New Delhi (NVI): A pet cat had an adventure of a lifetime after it jumped out of an Air India aircraft and went missing at Delhi International Airport. After a four day search operation, the cat was finally reunited with its owner at the airport.
Passenger Aastha Shah, the pet parent of Nala, an 8-month-old pet cat, was travelling with her two cats to Delhi from Bengaluru on an Air India flight.
Both cats were being transported in IATA certified pet carriers. When the plane landed in Delhi, the passenger was informed that one of the cats was missing from her carrier during transit at the IGI Airport, Delhi.
It became apparent that one of the pet carrier boxes had come undone in the plane’s cargo compartment. The cat managed to slip out of the plane and was lost in the vast space of the Delhi Airport premises.
The Airport authorities and GMR immediately launched a search operation for the missing feline along with Wildlife SOS for the missing cat.
Wildlife SOS (WSOS) is a non-profit charity established in 1998 with the primary objective of rescuing and rehabilitating animals in distress across India.
The Wildlife SOS team placed food bait at several locations across the airport to lure out the missing cat. After four days of tracking the cat’s whereabouts, she was eventually found scared and hiding in a cargo hold area. It took several hours to ease out the terrified and hungry cat from its hiding place before being reunited with her owner.
Aastha Shah on being reunited with her lost cat said, “My cats are my family and I would move heaven and earth for their safety and welfare. House cats struggle to survive on their own for long and the thought of my cat lost in the busy Delhi airport had me in tears. I’m extremely grateful to Wildlife SOS for returning my beloved Nala to me.”
“This incident showed me that compassion is not dead and people will still go the extra mile to help a stranger desperately searching for her missing cat,” she added.
Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder & CEO of Wildlife SOS, said, “We are glad we could help find the missing cat and reunite her to the family. Losing a pet is akin to losing a family member and we can understand the trauma of both the pet and the pet parent. We are grateful to the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), Airports Authority of India (AAI) and GMR for their support and cooperation in making this rescue operation a success.”
-CHK
