Rescuers trying to reach cat in wake of motorhome accident
Ross and Etta Mayfield of McCall, Idaho were in their motorhome traveling east on Interstate 90 on Sunday night when it went off the road, sailed more than 160 feet through the air and landed on a hill along an underpass, according to Washington State Patrol.
The accident not only sent 82 year-old Ross and 79 year-old Etta to the hospital, but it also stunned their two cats who had been riding along in the motorhome with them.
One of the cats, Mugsy, was traumatized by the accident and ran off.
"To Ross and Etta it's like their kids," said Vicki Mayfield, the couple's daughter-in-law. "To not only have this accident and to be in this hospital, but to lose their pets, too, would be terrible."
Friends, family, and volunteers spent Sunday night and all day Monday, trying to coax the tortoise-shell cat out of a wooded area along the highway.
"Mugsy is behaving like any displaced, panicked cat would behave, which is that she's hiding in fear," said Kat Albrecht of Missing Pet Partnership. "It's just a matter of encouraging her to come out."
Albrecht, who works on search and rescue efforts for lost pets, is donating her time to try to find Mugsy. Along with volunteers, she set up cages with cat food, sprayed feline pheromones and even used the meowing of a live cat to try and lure Mugsy out of the woods.
It's a labor of love for a couple so in love they asked that their hospital beds be pushed together to enable them to hold hands in the emergency room after the accident.
Ross and Etta have been married almost 60 years. They've been together since their teens, family members said.
"They've been married forever and they don't like to be apart," said Vicki. "They don't even like to spend a night apart from each other. Where one went, the other went, and we were joking that they're joined at the hip."
Now, Etta is suffering from a hip injury but is expected to be OK. Her husband, Ross, faces more of an uphill battle and has internal injuries, according to police.
"They would be blown away, absolutely blown away," said Vicki, of the attempts to try to find Mugsy. "I'm sure when they left yesterday to drive over the pass, they had no clue how much their lives were going to change in just that amount of time.
"People have been so generous and unbelievably helpful. I'm just blown away."