Buy a couch, get a cat

Buy a couch, get a cat


SPOKANE -- A local couple planned to buy a couch at Value Village in Spokane. What they didn't plan on was getting a cat to go along with that couch.

Workers at Value Village say the couch was left at the thrift store along with a loveseat and like so many drop offs it was a private donation.

Vickie Mendenhall and her boyfriend Chris bought the couch for their home nearly two weeks ago but the day after they purchased it something didn't sound quite right.

What they heard was a cat meowing, but they couldn't figure out where the cat was.

"Every time we looked we wouldn't hear the meow, we'd stop looking and continue doing what we're doing, we'd hear the meow," Vickie said.

For several days the couple searched for the source of the meowing in vents, under their porch and even their basement. In a house filled with pets they realized the cat cries weren't coming from one of their own. Then late Tuesday night they made a breakthrough.

"Was sitting here and all of a sudden I got kicked and I looked down and there were no other animals around," Chris said.

So Chris and Vickie picked up and flipped their couch and that's when they found the source of the meowing.

"I grabbed the knife, cut the corner out, enough so that I could see what's going on and sure enough there were eyeballs staring at me," Chris said.

Yes, it was a cat trapped inside Chris and Vickie's couch for at least 10 days.

"She was dehydrated and hungry, we immediately gave her food and water. She scarfed that down," Vickie said.

The cat - now named 'VV' (Short for Value Village) - was already de-clawed and spayed.

The funny thing is that Vickie just happens to work at Spokanimal, where she took VV to be taken care of while they searched for the cat's owner.

VV isn't microchipped and the thrift store doesn't know who dropped off the couch - so she contacted media outlets in hopes of finding the owner.

A friend of Bob Killion saw a TV story about the couch cat and notified his friend. Killion knew right away it was his and showed up on Thursday to pick him up. Killion says he donated the couch on February 19, and his 9-year-old cat, Callie, disappeared at about the same time.
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