EDMONTON – A family pet missing for months after escaping from a cargo hold at the Edmonton International Airport has been found safe and sound in Leduc, more than five kilometres away.
In late September Vanessa Summerfield received a call from an Air Canada employee telling her that her black and white cat ‘George,’ which she was sending to stay with family in Ontario, had gone missing from an Air Canada cargo hold.
“I was hysterical, upset, angry, I just couldn’t believe this actually happened,” Summerfield told Global News at the time. “He was my family and I lost him.”
Then, on November 23, Summerfield received a call from Air Canada informing her that George had been found, dead.
However, a veterinarian who examined the cat’s remains concluded that “it is my firm belief that this dead animal found at the Air Canada grounds is NOT the cat believed to be George.”
Now, nearly three months later, George has been found, and his identity verified.
On Tuesday morning, Summerfield says she received an email in response to a ‘lost and found’ ad she had placed online. The email came from a family in Leduc, who told her that George had shown up on their doorstep several days ago, tired and hungry, but otherwise fine.
“At 6 o’clock in the morning there’s a kitty howling outside my door,” explains Hope Gulseth who found George outside her house in Leduc, “He came back and forth and after two days he decided he would stay.”
Gulseth’s husband did some research and found out George was quite famous and quite missed.
“It’s a story I love to share,” Summerfield told Global News from her home in Fort McMurray. “it just shows how great some people are … and shows that you should never give up.”
Summerfield says that George will remain with the family in Leduc until arrangements can be made for him to return home.
With files from Julie Matthews.
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