Airport Workers Take Lost 'Tiger' on Adventure

In the world of Sunday comics, Hobbes is a loveable stuffed tiger who just loves to go on adventures with his boy Calvin.

In the real world, Hobbes loves a good adventure, too.

At least that’s what employees at Tampa International Airport discovered recently when a little boy traveling to Houston accidentally left his beloved stuff tiger behind in the children’s play area at Airside C. After receiving a call from 6-year-old Owen’s mother, Amanda Lake, employees there swung into action to recover the toy and keep it safe for the child’s return home.

Not satisfied to simply lock up the striped scamp in lost-and-found, Tony D’Aiuto, manager of the airport operations center, enlisted some help to take Hobbes on an adventure at the airport while his boy vacationed in Houston.

“D’Auito, with the help of (Tampa) police, airlines, operations staff, the USO and others all over the airport campus, photographed Hobbes on his great adventures: outside by the air traffic control tower, buying gelato, working out at the employee gym, playing Jenga in the USO, hanging out with the firefighters, napping in a hammock by the Marriott pool, riding a luggage cart,” airport officials wrote on TIA’s website.

D’Auito drew inspiration for the antics from a similar story he heard about where someone took a stuffed lion around a museum and photographed it along the way.

“This seemed like the perfect opportunity,” he was quoted on the airport’s website as saying.

Not satisfied to simply return Hobbes to open when his family returned to Tampa on a late-night flight June 11, D’Aiuto even created a hardbound photo book of the tiger’s airport adventures to present the child.

What D’Aiuto didn’t know is that Owen’s mother spent the trip telling her son that Hobbes was in good hands and was on his own “adventure.”

Finding out that was indeed true brought Lake to tears, airport staff reported.

“It was very, very sweet,” Lake said. “We already told him over and over that Hobbes was on an adventure so it was nice to get back and show him that Hobbes really had been on an adventure.”

Photos courtesy of Tampa International Airport