I had decided to send my cat to live with my sister in Ohio till I got settled in London. I did try to find a local friend to take him in, but everyone who likes cats already has too many or is allergic. I knew he was not going to like flying, but at least my sister had an excellent place/situation for him. (one other cat, calm household, etc)
Took him to the vet Friday to get his health certificate. From there we went directly to the LAX cargo drop off area for Northwest. The place was a warehouse full of forklifts and trucks and very noisy. He was terrified.
The girls who checked him in inspected the carrier and tie banded the front door to the side of the carrier. I said my goodbyes and off he went. He was to fly to Detroit overnight, change planes, and on to Columbus. There were no direct flights avail, and this was the best route according to the agent who booked him.
Saturday morning I answer the phone to have someone tell me that he was missing. He had escaped the carrier on the plane and they had managed to get him back into the carrier, but he had escaped again in the Detroit cargo transfer facility. He is still missing. :\\\'( :\\\'( :\\\'(
He managed to push the top of the carrier off in the front, and squeezed out of the gap he created on between the top of the door and the roof. He is NOT a slender animal.
The guy from the airline said that my carrier should have never accepted it in the first place since there was no way to tie band it along the sides. (My kennel looks like this:
http://www.jbpet.com/Shopping/product.asp?catalog_name=JBWholesale&product_id=147-0161&category_name=CratesPlastic) I actually own 2 different brands of carriers, and had the slightly smaller one with me in the car just in case the larger one was not OK! I sent him in the larger one so he could stand up and stretch a bit. It never occurred to me that he could push his way out of it. The airline girls who inspected it had no issues with it either.
I am devastated. I feel so guilty for having put him in this situation. I cannot even imagine the terror he must have been feeling to squeeze out of that carrier. I also can't understand how the airline folk allowed the carrier on the plane in the first place, and then put him back in the carrier w/o reinforcing it. How can no one have thought that he would try again? There was no duct tape or wire to be had?? These folk ship animals all of the time and I know he's not the first escapee. Someone must have set more stringent requirements at some point. I would have bent over backwards to have had a better carrier had I known that he could get out of this one!
The airline person tried to reassure me that they have recovered 6 of the 7 missing cats since he has worked there. My sister is going to drive up to Detroit and pick him up when they find him. Right now there is a good chance he is still hiding in the cargo building, and they are going to put food and water out for him at night. If he has escaped to the outside, I am notifying the area shelters because he is microchipped. My son says he has a strong feeling that he is fine and will show up. I can't think straight so I hope he is right.
I guess my advice to anyone flying a pet is to check and double check that the carrier is airline approved as well as escape proof. I really thought mine was fine. Reinforce where you can with tie bands. I hope I don't scare anyone too much with this, but it's something to consider.
These past 2 weeks have really sucked. :\\\'(
