A Feline Air Traveler Lost in Philadelphia
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Felix is MIA.
Missing in action, not on a battlefield in the Iraqi desert, but somewhere in the cavernous bowels in Philadelphia International Airport.
Felix is a cat.
The black feline with the white patch on his chest disappeared March 4 during a plane change in Philadelphia while en route from Baltimore to London to join his owners. No one has seen a trace of him since.
U.S. Airways, which was transporting the cat, has put out food and water, conducted several sweeps, posted Felix’s photograph, even hired a tracker with a beagle to try to sniff the cat out of hiding. All to no avail.
His owners, while acknowledging that a lost feline is not exactly headline news, want him back desperately. So desperately that they have traveled the Atlantic Ocean and back again in search of him.
The story begins in Baltimore with Rebecca Smith, a British nanny, and her American husband, Darrell, an events planner. Earlier this year, the couple decided to return to England to be near Rebecca’s parents.
Rebecca and the couple’s 3-year-old daughter flew to London in January. Darrell and Felix the cat were to follow later. Darrell made it; Felix, locked in a pet carrier bearing a large “Live Animal” sticker, did not.
U.S. Airways admits a mistake was made. Said spokeswoman Amy Kudwa: “We continue our very diligent efforts to find the animal, [which] at this time has not been found.”
The Wrong Conveyor Belt
A baggage handler was supposed to take Felix to a cargo area to receive food and water and await transfer. Instead, a cargo manager told the Smiths, the employee accidentally put Felix’s carrier on a conveyor belt that took him on a journey into the airline’s cavernous luggage area.
When workers finally located the carrier, the door was ajar, and Felix was gone. “I just find it absolutely amazing that in a space of about 20 minutes they lost an 18-pound cat,” Rebecca Smith, 34, told me by telephone from England.
Three days after the disappearance, U.S. Airways flew the couple back to Philadelphia and put them up in a hotel overnight so they could comb the baggage area to lure their shy cat out of hiding. Felix, if he was still in the building, wasn’t taking the bait.
“It was very much a wasted trip,” Darrell Smith said. “We want our cat back; that’s the main thing. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s been a month now.”
While the airline insists the search continues, the Smiths sense otherwise.
“I don’t think they’re really worried about it anymore,” Darrell Smith said.
The Smiths said the airline has agreed to refund Felix’s $257 ticket and has told them to submit a bill for the price of the cat.
Said Rebecca Smith: “We got him from a shelter when he was two months old. Monetarily, the cat has no value.”
A Loyal Friend
But to the family, Felix is a priceless family member. The big lazy cat helped Rebecca through many homesick nights in America and became a constant companion to the couple’s daughter, Dominique. “It was like he was guarding her,” the wife said.
“If it were lost clothing, we wouldn’t care. You can replace clothing,” she said. Then, perhaps realizing how her concern for a cat might sound amid the mounting human casualties of war, she added: “You can’t really understand unless you are a cat person.”
Or at least a pet person. We know better, but still we treat them like children, spoiling them, worrying over them, grieving when they die.
Tellingly, the couple have begun to speak of their pet in the past tense, even as the relationship between the couple and U.S. Airways grows increasingly tense. The Smiths say airline officials are impatient with the family’s continued insistence on finding Felix. As for her part, Kudwa, the airline’s spokeswoman, won’t discuss details of the case, citing fear of a lawsuit—a possibility the Smiths deny.
As hope for locating their pet of seven years fades, the couple has a request of the people of Philadelphia. If anyone spots a big black cat with a white tuft on his chest, please give a call.
There’s a family across the ocean who very much wants him home again.
