — for two days in the Everglades.

Sam, an 11-year-old gray feline, was feared lost after he ran into the bush after his owner Nikki Saltzburg's minivan was involved in a wreck with another vehicle on Alligator Alley east of Naples Monday.

After being pulled from the minivan, Saltzburg, who has been a paraplegic since she was only a few days old, saw the broken cat crate in the grass. Sam had dashed off into the bush.

Amid the chaos, Saltzburg was bleeding from multiple cuts and Mara had suffered a fractured pelvis. Their infant son, Parker, was somehow unharmed.

Saltzburg wanted to look for the cat but couldn't. They all needed to be taken to a hospital.

With Sam's survival very much in peril, Loge proposed forming a search party and going out to look for the missing cat.

On Wednesday, Kathleen Sullivan, who works at the Brigid's Crossing Foundation cat sanctuary in Naples, drove out to the Alley with her husband Christopher to look for Sam. When they got to the site of the crash near mile marker 97, they found the cat waiting in the bush. He had barely moved from the scene of the collision.

Saltzburg, Loge and Santomero were all stunned that Sam was found unharmed.

"The chances of finding that cat were almost zero," Santomero said. "I absolutely think it's a miracle."

"With everything that's out there, the snakes, gators and turkey vultures, I'm shocked that he survived," Loge added.

Loge, who has been been caring for Sam, said she'd drive him down to Miami when the Saltzburgs get settled.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/pal...,6916992.story