February 13 , 2007

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:  Angela Speed

Phone:  (414) 431-6104

E-mail:  aspeed@wihumane.org

Verlo Employee Claimed “The Walls are Talking!”
He was right.

GRAFTON, Wis. — Verlo’s story comes straight out of a children’s fairy tale. Conjure up memories of “The Princess and the Pea” and you’ll recall the stacks of towering mattresses and one very sensitive insomniac at the top. Locked away alone and scared, Rapunzel awaited a savior to end her suffering in a gloomy tower. Buried beneath dozens of mattresses, trapped inside the walls of a semi-trailer, Verlo the kitten came to the Ozaukee Humane Society with a similar tale.

Behind Verlo’s Mattress Store in Grafton lies a trailer for discarded mattresses brought in by customers happy to depart with the source of their back troubles. For a stray kitten, however, the trailer was an amusement park with fascinating smells, surely a few bedbugs and perhaps even the occasional mouse. A Chicago company picking up the mattresses first noticed the curious cat in the trailer. When the kitten wouldn’t come out, however, they instructed store employees to keep the door open for a few days. Caravans of mattresses were brought into the trailer over the next few days, and the door was eventually closed. But Verlo hadn’t left. Oblivious to his predicament, Verlo was trapped in the trailer with no escape route.

Weeks later, Verlo employee Jay Seaver heard a desperate wailing deep inside the trailer. Seaver reported, “It felt like the walls were talking to me.” The Good Samaritan couldn’t ignore the cry and recruited other employees to help him plow through stacks of mattresses and tear apart the trailer’s sides to rescue the stowaway. Verlo was wedged inside the cold metal walls of the trailer, perhaps for three weeks.

“It’s an absolute miracle that this cat survived,” OHS Shelter Manager Kim Schultz said, “There is no doubt in my mind that Verlo would have died if Jay hadn’t found him in time.”

Verlo was sick, emaciated and hoarse from crying. The bedraggled kitten was rushed to the Ozaukee Humane Society, where he is slowly gaining weight and regaining his strength. Verlo is an extremely affectionate cat and his wailing has been replaced by a melodic purr, thanks to the valiant efforts of an attentive and compassionate man.

For information about Verlo or animals available for adoption at the Ozaukee Humane Society, call (262) 377-7580 or visit www.ozaukeehumane.org.

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Photo/Interview Opportunity: Verlo is available for photos, and Kim Schultz with the Ozaukee Humane Society is available for interviews at OHS on Wednesday, February 14 and Thursday, February 15. To arrange an interview, please contact Angela Speed at (414) 431-6104.