Caturday Felid trifecta: Mittens the cat becomes a frequent flyer; a fracas over dog salon opening next to cat cafe; cat memes

Mittens the cat was supposed to fly with her family, which was moving from New Zealand to Australia, but managed, due to bungling, to make three trips. The Associated Press reports (click on screenshot below to read):

The tail:

A Maine coon cat named Mittens became an accidental jetsetter this month when her cage was overlooked in a plane cargo hold and she made three trips in 24 hours between New Zealand and Australia.

Mittens, 8, was booked for one-way travel with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand to their new home in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 13. But owner Margo Neas said Wednesday that as she waited for Mittens to be unloaded from the plane’s freight area, three hours passed with no sign of the cat.

It was then that ground staff told Neas the plane had returned to New Zealand — with Mittens still on board. The return trip involves about 7.5 hours in the air.

“I said, how can this happen? How can this happen? Oh my God,” Neas said.

The Air New Zealand pilot was told of the extra passenger during the flight and turned on the heating in the cargo hold to keep Mittens comfortable, she added. Neas was told that a stowed wheelchair had obscured a baggage handler’s view of Mittens’ cage.

That is true incompetence. Mittens could have frozen! But wait! There’s more after this video report:

But the saga had a happy ending. The pet moving company that Neas used to arrange Mittens’ travel met the cat on her return to Christchurch and ensured she was back on the plane for another trip to Melbourne — this time just one way.

Mittens had lost weight but was otherwise unharmed.

“She basically just ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here and just did the biggest cuddles of all time,” Neas said. “It was just such a relief.”

Air New Zealand would reimburse all costs associated with Mittens’ travel and has apologized for the distress caused, the airline said in a statement.

“We’ll work closely with our ground handler in Melbourne to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” said spokesperson Alisha Armstrong.

Meanwhile Mittens, not usually an affectionate pet, is “the cuddliest she’s ever been,” said Neas.

“The cat gets as much attention as she wants right now because we’re just so absolutely and utterly relieved to have her back.”

It’s a good thing that Air New Zealand is covering the travel costs, but they really should give Mittens a year’s supply of cat food.

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From Britain’s Daily Star, a big kerfuffle ensued over plans to put a dog salon (Barks ‘N’ Bubbles) next to a cat cafe (The Andover Catfe). This is recent (click to read):

An excerpt:

A row has broken out after plans were announced to open a dog grooming salon next door to a cat cafe.

The owners of the cat cafe have been left furious after proposals were put forward to open the dog salon right next to their feline-friendly shop in a town centre. The owners of Andover Catfe say a dog grooming shop will ‘potentially end us’ because its clientele will spook their feline residents, Solent News reported.

The comments come as an application was formally submitted by Barks ‘N’ Bubbles to open a salon in Andover, Hampshire. Stuart Waue, owner of Andover Catfe, lodged an official objection to the application and said his cafe attracts cat lovers from around the UK.

He said: “Our Catfe is supposed to be a calming atmosphere for people to enjoy the company of cats. If there are agitated dogs making a lot of noise it will upset our cats and create unnecessary stress for them and our visitors.

A Tik Tok video of the Catfe:

@inandoveruk

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