The cat came back: Pet found 2 months after escape at Sea-Tac Airport
Adelaide OConnor, 3, hugs Jefferson, reunited with the OConnor family in Rhode Island last week after he escaped at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in October.
When the O'Connors lost their cat Jefferson at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in October, Kelly O'Connor figured she would never see him again.
She was wrong.
Now living in Rhode Island, the family and their pet were reunited last week after the 5-year-old orange tabby managed to survive on his own for two months in and around the airport.
"It's a Christmas miracle," O'Connor said yesterday.
Jefferson's odyssey began Oct. 2 as the O'Connors, a Navy family, were preparing to move from Keyport in Kitsap County to the East Coast.
Kelly's husband, Will, had taken Jefferson and his litter-mate, McKinley, to Sea-Tac to ship the cats to Washington, D.C., where Will O'Connor's mother was to care for them while the family made its cross-country trek.
Soon after, the O'Connors received a rueful call from Delta Air Lines, saying that as Jefferson was being loaded onto the airplane, he had squeezed out of his carrier and disappeared.
Kelly O'Connor said Delta cargo crews and the family spent the next four nights from midnight to 4 a.m. scouring the airport for Jefferson. The family finally had to leave because Will, a lieutenant commander, had to be in Rhode Island for a military commitment.
For the next few weeks, Delta and other airport employees checked local animal hospitals and shelters for Jefferson, distributed fliers around Burien and Des Moines and even paid for newspaper ads.
Dozens of local families and airport employees joined in the search.
On about the 10th day, a Burien woman spotted Jefferson in a tree just outside the airport. But when she tried to grab him, the cat's breakaway collar came off and he got away
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Adelaide OConnor, 3, hugs Jefferson, reunited with the OConnor family in Rhode Island last week after he escaped at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in October.
When the O'Connors lost their cat Jefferson at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in October, Kelly O'Connor figured she would never see him again.
She was wrong.
Now living in Rhode Island, the family and their pet were reunited last week after the 5-year-old orange tabby managed to survive on his own for two months in and around the airport.
"It's a Christmas miracle," O'Connor said yesterday.
Jefferson's odyssey began Oct. 2 as the O'Connors, a Navy family, were preparing to move from Keyport in Kitsap County to the East Coast.
Kelly's husband, Will, had taken Jefferson and his litter-mate, McKinley, to Sea-Tac to ship the cats to Washington, D.C., where Will O'Connor's mother was to care for them while the family made its cross-country trek.
Soon after, the O'Connors received a rueful call from Delta Air Lines, saying that as Jefferson was being loaded onto the airplane, he had squeezed out of his carrier and disappeared.
Kelly O'Connor said Delta cargo crews and the family spent the next four nights from midnight to 4 a.m. scouring the airport for Jefferson. The family finally had to leave because Will, a lieutenant commander, had to be in Rhode Island for a military commitment.
For the next few weeks, Delta and other airport employees checked local animal hospitals and shelters for Jefferson, distributed fliers around Burien and Des Moines and even paid for newspaper ads.
Dozens of local families and airport employees joined in the search.
On about the 10th day, a Burien woman spotted Jefferson in a tree just outside the airport. But when she tried to grab him, the cat's breakaway collar came off and he got away
Full Story