An Austin, Texas, man can breathe a sigh of relief now that he is reunited with his cat after he claims a rideshare driver drove away with the feline inside.
Palash Pandey posted about the ordeal on X, formerly known as Twitter, which began when he was taking his cat named Tux to an appointment at the veterinarian.
He said he was sitting behind the driver, and Tux was in a carrier on the floor of the passenger back side seat.
Once the Lyft driver reached the destination, Pandey got out of the vehicle and started walking toward the passenger side to get Tux.
"Before I could open the door, the driver started driving," Pandey said. "I banged on the back and passenger windows and screamed running behind him, but he drove off."
The passenger said he attempted to contact the driver through Lyft, which he added was not helpful at all. He explained that the app only allows the passenger to send three messages and call the driver three times.
After about two hours, the driver finally responded to Pandey and said he didn’t have Tux.
The next thing Pandey said he did was call 911, but the operator transferred him to 311 to file a report, which he tweeted he had done.
All but throwing his hands in the air, Pandey continued to try to communicate with the driver, but was not getting any response.
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"The driver has stopped responding again, and I don't have any way to contact him besides the app," he said. "I have offered him money for bringing her back, but he just doesn't respond. Is there anyone who can help?! What else can I do?!"
Pandey also posted about the situation on Reddit, with neighbors helping with the search and Lyft notifying riders to keep a lookout for the cat.
Nearly 36 hours after Tux disappeared, he was spotted about a mile away.
Investigators located the cat at about 1:30 a.m., without the carrier and outside a real estate office, hiding underneath the stairs.
Pandey said his cat looked very tired, was covered in fleas and dehydrated. After taking Tux to the Vet, she came back with a "clean bill of health."
"We’re so happy to report that Tux has been reunited with her owner and we are focused on ensuring Tux has everything she needs right now, including covering all of her veterinary bills," Lyft said in a statement to FOX 7 in Austin. "We’ll continue to work directly with Palash to provide the support that they need. We are actively working with all to fully understand the situation - to prevent it from happening again."
