{"id":31426,"date":"2023-09-28T20:22:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T02:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-purr-fect-ending-kansas-cat-found-in-la-plata-county-reunites-with-family\/"},"modified":"2023-09-29T02:22:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T02:22:15","slug":"a-purr-fect-ending-kansas-cat-found-in-la-plata-county-reunites-with-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-purr-fect-ending-kansas-cat-found-in-la-plata-county-reunites-with-family\/","title":{"rendered":"A purr-fect ending: Kansas cat found in La Plata County reunites with family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Paylen
Paylen Wichert, who was 6 when Sarin disappeared three years ago, gives her cat some much-needed scratches after they were reunited Thursday at Kansas City International Airport. (Evert Nelson\/Topeka Capital-Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

KANSAS CITY, Missouri \u2014 If Jeni Owens\u2019 cat could speak, it would have quite the story to tell.<\/p>\n

After being missing for the past three years, Sarin, a short-hair tabby feline, was miraculously reunited with Owens\u2019 family Thursday afternoon after taking a flight from Durango to the Kansas City International Airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe honestly thought she was dead,\u201d said Owens, who was alongside her daughter, Paylen Wichert, 9, and son, Parker Winchert, 12.<\/p>\n

Theories surrounding the family\u2019s first pet disappearance ranged from a fox getting her to escaping into a moving truck to a neighborhood cat fight gone bad. Sarin was an indoor cat with a knack for sneaking outside.<\/p>\n

That side of the story will likely never be solved, but didn\u2019t seem to matter as Owens, Paylen and Parker awaited outside of baggage claim for airport officials to call them over.<\/p>\n

Traveling in style from Colorado to Kansas City International Airport<\/strong><\/p>\n

After confirming the family\u2019s cat via microchip at La Plata County Humane Society, volunteer Cathy Roberts made arrangements for the reunion. With the help of Durango-La Plata County Airport, Roberts got American Airlines to deliver Sarin, free of charge, to KCI.<\/p>\n

Ed Lacy, Durango general manager for American Airlines, and Beth Bachus, administrative assistant for American Airlines, accompanied Sarin on the journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I have been involved in shipping a lot of animals around the world in my past cargo life, this is a unique first for Beth and I,\u201d said Lacy.<\/p>\n

The trip, which began early Thursday morning in Durango, sent the crew to Phoenix for a layover before they arrived in Kansas City later that afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just thrilled to help out,\u201d Bachus said. \u201cI\u2019m an animal lover. I would want to know there was somebody who did the same thing for me and was inside and was there for the first few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passengers of American Airlines have the option to ship pets either in the cargo area of planes or be with their owners in the cabin for an extra charge. Bachus said he waived the extra fees to have Sarin sit with them.<\/p>\n

The airline-specific pet carrier Sarin traveled in was a gift from the La Plata County Humane Society.<\/p>\n

Sarin gets welcome home from her family<\/strong><\/p>\n

The shock of being reunited with Sarin wasn\u2019t lost by Owens and her family as they were reunited.<\/p>\n

After a full day of traveling, American Airlines offered Sarin a private room to get plenty of pets from her family before the final trip back to Topeka.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looks great,\u201d Owens said. \u201cI mean, she\u2019s been on the run, it looks like, for a while. Because of the hair loss. But otherwise, she looks amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paylen, who was 6 at the time of Sarin\u2019s disappearance, said it was nice to see her again as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The family has since adopted another cat, Amelia, and have two golden retrievers, Cooper and Thomas, who will be greeting them back home.<\/p>\n

Before leaving, Joe McBride, spokesman for Kansas City International Airport and self-described cat person, met the family to see Sarin off.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirports are about are about making connections,\u201d McBride said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s usually with humans. In this case, it\u2019s humans with their beloved pet and it\u2019s another wonderful connection.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarin, who went missing in October 2020, was recently found in La Plata County and flown back home on Thursday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,475],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31426"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}