Cri de Coeur: Heartbroken Cat Owner Offers Free Trip to Paris as a Reward for the Return of Her Beloved Maximum

"There is no such thing as 'just a cat'."
-- Mim Swartz

A Parisian tourist on holiday in Hollywood unfortunately has become separated from her eight-year-old gray cat, Maximum. (See photo above.) The cat disappeared the last week of July and has not been seen since.

Maximum's owner, Maral Sassouni, is quite naturally distraught at the loss of her beloved feline companion. Consequently, she is offering a unique reward to anyone who can locate and return Maximum: a free trip to the fabulous City of Lights.

Not only is roundtrip airfare included in the reward, but Sassouni will also throw in a place to live for two weeks. The housing is, incredibly enough, centrally located near both the Louvre and Notre Dame.

Maximum has been sterilized and is identifiable by a tattoo inside one of his ears. Since cats have a way of getting trapped inside shipping crates, moving vans, cars, and trains, Maximum could be almost anywhere by now and not necessarily still in the Los Angeles area.

Should anyone see Maximum, Sassouni can be reached at msassouni@free.fr.

France has long been home to some of the world's most passionate cat lovers and Sassouni's generous reward is an example of that devotion. The employees of Raflatac, a laminating and labeling company in Nancy, provided yet another example of heartwarming ailurophilia when in 2005 they rescued a cat named Emily that unwittingly had become trapped inside a shipping container in her hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin.

They also generously paid for the thirty days that she was forced to spend in quarantine before Continental Airlines flew her home gratis. (See Cat Defender post of December 9, 2005 entitled "Adventurous Wisconsin Cat Named Emily Makes Unscheduled Trip to France in Hold of Cargo Ship.")

Some individuals might wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, is not one cat just as good as another? Writer Mim Swartz answered that question succinctly when she said, "There is no such thing as 'just a cat'."

Considering everything that the employees of Raflatac did for little Emily, it would be great if someone on this side of the pond would be kind enough to return the favor by reuniting Maximum with his owner.

Photo: Maral Sassouni.