Family immigrates to Metro Detroit, loses family pet in process
By Terell Bailey
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DETROIT (WWJ) — It’s not the welcome to the states the family expected, but their relocation process must continue. For one family they search high and low for a beloved pet.
It goes back to Jan. 8, when Estelita Grefalda and her family landed at Detroit Metro Airport. Grefalda, her husband, and their four children relocated to the U.S. after work opportunities brought them here.
The family spent the previous seventeen years in Qatar. Within the previous two years, they adopted a stray cat named Pumpkin.
Recently, the family flew from DOHA to Turkey and had a layover. Before boarding the final stretch towards Detroit, Grefalda said the airline told her they were unable to seat their cat on board, but rather in the cargo.
“They transferred him to a small carrier with like stiff plastic, that’s what they required for the cat to be transferred to the cargo,” she said.
Once they landed and reached baggage claim, they encountered an unexpected hiccup—the carrier was empty.
Grefalda told CBS News Detroit, “The ramp agent who handled him called us that there’s something wrong.”
She says she was told the carrier had been opened as it was removed.
It’s at that moment – a desperate search started. It couldn’t last too long, as their transportation waited.
“The ramp agent told me not to worry because they would exhaust all efforts to look for him,” she stated.
Since then, she’s filed a report with the airport police and Turkish Airlines. With below-freezing temperatures across the area, she worries – whether her cat can brave the cold.
“We feel so devasted that maybe at this time, maybe, he feels so cold or weak or…. if we don’t know if he’s still alive,” Grefalda said.
After posting her story online, the community has stepped in to help search. It’s something the family is grateful for….still though no ‘pumpkin’.
The family is keeping in close contact with the ramp agent and there is hope!
“There have been two sightings of our cat in the blue deck parking of the Evans terminal and they went there. And the other sighting was at the Amazon parking in Romulo,” she added.
Neither Detroit Metro Airport nor Turkish Airlines provided us with a comment.
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