Woman reunited with AWOL cat

By Pamela G. Dempsey
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The two women making their way from Nevada to Michigan thought their cat ran away.

Sonja Simmons, 58, was moving home to Battlecreek, Mich., after her doctor told her that her scoliosis would no longer allow her to work.

A cousin, Jackie Rose, flew to Nevada to help Simmons and her 15-year-old cat, Sugar make the cross-country trip.

They found themselves in Gallup on a Monday two weeks ago for a night at the Red Roof Inn.

While packing to leave the next morning, they noticed Sugar was gone.

After an hour-long search, the two women went out for breakfast before renewing the search. No luck.

They notified the office with a description of the cat, contact information, and a pet carrier in case it returned before continuing their trip.

Simmons is very attached to her cat, said Margaret Staman, her aunt.

Staman received a phone message from Red Roof Inn the day after her niece left.

"There were three messages," she said. "The first one said, 'I think we've seen your cat.' The second one said, 'We know it's your cat.' The third one said, 'We have your cat'."

This is when Melissa Woody, an employee of Red Roof Inn, became involved.

An animal lover herself, the 28-year old Marine came to work to find the cat, heard the story, and spoke to Staman about returning Sugar.

"I just wanted to get the cat back home," she said.

Otherwise, Woody said, the cat would have gone home with her.

Woody, a soon-to-be-mother, took time to take Sugar to the veterinarian for health records so it could make the flight home. Woody trekked to Wal-Mart to buy an airline-approved pet carrier. Then she spent most of her morning driving the cat to Albuquerque so it could catch its plane to Kalamazoo, Mich.

Sugar made it home before Simmons did.

"She's just a sweetheart," Staman said of Woody. "She doesn't know how grateful we are."

Sugar, however, wasn't "lost" at all.

Woody said the cat, apparently scared by the open door while the two women were packing, hid under the bed and stayed there. Because of the noise from the air-conditioner, Woody surmises, Simmons never heard the cat while looking for it.

According to Woody, a single, elderly man rented the room after Simmons left.

At about 2 a.m., the cat came out from under the bed and crawled into bed with the man.

He was stunned and threw the animal out.

Sugar was found by the hotel maids the next day.

Woody said she spent her time doing this for Simmons.

"I knew she (had scoliosis)," Woody said. "Sometimes health fails faster (after a move or loss of a pet).

"If she didn't have that pet with her. ..."