Lyft to Pay Vet Bills After Driver Unknowingly Drove Off with Rider’s Cat

Cat owners love their pets like family, so when a driver leaves before you get the chance to get your feline pal, you tend to panic. That was the case for one Lyft customer, but luckily, the company found the Tux the cat and returned her safely.

Lyft Covers Veterinary Bills After Incident

The owner of the cat, Palash Pandey, was more than happy to be reunited with his pet after experiencing difficulties with contacting both the driver and the company. To make up for the incident, Lyft offered to cover all of Tux's veterinary bills.

For context, the pet owner was on his way to a veterinary appointment for his sick cat. A Lyft spokesperson stated that they are "so happy to report that Tux has been reunited with her owner," and that they are "focused on ensuring Tux has everything she needs right now."

According to Ars Technica, a Lyft spokesperson said that they are "actively working with all involved to fully understand the situation to help prevent it from happening again." It was six hours after the cat was separated from Pandey before Lyft responded.

The owner was separated from the cat back on October 1st. It wasn't until Lyft investigators took the matters seriously that the feline was found on October 2nd in a real estate agency building in Austin, Texas. It was unclear how the cat got out of the carrier, or why the carrier was missing.

According to the investigator, Tux "ran up a set of stairs on the back of the building next to it. The team was able to get her caught up at the top of the stairs and she was too scared to jump from up there."

The person in charge of finding and retrieving the cat gave his overshirt to the team to wrap Tux up. Fortunately, they had an extra cat carrier at the ready. In an update by the owner after their appointment with the vet, Tux has a clean bill of health.

The Events Before Tux was Found

Pandey went through a series of stressful events before he got Tux back. After he got off the driver's side of the back seat, he started walking to the other side to get the cat carrier, but before he could, the driver started driving away.

The owner said that he "banged on the back and passenger windows and screamed running behind him," but the driver did not stop. During the first few hours, Paney tried contacting Lyft but they were not helpful. It even took the driver two hours to respond only to say he didn't have Tux.

Out of worry, Pandey even offered the driver money just to bring back his cat but there was no response. The driver eventually called Pandey, saying that he reached out because APD contacted him and that he wanted to reach out to the cat owner directly to share what he knew.

The driver then claimed that he was allergic to cats and would have canceled the ride if he knew that Pandey had a cat in the carrier. It was also explained that the driver took off quickly because he was startled, presumably when the rider banged on the windows.

Pandey's last post on X about the driver says that he picked up several people after him, but it still doesn't explain how the cat was taken out of the vehicle, or how it got out of the carrier that was suddenly lost in the first place.