Published Feb 7, 2025
Margo Neas holds her cat Mittens at her home in Melobourne, Australia. Rod McGuirk / Apnews.com
A highly resilient senior Maine Coon cat from New Zealand accidentally went on a globetrotting marathon in the belly of an airplane over the Tasman Sea. Mittens, 8, survived, but she sure gave her human mother a good scare!
Owner Margo Neas – who was moving from Christchurch, New Zealand to a new home in Melbourne, Australia – discovered the shocking mishap in Melbourne after waiting three hours for her cat to be unloaded from the aircraft. She kept waiting for Mittens to come out of the freight area, but there was no sign of her beloved cat. Then, staff members discovered the shocker: Mittens’ carrier had been been hidden by a stowed wheelchair, so the baggage handlers didn’t see the cat. Mittens had been sent back to New Zealand on another 7.5-hour flight. The poor cat!
“I said, ‘How can this happen? How can this happen? Oh my God,’” Neas told The Associated Press after the mid-January incident.
“It was not a great start to our new life in Melbourne, because we didn’t have the family,” Neas said. “We weren’t complete.”
Thankfully, the Air New Zealand crew took steps to lessen Mittens’ suffering. The captain, when informed of the lost cat in the plane’s belly, turned on the heat in the cargo to help make Mittens less uncomfortable.
When the plane returned to Christchurch hours later, people from the moving company that made arrangements for Mittens were waiting for the cat. Mittens had lost some weight and was very stressed out after her ordeal, but the cat is otherwise OK.
Mittens went right back onto the plane after being tended to, but this time, it was for a one-way trip back to Melbourne. The unfortunate but amazing cat spent about a full 24 hours, divided among three flights, on the airplane. I can only imagine how dreadful and scary this ordeal was for her!
Thankfully, though, Mittens arrived in Melbourne to a warm, loving homecoming, and she is doing OK now.
“She basically just ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here and just did the biggest cuddles of all time,” Neas told the AP. “It was just such a relief.”
The trauma also seems to have melted Mittens’ usual reserve, as she typically is not the most affectionate cat, Neas said. But, Mittens has been very cuddly since reuniting with her family.
“The cat gets as much attention as she wants right now because we’re just so absolutely and utterly relieved to have her back,” Neas said.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has apologized for the incident, reimbursed all travel costs, and pledged to make sure another mishap like this doesn’t happen.
Svetlana Rey / Shutterstock.com
Mittens is not the only aviating cat that has made news headlines lately. Over the holidays, a 7-month-old kitten named Oni pooped in his carrier on a Southwest Airlines flight. The flight crew booted the kitten and his owner, Alex, from the connecting flight. Alex raised a big stink about this incident in a social media post. We covered this story here.
Generally, flying with a cat is not a pleasant experience for either the cat or the human. But, some circumstances, like relocating a very long distance, may make the stress of taking a cat on an airplane necessary and worth it. We offer a guide to flying with your cat here. We also reviewed the Sleepypod Air In-Cabin Pet Carrier here.
