Austin, Texas - A man's simple quest to take his sick cat to the vet turned into an unimaginable nightmare before he even made it to the office.

Palash Pandey (23) called a Lyft to travel to the vet's office and sat in the back seat with his cat, Tux, in a carrier bag behind the front passenger seat.

Pandey explained in a viral thread on X that he exited the car and walked around to the passenger side to grab Tux, but the Lyft driver took off before he opened the door.

"I banged on the back and passenger windows and screamed running behind him but he drove off," he wrote.

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The distraught owner then called and messaged the driver several times on the Lyft app, but he did not receive a reply.

After two long hours, the driver finally responded but simply said that he didn't have his beloved furry friend.

Pandey alerted 911 but was only directed to a hotline where he could file a report.

He tirelessly posted live updates on X, thus mobilizing thousands of concerned users to help him in his desperate search for Tux.

In the meantime, Lyft contacted Pandey, sharing their sympathy for his "anger and sadness" at the situation and said they contacted Daniel but cruelly ended the message by saying that if his "item" is eventually returned by the driver, he'll have to foot a $20 fee "for their time and effort."

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The driver then called Pandey, claimed he drove off because he was "startled," and confirmed he'd driven several other passengers after the incident.

Thanks to the passionate response online, Lyft took action and launched an investigation to help find Tux.

Pandey reported that the kitty was finally found behind the office building of a real estate agency.

Quoting an investigator, he explained, "Cat ran up a set of stairs on the back of the building next to it."

"The team was able to get her caught up at the top of the stairs and she was too scared to jump from up there."

With no sign of Tux's carrier, the search team wrapped her in a team member's jacket, then put the feline in a new carrier the team had brought in case they found her.

Pandey said his cat came back dehydrated and full of fleas, and it remains unclear what happened during the roughly 24 hours she remained missing.

But the story had a happy ending, after all, as Pandey reported that Tux had a "clean bill of health" when she finally made it to the vet!