American Airlines in a quandary:

Pet cat vanishes at JFK

Karen Pascoe left for Kennedy International Airport two weeks ago, ready to make a fresh start. After 22 years in New York City, she was moving to San Jose, California, to take a job at a software design company. Naturally, her two cats, Jack and Barry, would be going with her.

But it didn't turn out that way.Half an hour after Pascoe went through security and handed over her cats to American Airlines workers, each cat in a secured plastic pet carrier, her cellphone rang. Five-year-old Jack, she was told, had gone missing in the inbound baggage processing area at Terminal 8, the door to his carrying case inexplicably left open.

"That's when the whole nightmare began," she said. Now, Pascoe's nightmare has turned into something of one for American Airlines, as pet lovers and sympathisers have seized upon Jack's cause.

As Jack remains at large, the wall on the American Airlines Facebook page has been besieged by impassioned pleas for the airline to do more to find him, and provide more frequent updates to those around the country who are anxiously awaiting word of Jack's whereabouts.

Jack is not the first pet to go missing at Kennedy. Last September, Ramsay, a three-year-old Yorkshire terrier, disappeared while in the care of British Airways, setting off a highly publicised search that was, it seems, unsuccessful: Just this week, Ramsay's owner posted his picture on a Facebook page for lost and found pets.

"I still think about him and miss him daily," she wrote. "Love you Ram Sam Sam!"

On Thursday morning, a comment posted by Cyril Sturm, one of several Facebook users who changed their profile pictures to an image of the missing-cat poster for Jack, read: "AA - checking in this morning wondering what was done last night to locate Jack? Was food and water placed and monitored? Details of how the search is being conducted would go a long way with the community that is focused on Jack's return."

"Is there a reason you cannot share this information?" the message continued.

A comment posted by Gary Otto, whose Facebook picture is of another cat, accused the airline of having "nothing but contempt" for its customers, saying, "They won't even recognise any Jack the Cat supporters or give any sort of update, instead thinking if they ignore us we will go away." There has even been mention of a pet lovers' boycott of the airline.

In an e-mail, Edward Martelle, a spokesman for American Airlines, detailed the lengths to which the airline has gone to locate the cat, including setting up humane traps, issuing a "pet Amber alert," and holding daily briefings "to review progress and generate ideas for locating Jack."

The airline also hired a "pet search-and-rescue specialist," who scoured the airport with a scent-tracking dog and Pascoe, who was flown back from California to help search.

The baggage room where Jack apparently escaped is a busy, noisy area of at least a few thousand square feet, Martelle said.

The airline's efforts to find Jack "initially were disrupted by the evacuation caused by Hurricane Irene," Martelle wrote, adding that now, "our JFK employees continue to expand efforts to find him."

Pascoe said the airline's efforts seemed to have been ratcheted up as word of the incident spread by way of news reports on television, on blogs and in newspapers, and as a Facebook page, Jack the Cat Is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK gained traction. As of Friday afternoon, 13,592 people had "liked" it. "Woke up this morning and my thoughts immediately went to Jack, as they have every morning since I first heard about him," read a message posted on the page by Susan M. Bell.

"I will keep him in my thoughts and continue to send out positive vibes when I meditate."

More than 650 people are following @findjackthecat on Twitter, the account Pascoe set up to spread the word. In the recent tradition of missing animals, a Jack imposter has started a fake Twitter feed, @jackthelostcat ("I'm having the time of my nine lives!").

In the interview, Pascoe, 42, said the airline has assured her that food and water have been set out for Jack, and that "the last time this happened they did find the cat, but it took a month." That news was not exactly comforting. "He's part of my family," she said.

The New York Times