- A cat that was missing for 19 days at Boston Logan International airport, was found Wednesday.
- Lufthansa hired a pet tracker to aid the search for Rowdy, a black cat per Simple Flying.
- Rowdy went missing after chasing some birds while she was being unloaded from a Lufthansa flight.
A pet cat that escaped while passing through Boston Logan airport, sparking a search involving specialist pet trackers and cameras, has been found after 19 days on the run.
On Wednesday, Boston Logan International Airport tweeted that the cat, named Rowdy, had been found and passed to local animal protection services to await being reunited with her family.
The four-year-old black feline had been missing since June 24, after chasing birds while being unloaded from a Lufthansa flight, per the AP press and multiple publications. She'd travelled in cargo in a pet carrier, per CNBC's 10 Boston.
Rowdy was flown in from Frankfurt, with her owners Patty and Rich Sahli, who were relocating back to the US after spending 15 years in Germany, where Rich was part of the US military, per AP.
Airport staff installed wildlife cameras and safe-release traps to track Rowdy's movements after she was spotted roaming around Logan's Terminal E. Lufthansa even hired animal trackers to aid the search, per the industry publication Simple Flying.
On Wednesday, Rowdy entered a cage and was caught, Patty Sahli told Boston's WCVB5 channel.
"Whether out of fatigue or hunger we'll never know, but this morning she finally let herself be caught," a spokesperson for Massport, which runs Boston Logan International, told the Associated Press.
—Boston Logan International Airport (@BostonLogan) July 13, 2022
Sahli told CNBC's Boston 10 program that Lufthansa agreed to fly her from Florida to Boston on Friday evening, so she can collect Rowdy on Saturday.
Boston Logan Airport, Lufthansa, and Sahli did not immediately reply to Insider's approach for comment, which was made outside of regular business hours.
The summer period has period have proved highly chaotic for the aviation industry, which has been struggling to cope with peak post-pandemic travel demand.
Existing staff shortages of pilots, baggage handlers, and airport staff, exacerbated by the pandemic, have led to thousands of flights being canceled, long queues, and reports of huge piles of lost luggage at multiple airports globally.