Missing hiker found after 42 days in the woods. Rescuers report "she's alive. And she's got a cat"

Source: Yahoo News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A woman who was missing for nearly a month in a New Mexico national forest was found emaciated Wednesday in a sleeping bag with her cat by her side,authorities said.

Authorities said Margaret Page, 41, took some food with her but ran out, and stayed alive by drinking water from a nearby creek. She fed her cat, Miya, with cat food she had packed.

She was located by a rescue crew in the Gila National Forest around a mile up the Railroad Canyon Trail in rugged area known as the Black Range of an isolated region of southwestern New Mexico.

That's where authorities believe Page, who authorities said has a history of mental illness, purposefully went hiking off a trail with her cat between Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 and set up a camp.

Dave Kuthe, search crew leader, told the Silver City Sun-News that Page was found malnourished but well-hydrated and sleeping in a blue sleeping bag.

"Her cat was in better shape than she was," Marc Levesque, incident commander with New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue, told The Associated Press. "Her cat was also hunting. (Page) ran out of food a while back."

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