Missing Cat Found After Hitching Ride To Tampa International Airport

TAMPA, FL — Sai the kitty had the adventure of a lifetime after he hitched a ride to Tampa International Airport with his grandmother, Karen, on Dec. 28.

Luckily, a “cat-astrophe (was) averted” when workers found the cat later that night, the airport wrote in a Facebook post.

Karen has been taking care of Sai since her daughter, Hanna - Sai’s mom - recently moved to Germany to be with her husband, who is stationed there with the U.S. Army.

When she left for TPA to catch a flight, she didn’t realize “that Sai had quietly tagged along for the trip,” the airport wrote.

Sai jumped out and ran away when Karen opened her car door in the airport’s long-term parking garage.

One of Hanna’s best friends heard the cat was missing and reached out to the airport for help tracking down Sai.

With the Tampa International Airport Police Department and the airport’s operations crew on the lookout for Sai, it didn’t take long for two members of the department to find the cat, TIAPD wrote in a Facebook post. “Within 20 minutes, they had the cat in custody!”

He was reunited with his mother’s best friend, who will care for him until Karen returns, the airport said.