Cat headed back to owner after three weeks stuck on plane

[Roon]

DENVER – United Airlines says a cat, found Wednesday in Denver, spent three weeks on an airplane.

Andrea Barlow, Pumpkin’s owner, tells 9NEWS she flew from Manchester, England, to Munich, Germany, and finally to Washington, D.C., December 28.

Barlow says the 12-year-old cat was lost while she transferring planes in Munich. When Barlow went to retrieve the carrier in Munich, Pumpkin’s crate was broken and empty. United searched for the cat but couldn’t find her.

Wednesday, United Cargo employees found the cat in Denver and took her to the Alameda East Veterinary Clinic to get checked out.
http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=63336

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. Poor kitty!

I'm glad she's ok. I hope they don't send Ms Barlow a bill for the vet expenses.

[ThomCat]

2. Damn.

How did that cat survive? And how can you not find a cat in the cargo hold of a plane? It's not that damned big!

I'm very glad that this cat survived and seems to be doing well.

I'll bet there will be a lawsuit. There's no reasonable explanation for why a pet crate should shatter while on the plane.

[Skittles]

4. my cat very effectively hid from me for some time in a tiny closet

I searched three times in there before I found him - if cats want to hide, they are damn good at it :o

By the way, he was hiding because he had correctly deduced from my wheedling tone I was going to give him his daily pill (a ten day antibiotic thing)

[ThomCat]

9. Does your closet get completely empied out

every few hours, like the cargo hold of a plane? :shrug:

Yes, cats are very good at hiding, but finding a cat in a small empty room should be pretty easy.

[Skittles]

16. it tells me they are NOT getting emptied

makes ya wonder doesn't it? A cat is bigger than say, a mouse.

[ThomCat]

20. Good point.

[Skittles]

3. I thought that vet clinic sounded familiar

it's the location of the show Emergency Vets on Animal Planet :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda_East_Veterinary_Hospital

[Roon]

5. I told my vet that I can't watch emergency vets on TV

because it's too heartbreaking. This vet told me she can't watch it either!! and she's a VET!!

[Skittles]

13. I stopped watching it for the same reason

I think the hardest shows to watch were the ones where someone took their pet in for something and they thought it would be something fairly routine, fixable - but they'd receive a diagnosis so devastating the vet would recommend euthanasia in due time - watching their faces go from interested/concerned to completely heartbroken over the course of a few minutes was just too much to bear. :(

[Hav]

18. .

Yeah, pets become a very dear part of a family. One of the saddest things I saw myself was at the vet, a little girl crying while carrying away her dead turtle. It seemed as if she and her mother had the worst day of their life.

[Skittles]

21. It surprised me how much it affected the vets themselves

I remember one vet looking at a sonogram and shaking his head - he said, I have to go out there and tell them their pet is dying. :(

[JackBeck]

6. Glad kitty's headed home.

I would have been devastated if that happened to me.

[Left Is Write]

7. What is with cats lately? First Hercules, now Pumpkin.

[Arugula Latte]

8. Aw, poor Pumpkin.

My husband and I drove 3,000 miles from DC to Portland with our two kitties in the back of the car. I couldn't stand the thought of putting them on a plane.

[ThomCat]

11. I only moved 600 miles

and I did the same thing. I had one cat at that point, and he traveled next to me the entire way.

[Arugula Latte]

12. We made a "kitty condo" for the back seat so they'd

be able to move around and we wouldn't have to worry about opening the door and having them dash out at a rest stop in Oklahoma or something.

[TheBaldyMan]

10. Do it's owners get its air miles?

I think Pumkin deserves a holiday after that ordeal, Business class to the Seychelles.

[crispini]

14. Oh, that's it, I am never, ever putting my cats in the cargo hold.

I can't IMAGINE what the owner must have felt like when she went to get the carrier and there was no cat in it!

[VenusRising]

15. I'm glad she got her kitty back.

I would be sick if something happened to my cat in a move. Mine went missing for a week once and I was so pathetic. I was playing with his laser pointer by myself hoping he would jump out and play with it. I was like a kid at Christmas when he showed up on our back patio at 2am.

[regnaD kciN]

17. I guess someone has to say it...

"I just want to get this m*th*rf*ck*n' cat off this m*th*rf*ck*n' plane!"

:evilgrin:

I'm so glad Pumpkin was found safely, but that line was too good to pass up.

[xchrom]

19. alameda east veterinary clinic --

made famous by animal planet!