:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/lost-cat-found-tout-081924-ec97e21c4d044f5f8f3f7c7fab99be6e.jpg "Cat missing for weeks finds family 10 miles away at Boston Airport")
A cat who had been missing from his Boston-area home for weeks has been reunited with his family — after being found in an airport garage nearly 10 miles away.
The Animal Rescue League of Boston (ARL) announced in a press release that it returned an 8-year-old cat named Harry to his owners on Thursday, August 15, using his microchip after he was found at Logan International Airport.
Harry’s owner, Christine Lafleur, told CBS Boston that the 8-year-old cat has been missing from her family’s home in Somerville, Massachusetts, since late July.
“He disappeared on July 19 and has been missing ever since. We’ve been looking for him all over the neighborhood and putting up a lot of signs,” Lafleur told the outlet.
According to Lafleur, Harry is a house cat and he must have found a way to sneak out of the house.
“He’s not going out, so he found some kind of emergency exit,” she added to CBS.
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After weeks of searching for the missing pet, Lafleur and her family finally received news after two transportation workers discovered the black and white cat in a garage on airport property. According to ARL, he was “very friendly” and the two workers helped protect him by crating him and then taking him to ARL’s Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center.
The ARL said a veterinarian immediately went to work examining Harry and scanning him for microchips – and that’s when Lafleur’s contact information surfaced.
“We got a call from the Animal Rescue League of Boston – he was found in a garage at Logan Airport,” she recalls.
Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty
Although Harry’s family (and his cat brother Ron) were delighted that he was found, they still had some questions about how he got to the airport.
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“We were happy and speechless at the same time. We really wish he could tell us how he got there, but he won’t give it away!” Lafleur said, adding that they had a theory: “He’s pretty obsessed with boxes, so he might have seen a box in the back of a pickup truck, jumped in and then made a little drive to Logan.”
“He went on this incredible adventure, the details of which we will unfortunately never know!” she added.
The ARL used Harry’s story and his reunion with his family as an opportunity to remind pet owners of the benefits of microchipping pets.
“A microchip greatly increases the likelihood of reunification in the event of a loss,” the organization wrote, “and ARL urges all pet owners to microchip their pets if they have not already done so.”
