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Amtrak Reunites Grandmother With Beloved Cat Taken at Penn Station

By DNAinfo Staff on January 10, 2011 9:46am

Alexandra Kroutchinina, 75, was reunited with her one-year-old tabby, Mimi, at Penn Station Monday morning. Mimi had been confiscated by Amtrak officials Dec. 15 and given to a Long Island resident.
Alexandra Kroutchinina, 75, was reunited with her one-year-old tabby, Mimi, at Penn Station Monday morning. Mimi had been confiscated by Amtrak officials Dec. 15 and given to a Long Island resident.
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DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto-Montero

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN — A Canadian grandmother and her beloved cat were reunited Monday morning at Penn Station by Amtrak officials.

Mimi was taken away from Alexandra Kroutchinina, 75, when Amtrak officials confiscated the grey tabby and gave her away to someone else over the holidays. Kroutchinina and her granddaughter drove seven hours overnight from Montreal to pick up the pet after Amtrak asked an employee who was responsible for giving the cat away to bring it back.

"Thank you," Kroutchinina said after Mike Gallagher, Amtrak superintendent of passenger services, handed over Mimi's baby blue carrier. "I'm so grateful."

Kroutchinina, who affectionately refers to her cat as "Mimishka," cuddled with her pet at the busy transit hub and said she was relieved to finally be heading home with her companion.

Kroutchinina said she was relieved to have her cat back and that Mimi looked a little bit fatter than when she last saw her.
Kroutchinina said she was relieved to have her cat back and that Mimi looked a little bit fatter than when she last saw her.
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DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto-Montero

The happy reunion followed weeks of attempts by Kroutchinina's family to locate Mimi after Amtrak officials took the cat as Kroutchinina transferred trains at Penn Station on her way back to Canada on Dec. 15.

Amtrak has a strict policy barring pets from traveling aboard trains but Kroutchinina, a native Russian speaker, said rail workers didn't object to Mimi traveling in her carrier during the first leg of her trip from Washington, D.C. to New York.

Confused about the policy and hampered by her language barrier, Kroutchinina obeyed Amtrak workers who demanded she hand over Mimi at Penn Station and continued her trip to Montreal.

Her family tried to find the cat at various animal shelters before learning that Mimi had been given to a resident of Long Island.

Upon learning of the family's plight last week, Amtrak officials agreed to return the cat.

Amtrak offered no apology for the confusion and did not compensate Kroutchinina for her trip back to New York to pick Mimi up, said Margarita Stolbikova, her granddaughter.

Nevertheless, the happy reunion with Mimi restored Stolbikova's faith in Amtrak.

"The fact that it ended so well makes me think this company does have some integrity," she said.

Although officials wouldn't disclose who had kept Mimi in the last few weeks, Kroutchinina noted that her cat looked well-cared for and healthy.

"She looks a little fatter," she said.