In the early hours of April 1, a routine overnight shift at Walmart Canada’s Cornwall, Ontario Distribution Centre 6097 took an unexpected and heartwarming turn.
Lisa Balogh-Marjerrison, an overnight Reverse Logistics associate, was doing what she does every shift, offloading trailers filled with neatly packed pallets and totes of merchandise returned from stores.
On this particular night, while she was unloading on a trailer that had travelled about 115 kilometres from Walmart’s Montreal‑Granby store to the Cornwall Distribution Centre, she caught something out of the corner of her eye.
“The trailer was almost empty. I had two stacks of pallets to unload when I noticed something black and white run out,” Lisa recalled.
Lisa quickly realized it was a frightened cat. Startled and scared, the cat bolted into another nearby trailer, disappearing between pallets.
“The poor thing was terrified,” Lisa said.
Knowing she couldn’t handle this alone, Lisa called on her colleague and fellow Reverse Logistics associate Jennifer Ouderkirk. Together, they closed the doors to make sure the cat couldn’t escape again. Armed with a flashlight, they searched carefully until they spotted it between two pallets.
Lisa and Jennifer got down on the floor, softly tapping and cooing to gain the cat’s trust. Slowly and cautiously, the cat finally emerged from hiding.
She was a young, loveable, fluffy black‑and‑white cat, likely under a year old, with a distinctive white patch around her right eye and a small scratch along her nose. She wore a multi-coloured collar with pink accents, but no identification tag.
From there, the care multiplied. Someone brought water. Someone else found food. By the end of the shift, the focus wasn’t just on operations, it was on reuniting a lost pet with its family. Associates shared posts on social media, hoping someone would recognize her.
When her shift ended, Jennifer, a longtime pet owner with two cats and two dogs, volunteered to take the cat home with her so it wouldn’t have to spend the night alone.
“The next day, I brought Neway, temporarily named after the carrier of the truck she was found in, to the local OSPCA to check for a microchip. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one, so the search for her owner continued,” said Jennifer.
But the cat distribution network works in magical ways. Jennifer’s fellow Reverse Logistics associate Taflyn McGillis was on break when she learned about the rescue and quickly found a place in her heart, and home, for the cat.
"I immediately called my husband Chris and asked him if he wanted to adopt her because Jen wasn't sure how long she'd be able to foster her," Taflyn said. "We told her that if she needed a home by that weekend, we'd take her.”
After weeks of being fostered by Jen – and no word from her original family – Neway found her forever home with Taflyn and Chris. They've renamed her Onyx, and she's settling in beautifully.
Onyx is an energetic, curious and affectionate cat who loves climbing to the highest spot she can find in the apartment before settling in to watch the world go by from the windows.
The kindness didn't stop with Onyx's rescue. Inspired by the compassion shown by associates, the Cornwall Distribution Centre also made a $1,000 donation to the local SPCA to help support its ongoing work caring for animals in need throughout the community.
