Joe and Melissa Werner are pretty sure that one of their family's three cats, Pounce, found out the hard way that being a stowaway is over-rated.

Pounce turned up missing on Sept. 6, and was finally found alive on Sept. 30, locked away the entire time in the Werner's camper. He was without food or water for 24 days.

"He looked just terrible, skin and bones," Melissa said. "Our vet says he still might not be out of the woods, and may have kidney and liver damage, but we're just thrilled to have him back. If he had only known what he was in for."

Joe surprised the family with Pounce about a year ago, getting the 6-week-old kitten from a friend in Huron after the family lost their 21-year-old cat, Buddy. Pounce, whose most unique feature is a double set of paws on each foot, proved to be a bit of an adventurer, spending a fair amount of time outside.

On Sept. 6, Joe was preparing the family camper for winter storage at Hart Ranch. After doing a thorough check of all the windows, doors, cabinets and drawers, he locked it up and didn't give it another thought. Later that evening, the family noticed that Pounce was gone, they canvassed their whole Countryside neighborhood, putting signs up on every mailbox, in the park and also running an ad in the Rapid City Journal.

Several leads turned up nothing, and Melissa admits wondering if Pounce had become "mountain lion food," had gotten run over or someone else had taken him in.

"I never put it together that he went missing the same day I was packing up the camper," Joe said. "I'd never seen any of the cats go in the camper before."

The family checked the Humane Society every few days, but to no avail.

"They have a 72-hour hold policy on strays, so we'd go in and look for him, but always leave heartbroken," Melissa said.

About two weeks ago, the family brought home another cat from the Humane Society, two-year-old Goliath, who looks very much like Pounce, but is about six pounds heavier. "We didn't get him to replace Pounce exactly, but we just thought he had a cool personality, and were afraid he'd be euthanized otherwise, since most people are looking for kittens," Melissa said.

About a week later, Joe went back to Hart Ranch to pick up the camper so that it could be lent to friends for a hunting trip. When he opened the door, he saw a pile of dried up cat feces and a purple collar.

"I stepped into the camper, and saw this hairy skeleton - it was Pounce! He looked like he'd been in a concentration camp," Joe said.

The Werners said that they are positive that there was no food or water in the camper, and the outside temperature was still getting into the 90s during that time.

"The only way he could've gotten water was to lick condensation off the windows," Melissa said.

After bringing him home, the family sought the advice of their veterinarian, Dr. Dye of Autumn Hills Veterinary Clinic, who told them to give the cat two ounces of water every two hours for the first two days, and also 20 pieces of dry cat food soaked in water twice a day.

"Too much water at one time would have swelled his brain, and there isn't anything that can be done for that," Melissa said.

But she said Pounce, who had gone from his normal weight of eight or nine pounds down to five and a half, had other ideas.

"He was just psycho, climbing on the counters in the kitchen, trying to find water. We had to kennel him for awhile, just because he was acting so crazy, and even now, he's still really nervous."

Although Pounce is getting better every day, 10-year-old Paige Werner said that since the ordeal, he has changed.

"He doesn't like to be pet as much, he never purrs, and he sleeps in really weird places like the middle of the kitchen floor, at the top of the stairs, and in the doorway of the bathroom," she said. His favorite person in the household continues to be Joe.

"Melissa calls me the 'cat whisperer' because I'm the only one whose lap he'll sit on, and he's definitely not as friendly to anyone else as he is to me," Joe said. "And I was never the cat person in this house, I'm really allergic to most cats, except for Pounce."

The Werners said they did an Internet search regarding how long a cat can live without food and water, and although Pounce's time in lockdown is impressive, another cat survived without food or water for 34 days when it was transported from the United States to China in a shipping crate.

Paige said that hope and prayers helped bring Pounce home, and Joe and Melissa agreed. "Neither of us really thought that he was dead," Melissa said. "We both had a feeling that he was around somewhere."

They also agreed that Pounce doesn't seem to want to go outdoors any more.

"I'm hoping he will realize that he is now an indoor cat," Melissa said.

"And I'll keep the camper door closed," Joe said.