MEWS BREAK: BUSH CAT MISSING IN L.A.

Byline: Joseph Giordono Staff Writer

Los Angeles friends of President Bush went public Thursday about the, uh, manhunt for a missing member of the first family.

Last seen a few weeks ago at his adoptive Brentwood home, this Bush has orange and white fur and answers to the name Ernie.

Ernie, the Bush family's six-toed cat, was shipped off to a longtime friend in January because of fears he would claw priceless national treasures in the White House. But instead of embracing his new Westside digs, Ernie bolted.

``It's obviously very sad, but we're still hopeful that we'll find him,'' said Brad Freeman, the Los Angeles-based investment banker and Bush fund-raiser who took in the orange and white tabby.

``I check with three animal shelters daily, and we've got posters up all around the neighborhood. Maybe we should have called the newspapers,'' joked Freeman, who has not posted a reward.

Officials at the White House said they are keeping close tabs on the tabby hunt.

``The first family is, of course, concerned that Ernie's off in a faraway land by himself now,'' said Noelia Rodriguez, press secretary for first lady Laura Bush. ``But they know that he is a free spirit at heart. They also know that Ernie has a record of landing in some good homes, so maybe his third life will be just as nice.''

The cat was known for clawing property in the Texas governor's mansion - and even taking a swipe at Bush himself. So the Bushes decided in January that Ernie would travel west while the rest of the family headed east to the White House.

While the Bushes are concerned about the welfare of the cat, Rodriguez said, some in the White House are taking the news with a bit of humor.

``The other rumor we've heard is that he's 'hanging six' somewhere in the surf of Malibu,'' Rodriguez said.

According to a story he often repeated on the campaign trail, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and his wife were reading in their garden a few years back when the family dog began barking and pawing at a tree.

Bush went to investigate and spotted a kitten high up in the tree. The tiny cat, wet and frightened, clung to a high branch no matter how much food the governor put on the ground.

The kitten eventually came down. The Bushes cleaned him, fed him and adopted him as their own. They named him Ernie, after author Ernest Hemingway, who owned a six-toed cat.

``Sometimes you may find yourself up in a tree, wet and cold. But if you just hang in there and never give up, things will get better for you, just like they did for Ernie,'' Bush said at an elementary school during a campaign stop last fall.

Animal control authorities say if Ernie is found and turned in to a shelter, the owners will have four business days to claim the cat. Any stray cat is destroyed unless claimed by that deadline, they say.

``Of course, if the president of the United States calls us and says, 'Commute the sentence for this cat,' what are you going to say? No?'' said Bob Ballenger, a spokesman for Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control.

Last year, Ballenger said, almost 30,000 cats were impounded in Los Angeles County.

Rodriguez reports that the Bush's other pets - two dogs, Spot and Barney, and a black cat named Willie - are adjusting quite nicely to life in the White House.

Spot, an English springer spaniel, is the offspring of Millie, the White House pet of former President George Bush and his wife, Barbara.

``The pets have been known to join the first lady in some interviews, and the puppy is finding the stairs in the White House quite a challenge for his short legs,'' Rodriguez said.