Stowaway Kitten Preparing for New Life

A 4-month-old kitten "Shanghaied" to Los Angeles in a shipping container will meet his new caretakers Thursday.

The famished and dehydrated kitten, which was found July 11 when the container was delivered to a business in Compton, was nursed back to health by county animal welfare workers and given the name Ni Hao, which means hello in Mandarin.

The orange-and-white shorthaired kitten was cooped up in the container for about two weeks during its 6,500-mile transpacific odyssey and extremely weak at first.

Since then, he has largely recuperated—and won the hearts of a Redondo Beach couple, who were chosen from among 80 applicants who offered to take in the stowaway.

Evelina Villa of the county Department of Animal Care and Control said one of her colleagues dropped in on the couple to get a look at Ni Hao's new home.

"The report said that if they were a cat, they'd want to live there," she said.

The adoptive couple has a two cats already, and Ni Hao will make three, though the newcomer will be kept apart from the other two initially.

"It will be good for him to emulate other cats," Villa said. "His motor skills are off right now ... He can run and walk, but he's still wobbly."

The couple plans to have Ni Hao examined by their veterinarian when they get him home.