Couple crosses ocean for purrr-fect kitten

updated 2:03 p.m. ET May 17, 2009

HARRISON, Michigan - A British couple traveled nearly 4,000 miles to adopt "Sparky," a black-and-white kitten in central Michigan. Rose and Chris Rasmussen discovered Sparky on Petfinder.com last year and decided to adopt him.

The couple traveled from their suburban London home to the Clare County Animal Shelter in Harrison, where the kitten was an unofficial mascot. They could have had Sparky shipped, but instead decided to make the trip as an adventure, visiting Detroit and Chicago before showing up to adopt their new pet.

After paperwork, quarantine and other final checks, the Rasmussens were to take Sparky to his new home.

Volunteer Betty Beadle told a local newspaper, The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant, for an article published Wednesday that Sparky likes to explore and had twice destroyed Christmas trees during his roughly nine-month stay at the shelter.

“He took me here on the other side of the Atlantic,” Rose Rasmussen told the newspaper. “I thought they would say ‘you guys are completely mad.’ ”

According to the paper, a tremendous amount paperwork had to be completed by Clare County Animal Control Director Dave Gendregske before the couple could take Sparky home.

First, Sparky had to be microchipped. Then, there there was a rabies vaccination, a six-month quarantine, and a blood test to ensure Sparky was immune to the disease.

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