Meow-day! No chicken or beef for missing Katt

The disappearance of a pet cat on a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg has triggered a search involving police, animal activists, airport authorities, security footage, traps and “animal whisperers”.

It has also raised questions about how pets are transported on domestic flights.

Katt, a 15-month-old male indoor cat, vanished after being checked in for an early-morning Airlink flight on Sunday July 19.

His distraught owner, Johannesburg police captain Levani Rajin, had recently been transferred from Cape Town. Her daughter, Camrin Rajin, flew to Johannesburg with Katt after her mother had settled in.

Levani had suffered depression after her son Emilio died in 2017. “I never thought I could be happy again after losing my son. But that little kitten brought me such joy and eased some of the pain in my heart,” she said.

The beloved feline, who wears a collar and bell, was secured in a white carrier when Camrin checked in for her flight.

I was hysterical. So I went home, we created missing cat posters, and I started posting messages everywhere,—  Levani Rajin, cat owner

After checking in, Camrin took Katt to the excess baggage area, where the carrier was scanned by security staff, labelled as 6.5kg luggage and left in the open area with other baggage.

The carrier was loaded onto a wagon and, according to luggage handlers, arrived at the aircraft at 6.18am. No apparent escape or disappearance was reported at the time.

When Camrin arrived in Johannesburg, she went straight to the baggage carousel, where she found the carrier damaged and empty.

After she met up with her mother and shared the news, Levani immediately had the aircraft searched, but there was no sign of Katt in the cabin or hold.

“By that stage I was hysterical. So I went home, we created missing cat posters, and I started posting messages everywhere,” Levani said.

Her desperate search brought her into contact with passionate animal activist Emma King, director of the Thomas Jackson Foundation, who runs a large animal rescue shelter in Gordon’s Bay. She has previous experience in tracing animals that have disappeared while travelling on domestic flights.

What she saw raised further questions. Footage from the luggage holding area showed that the clips securing the carrier door appeared faulty, coming loose and being reattached.

Her investigation indicated that the carrier had arrived at the aircraft empty, yet this had apparently not been reported at the time.

Two days later, she was joined by Levani, who travelled back to Cape Town on a search mission. After securing permits, they spent five days scouring the airport.

They also put out cat traps and feeding stations in the hope that the frightened animal was somewhere on the airport grounds.

King also alerted the SPCA, but five weeks later there was still no sign of Katt.

For Levani, the emotional toll of not knowing what happened to her beloved pet is mounting.

King is leaving no stone — or theory — unturned. She is now bringing in a group of ‘energy trackers’ who claim they can sense the presence and state of an animal — ‘kind of animal whisperers’

Airlink has maintained close contact with her since Katt went missing and believes the cat disappeared at Cape Town airport.

“The search has covered parts of the airport premises and involved Katt’s owner, cat trackers, K9 search teams, Acsa and Menzies [the global specialist ground handling company that provides baggage and other services to Airlink at airports in South Africa],” the airline said.

“This has involved arranging access permits for restricted areas, facilitating airport airside escorts, and supporting CCTV reviews where required.”

Airlink, which flies an average of 14 pets a day, said it was aware that live animals required continuous attention to their welfare, safety and comfort throughout every stage of their journey and therefore applied the global International Air Transport Association’s live animal regulations — the gold standard for the safe, humane and compliant air transport of all live animals.

But King is leaving no stone — or theory — unturned. She is now bringing in a group of ”energy trackers” who claim they can sense the presence and state of an animal — “kind of animal whisperers”.

“We did have communicators from the start, and I know it’s something people might view as kind of woo-woo and hippy. But we are trying everything, and communicators have managed to help us in the past,” she said.

Levani said she remained hopeful Katt would be found, but “just wants to know what happened to him”.