This is a cat-escape-at-airport story (of which there are quite a few) and what caught my eye was that the cat, a tabby-and-white whose name is Cookie escaped his cage at Brisbane airport before being put on the flight to Cairns. It’s clear that the staff on the ground at Brisbane airport decided to put the carrier and a blanket inside the carrier on the flight to Cairns nonetheless but were unable, I suspect, to warn the owner that Cookie was lost.
It appears that the Cookie’s owners were not told about their cat’s disappearance at Brisbane airport because what arrived at Cairns airport was their cat’s cage and blanket. Their cat was nowhere to be seen. I wonder if it was viable to tell them sooner to avoid the shock of seeing an empty car carrer.
Cookie’s owners, Mr and Mrs Thomas, were subsequently told that Cookie had escaped from his cage on the tarmac while at Brisbane. Comment: it might have been possible to have handled it better. It would have been better if Mr and Mrs Thomas were told sooner and even before they took off if possible so they could have stayed behind. I am sure that most owners would prefer to stay behind at the airport where their cat was lost to help supervise and be nearer the seach and their cat.
At the time Mrs Thomas was heartbroken.
“I am absolutely heartbroken and just want my fur baby home.”
It is now understood that Cookie may have escaped from his carrier before boarding the aircraft. It is believed that his cage door wasn’t secured properly because not all of the ties were in place.
The airline concerned was Virgin Australia. It was a ticket on-board virgin flight. They used an animal transport company, JetPets. Virgin Australia carried out three searches for Cookie to coomb the area around the airport where he was last seen.
Mrs Thomas said that she and her husband were very anxious about putting their pet on a plane and it seems that their apprehensions were warranted.
It’s worth adding that Mr and Mrs Thomas had in fact put both their dog and Cookie on the plane. Their dog, Rambo, arrived safely.
The story has a happy ending which I have left to the end of this article. They found Cookie. The report does not contain specific details about how Cookie was captured and where exactly he was found. It seems that he was somewhere within the airport grounds when captured.
Yes Cookie was found hiding under a shipping container by airline workers and happily reunited with her frantic owners. Please people check your cat container because cats are clueyer than you think
If the cat has remained lost I’d be hiring a lawyer and talking to the press about how these bastards just put an empty carrier on the plane and went about their business. Obviously they tried to delay getting in trouble for losing the cat instead of notifying the owners. I would make sure it got to all the news outlets like the lady who was told to put her dog that died in an overhead bin. They don’t get the dog back but the airline had to give her a settlement for emotional trauma besides all the bad press. But then that happened in the US. Australia drops lethal food bombs on innocent feral cats so it may be a different outcome there.
Well, I am pleased that you see what I see. A failure to involve the owners asap. It looks callous to me.