Travelling cat out of the bag
2007-05-03 12:55
Ottawa - An adventurous tabby took an unexpected trip this week, after slyly crawling into her keeper's luggage and clearing lax Canadian airport security, local media said on Wednesday.
Mary Martell unwittingly travelled 1 400km from Saint John Airport on Canada's Atlantic coast all the way to Toronto, then to Niagara-on-the-Lake by car with the live cat in her suitcase.
She told public broadcaster CBC the bag was scanned at the airport, but she was not stopped and it was eventually loaded into the airplane's cargo bay.
"They had asked me, when they put?the luggage through the X-ray, whether I had a turkey," she said.
"(Airport security) kept going back and forth with (the suitcase)," Martell said. "I was adamant: 'Look, I have no turkey.'"
Martell said she only discovered Ginger, the family pet, when she opened her luggage in a hotel room, after the three-hour journey. The cat had apparently snuck into a bag while Martell was packing.