Once you’ve checked in your luggage at the airport, you usually don’t think about it any further. Unless you get a call from security that there’s a cat in the suitcase.
Everyone who owns a cat and packs a suitcase knows this situation: You have already stowed a lot in your luggage and have to get something else. When you come back, the house cat is in the suitcase between T-shirts, sweaters and shoes. For a moment the thought flashes that you really have to make sure the cat is out before you finally close the suitcase. Otherwise the animal will end up flying with you on a business trip or vacation.
Exactly this case now seems to have occurred in the USA. On Tuesday morning, security personnel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York noticed some hair sticking out of the zipper of a suitcase on a piece of luggage.
Upon closer inspection of the luggage, it turned out that there was a live cat in the suitcase. A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration told the New York Post that security personnel were “shocked” by the furry find in the luggage, which had already been checked in and x-rayed.
The man whose luggage it was was also shocked. He didn’t know he was traveling with a cat. The traveler indicated that the animal belonged to someone else in their household, the TSA spokeswoman said. “Our cats are very fond of checking out bags and boxes and apparently one of them climbed into the suitcase. It was just an accident,” he said. It turned out that the other person was the man’s fiancé, who also later picked up the cat from the airport.
She told the newspaper she expected “Smells,” as the animal is called, to be very restless in the car. But apparently the cat was also happy to come home after the trip. “He didn’t even meow on the way back,” she said. She then gave him a few extra treats “and he acted like nothing happened.” She refrained from taking legal action against her fiancé because she did not think it likely that he wanted to steal the cat.
The TSA used her tweet for some self-promotion. “On this CATch, our Baggage Control Officers @JFKairport said, ‘C’mon Meow’! Cats like you have travel questions and you can reach out to our friends @AskTSA. They’re available daily from 8am to 6pm ET.”