Airport Alert for Lost Cat!

Dec 20, 10:40 am ET

CAIRO (Reuters) - Airports may be used to announcing "last calls" for passengers browsing too long in duty-free, but it's trickier when the missing passenger happens to be a cat.

American tourist Cathryn Chartez was so devoted to her brown and white cat she took it on holiday to Egypt.

But as she prepared to board a flight home from Cairo airport two months ago the cat ran away, airport sources said.

The distraught Chartez enlisted the help of Egyptian tourist police at the airport to hunt for the animal.

Adverts were posted and several cats investigated without any positive identification. Five days ago Chartez returned to Egypt to step up the search.

Her efforts proved not to have been in vain on Friday when an electrical worker in Terminal II found a cat sheltering from this winter's first heavy downpour and notified the tourist police.

The worker declined to accept a 500 pounds ($110) reward from the grateful owner after she was finally reunited with her pet. Both are scheduled to depart for the United States on Saturday.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002