A woman has been reunited with her pet cat more than two weeks after he went missing in transit at Brussels Airport in Zaventem.
On 17 July, Camelia, 56, flew home to Brussels from Bacău, Romania, where she had been visiting her daughter. Camelia travelled with Dan Air, accompanied by her 10-year-old cat, Mishu, who flew in a transport cage in the aircraft's cargo hold.
When Camelia went to collect Mishu after landing at Brussels Airport, she was handed a damaged empty cage – and Mishu was nowhere to be seen. She was later told that the cat had been spotted jumping out of his cage while on a vehicle used to transport luggage from the aircraft to the airport.
As days passed without news of Mishu, Camelia’s daughter Patricia took to social media to ask for help. “My family has been desperately trying to find him,” she wrote on Facebook. “My heart is broken, but I refuse to give up.”
Camelia had the same determined attitude. She refused to put Misha’s food bowl in storage because she said this was “a sign of giving up on him”.
Mishu and Patricia. Credit: Supplied
'He was very hungry'
The women were right not to lose hope. On Monday evening, Patricia received a telephone call from the Animal Care Centre at Brussels Airport telling her that Mishu had been found safe and well.
A relieved Patricia immediately called her mother, who took a taxi straight to Zaventem to pick up her cat.
“He was okay, just a bit skinnier than before,” Patricia told The Brussels Times. “He was very hungry though.”
Patricia thinks Mishu may have lived on insects during his disappearance, given that there was no other food for him to eat at the airport.
She said her mother is “very happy” to have her pet back, while Mishu himself has slipped back into his old routines with ease.
“When he got home it was as if nothing had happened,” said Patricia. “He just went to curl up on the bed and fell asleep.”
Patricia told us she is "very grateful" for all the help offered to her and her family during Mishu's disappearance.
“Everyone has been helping us,” she said. “I received more than 50 images of stray cats people shared thinking it may have been Mishu. I’m just very happy we found him.”
