It all began Friday afternoon. Cat owner Jane Brandis of Radford City was preparing an apple pie for her husband's evening arrival. When the phone rang, Brandis tripped over a bowl of milk. She suddenly realized that her feline companion, Muffy, was missing. Brandis hung up on her mother and called the Radford City Police. Officer Harold Murray was immediately called to the scene.

"What we had in this situation was a missing kitty. We needed to resolve the situation as quickly as possible without alarming too many citizens," officer Murray said. "I put out an immediate A.P.B. on the little fella."

Within twenty minutes, patrol officers from the city of Pulaski, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Galax, Dublin and Radford were policing the area. "We had S.W.A.T. down in the New River Valley as soon as they could make it." Murray recalled. "They had to leave a bank robbery, but they got here in record time."

The scene on Radford University's campus was chaotic. Students were lined up and searched by campus police, making them very late for class. Professors had to relinquish their briefcases in hopes that poor Muffy would be found.

Then, it happened. A student, having been beaten to the ground by an officer, pointed to the sky and yelled, "I see the kitty! I see the kitty!" Within minutes, police, fire and rescue workers were at the large pine tree near Madison Hall. Dozens of EMT workers began cooing to the helpless kitty and making kissing and snapping noises with their lips.