Air Canada is investigating a complaint by a B.C. woman who claims the airline lost her cat on Wednesday.
The cat apparently escaped from its carrier prior to being loaded onto an aircraft in Montreal, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email to CTV News.
“We have examined the kennel as part of our investigation into this situation and found the kennel bottom had become unsecured,” he said.
But the owner of the cat, Amanda Stewart, told CP24.com Thursday that she believes her expensive show cat Chester, a Blue Scottish Fold, was stolen.
Stewart had purchased Chester from a breeder in Montreal and was having it shipped to her home in Cloverdale, B.C.
She said the carrier was very secure and was checked by multiple people at the airport.
"I don’t understand how they could lose a cat," she said.
"I just have a bad feeling."
Stewart said the airline plans to send photos of Chester to other airports in case he got into a cargo container and was shipped somewhere else.
She was told that the airline also searched for the cat at a nearby golf course.
Stewart said she has wanted a Blue Scottish Fold cat since she was a child and decided to finally get one after her cat died last year.
The breed, she said, is hard to come by in British Columbia.
"We waited about two months to get everything organized," she said.
"I remember even joking saying, 'Oh god, I hope they don't lose my cat.'
Stewart said when the breeder learned that the cat was missing, she immediately refunded her the $1,200 she paid.
The airline’s staff members are “doing all possible in the search,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We ship thousands of animals every year – a great many of them dogs and cats -- and escaped animals are rare,” he said.
