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After a 19-day search, Rowdy the cat has been rescued from Boston’s Logan Airport amid airline luggage crisis

By
Alena Botros
Alena Botros
Former staff writer
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By
Alena Botros
Alena Botros
Former staff writer
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 14, 2022, 12:54 PM ET
Rowdy the Cat, after being captured yesterday at Logan Airport in Boston.
Rowdy the Cat, after being captured yesterday at Logan Airport in Boston.Courtesy of Massport via AP

A cat named Rowdy was playing hooky for almost three weeks in a Boston airport. 

But don’t worry: The 4-year-old feline has been found, and will be reunited with her human parents on Saturday, NBC Boston reported.

Rowdy escaped from a pet carrier at Boston’s Logan International Airport on June 24 after traveling all the way from Germany with one of her owners, who were relocating to the U.S.

The cat’s owner, Patty Sahli, was scheduled to pick up her husband, Rich, and Rowdy from the airport when she was notified of the cat’s disappearance. After almost three weeks without Rowdy, Sahli said she’s happy about the good news. 

“It’s just a big relief,” Sahli told NBC Boston. “It’s kind of unbelievable.”

Rowdy Update: She has been handed off to @ARLBostonRescue as she awaits being re-united with her family. pic.twitter.com/fnB3342a2R

— Boston Logan International Airport (@BostonLogan) July 13, 2022

Rowdy somehow got out of her cage after spotting some birds while being unloaded from her Lufthansa flight, according to the Associated Press. Over the next 19 days, she hid from airport personnel, airline employees, and animal experts—Lufthansa even went as far as hiring an animal tracker to catch her, according to the AP. 

Rowdy was finally caught on Wednesday, after airport personnel set up cameras and safe-release traps. The Animal Rescue League, which had loaned the traps, has taken in the cat for now, and says she is healthy.

“Whether out of fatigue or hunger we’ll never know, but this morning she finally let herself be caught,” a spokesperson for Massport, the port authority that operates Boston Logan International, told the AP.

Lufthansa, Boston Logan International Airport, and Massport did not immediately answer Fortune’s request for comment. 

Rowdy’s airport escapade comes as the entire airline industry struggles with a pilot shortage, thousands of canceled flights, and a lost baggage crisis. Airlines are offering huge pay increases to pilots in an effort to shore up their labor pool, and airlines have been offering passengers up to $10,000 to get off overbooked flights. 

Delta Airlines recently sent an entire plane just to pick up 1,000 bags that were stranded at Heathrow Airport. The scheduled flight was canceled and passengers were redirected to other flights.

A LOT of baggage piled up at Heathrow! Glad my bag was not among this mountain. pic.twitter.com/5IqOBH8UL4

— Lebby Eyres (@LebbyE) June 18, 2022

A former employee of Qantas recently accused the airline of leaving passengers’ bags for weeks after the company laid off thousands of workers during the pandemic, Australia’s 9 News reported. And a woman traveling from Cleveland to Vienna put a tracking device in her luggage. When her bag failed to appear, she discovered it had been delivered to Paris, the New York Times reported. 

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About the Author
By Alena BotrosFormer staff writer
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Alena Botros is a former reporter at Fortune, where she primarily covered real estate.

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