Kitten Gets Seat On United Flight From O'Hare
A Minnesota man paid $150 to fly a three-week-old stray cat home after finding it near Terminal 1.
By Andrew Hayes ·
A stray kitten found in a park outside O'Hare's Terminal 1 boarded a United Airlines flight to Minnesota on Oct. 28 after a traveler adopted it during a delay. Virgil Wiebe, a Minnesota native, was waiting out a long delay when he stepped outside to smoke a cigar. An orange kitten came running up to him. "He sort of appeared out of nowhere," Wiebe told NBC Chicago.
Wiebe searched the area for a mother cat and found none, so he took the kitten to a ticketing counter. A TSA agent on duty had not handled the situation before. "They tried to be helpful, said 'you're gonna need a kennel,'" Wiebe said. He ordered a kennel and formula through DoorDash as his flight prepared to board. United Airlines then added the cat as a passenger on the same flight.
Wiebe was charged $150 for the cat's ticket. The three-week-old kitten is named Macanudo O'Hare, after the cigar Wiebe was smoking and the airport where they met. Wiebe calls him Harry. "He's just a joyful little thing, and it's so coincidental how it all happened," Wiebe said. "Who knows where Harry came from, but now he's ours." The source does not explain how the kitten reached the airport.
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Source: NBC Chicago · original report published
