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Family is reunited
with cat lost on Maui
WAILUKU >> Tiger the cat is back in his owners' arms after disappearing for six weeks at Kahului Airport while en route to his new Scottsdale, Ariz., home.
"He's doing great," said Carrie Valentino, whose family celebrated the return of Tiger last night. "We're just elated."
Tiger was scheduled to leave July 3 with the Maui family of Michael and Carrie Valentino, who were moving to Scottsdale.
But before they could board their United Airlines flight, they found out Tiger had escaped from his carrier in the cargo area.
The Valentinos and 8-year-old daughter Faith, who owned Tiger, were devastated, Carrie Valentino said.
The Valentinos prayed for Tiger's safe return.
"Every night before she (Faith) goes to sleep, she would pray, 'Please bring Tiger back,'" Carrie Valentino said.
The 2-year-old Tiger was a feral cat who roamed the grounds of a hotel in Kaanapali before he was trapped and adopted at 5 months old by the Valentinos, the family said.
A number of volunteers kept a lookout for Tiger at Kahului Airport, said Jane Dettwiler, a member of the Feline Foundation of Maui and a Maui Humane Society volunteer.
Dettwiler said she worked with United Airlines employees to search for the cat and brought them traps to use in catching it.
On Aug. 14, United Airlines employees recognized Tiger outside an airport building. Dettwiler said. Tiger was still wearing a collar, and employees picked him up.
One employee, Lorrie Manos, who took Tiger home overnight and fed him, brought the cat in a carrier aboard first class on a flight to Phoenix yesterday.
Dettwiler, who cared for Tiger for 10 days and took him to a veterinarian to obtain re-certification for a flight, said Tiger looked like he lost some weight but not much.
"He was looking in wonderful shape," she said.
She said United Airlines employees were dedicated in their search for Tiger.
Dettwiler said volunteers suspected at first that Tiger might go to the family's former home in Pukalani, several miles up Haleakala, and had asked people in the neighborhood to be on the watch for him.
"But he obviously decided to stay near the airport," she said.
Dettwiler, who has seven cats of her own, said she got involved in the search because she would like to think that if something similar happened to one of her animals, someone would be on the other end helping her.
