Airport-wide hunt for cat who escaped carrier at SeaTac | Pets

Federal Way’s Missing Pet Partnership pulled out all the stops when it came to tracking down a cat who escaped from his carrier somewhere between Tucson and the baggage-claim area at SeaTac Airport Dec. 4.

“We used search dogs, an amplified listening device, a high-teach search camera, humane traps and wildlife cameras,” Missing Pet Partnership founder Kat Albrecht said in an email.

Volunteers and cat-detection dogs combed the baggage area, the tarmac and the interior cargo pit of the plane searching for little Wenty.

At 1 a.m. Dec. 5, baggage handlers from United Airlines noticed a pair of white paws sticking out from under a conveyor belt and Wenty was reunited with his owner, greasy but unharmed, Albrecht said.

Albrecht said she wanted to thank Alaska Airlines for its cooperation in giving Missing Pet Partnership volunteers unprecedented access to its plan and tarmac during the search.

The organization’s cat-detection dogs and the cat, Cheeto, who trains them, will be featured on Animal Planet in the future.