Columnist Susan Snyder: Cat’s tale is quite a production

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 | 8:06 a.m.

The best tale at the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History's new cat exhibit was the one about how Darcy McCully-Sexton flew from Houston to Las Vegas with a live kitten stuffed down her shirt.

The story isn't part of the museum's official "Cats! Wild to Mild" show. McCully-Sexton, a Lied Animal Shelter volunteer, told it Saturday as she ran a kitten adoption table in the museum's lobby.

McCully-Sexton and a longtime gal pal were enjoying a day of shopping in The Woodlands, a posh community outside of Houston, when they heard a desperate meow coming from some bushes.

Actually, the mewing came from a kitten no bigger than McCully-Sexton's hand. Uninhibited by her pantyhose and high heels, she plunged into the brush and rescued the cat.

"She looked as though she had been thrown from a car. She was very hungry and thirsty," McCully-Sexton said.

The women took Kitty to a veterinarian for shots and then took her home. It quickly became clear that Kitty wasn't a good addition to the friend's Houston household.

So Kitty was going for an airplane ride on an airline that doesn't allow live animals on board, after being sneaked past post-9/11 airport security measures, which at that time had been in place only about seven months.

The plan?

"My friend says, 'You can pretend like you're pregnant.' We put a pillow down my shirt and put the cat on top of the pillow," she said.

So, with a pillow stuffed under her "Roadkill in Texas" T-shirt McCully-Sexton made a couple of dry runs through security without Kitty.

"The first time they scanned me with a wand. The second time, nothing," she said.

So she placed Kitty atop the pillow, stuffed some dry food and a mousie in one pocket, got in line and held her breath. About the time they got to the security gate, Kitty decided to pop up for a look-see.

"So I am pushing it back down with my chin, and my hair is coming forward and blocking the sides," she said. "The guards are standing there talking. They're not even noticing us."

Or so she thought.

"One of them yelled, 'Ma'am!' I thought that was it. I was about to give up and tell them everything, and he said, 'You forgot your jacket,' " she said. "I said, 'I don't know where my head is.' But it was down my shirt!"

Once she and Kitty boarded the plane, there were only two seats left -- one between two people, and one next to a window in the last row. She chose the latter. The pair sitting next to her were a gay couple coming to Las Vegas for a weekend at Caesars Palace.

"I used to work at Caesars. I said I'd tell them how to win at blackjack if they'd keep my secret," she said.

Promises made, she pulled Kitty from under her shirt, and the cat played quietly with mousie and slept for the duration of the three-hour flight.

The change in cabin pressure during landing, however, caught Kitty's attention. She began to mew. Loudly.

"So me and the guys got really loud and started shouting the 'Vegas, baby!' thing," she said.

Bella's adopted mommy now spends weekends convincing others to adopt abandoned cats and dogs. The process is simple -- one that usually doesn't give paws to federal security officials.