Kitten survives 6,500-mile trip on shipping container from Shanghai to LA

A three-month-old kitten was recovering in California after surviving a 6,500-mile journey across the Pacific in a shipping container from Shanghai without food or water.

The kitten, found when the container was opened last week in Compton, Los Angeles, has been named Ni Hao, or "hello" in Mandarin, the Associated Press reported.

Such a trip can take as many as 21 days, the AP wrote, citing freighter-travel.com.

Though he was too weak to stand at first, the orange and white shorthaired kitten was recovering at the Carson Animal Care Center and had taken his first steps.

"Ni Hao greeted the medical team with his first meows this morning and is attempting to stand," Radio Australia quoted Marcia Mayeda, head of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control, as saying.

"She’s doing OK; she was pretty weak and dehydrated," the LA Times quoted Mayeda as saying.

"It was touch and go at first, but staff has been taking good care of her."

Officials were now seeking a local cat lover to adopt him, after he gets his shots and is neutered.

Given his ordeal, he may even enjoy special treatment during the usual quarantine period of 60 days, Mayeda said.

Ni Hao "may be allowed to finish the quarantine period under the care and supervision of a foster family if his health continues to improve," she said.

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