Happy ending for cat who escaped carrier at TIA


Tampa, Florida -2/12/08 Employees at Tampa International Airport have been on the lookout for Nina since she escaped from her carrier Friday.

The black and white kitty and another cat had just arrived on a Delta plane from the Northeast and were being held in the baggage sorting area in the airport terminal.

Somehow the door on the carrier broke and Nina made a run for it, but her traveling companion stayed behind.

Airport administrators say Delta issued an alert for the missing cat, posting her picture around the airport, but Nina was nowhere to be found.

But Wednesday afternoon, employees of another airline spotted Nina squeezing into a PVC pipe at Airside F.

Hillsborough Animal Services officers were called to help rescue Nina.

An officer used a catch-pole to retrieve the reluctant cat from the pipe and although her rescue looked a little rough, Nina was apparently in pretty good shape and reunited with her owners.

The big question is, how did the cat make it from the airport terminal out to one of the airsides?

TIA officials speculate that Nina might have hitched a ride on a baggage conveyor belt, but this was one "cat-tale" with a happy ending.