Cat Trapped In Shipping Container Survives For Two Months By 'Eating Spiders'

A cat is thought to have survived for two months in a shipping container by eating spiders and licking up condensation. You can watch the moment the cat was finally released here:

When Monty first disappeared back in July, owners Beverley and Paul Chapman, from Cornwall, UK, didn't think much of it. The moggie would regularly roam freely and visit seven or eight second homes (the jammy little thing).

But when one of these second homes said they hadn't seen him for a while either, Beverley and Paul became concerned and stuck up posters and shared appeals on Facebook; and when nobody responded, they began to fear the worst.

Speaking to Cornwall Live, teacher Beverley said: "Monty is a bit of a rover - he's very independent. He has seven or eight second homes - he spends a lot of time at Wynnstay Country Store in Helston, he loves it up there.

"There's nothing unusual in not seeing him for a week or so, but we started thinking, 'He's been gone for a few days now.'

"My son got a message from one of the girls who works up at Wynnstay asking if he was okay because they hadn't seen him for a few days. We thought that was a bit concerning, so went out calling him. This was the beginning of July."

Cornwall Live

She continued: "You get to the point where you think he's getting older, he could have just gone away to die. Plus he's got the habit of getting into people's cars and lorries.

"We were half expecting a phone call from someone saying, 'We've got your Monty,' but we didn't hear anything. After a month to five weeks, we hoped for the best but expected the worst.

"We really had given up hope after seven weeks or so. We thought he must have been hit by a car."

But two weeks ago, on Beverley's first day back at work, her phone pinged.

"It was a message from my friend who had tagged me in a picture on Facebook which Blackfords Removal had put up. Apparently someone had been outside their storage unit and heard a cat crying," she said.

"We had given up hope of seeing him again. I couldn't believe it - I texted my husband, daughter and son to tell them Monty was alive. My husband Paul came home early from work to see him."

Cornwall Live

The container Monty spent his summer in is located about 200 metres from the family home, and how he wound up trapped in there is a bit of a mystery. How he managed to survive so long is more baffling still. Beverley thinks he must have 99 lives.

She said: "We reckon he lost about two-thirds of his body weight. We think there must have been condensation inside the unit which he licked and maybe he ate spiders. We can't think how else he would have survived.

"I don't know how he hasn't got killed. He's got 99 lives, that cat. He's got an injured leg from when he was run over by a car when he was a kitten - I knew it was him immediately because of his leg.

"Our other cat Jasper's nose has been put out of joint - he thought he was going to rule the roost when Monty went missing."

Hopefully now Monty will always look on the bright side of whichever life he's on.

Topics: UK News, Weird, Animals, Cats

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey