PURR JOY!
Friend fetches fugitive feline after 8 days on the lam at JFK
Pepper the elusive kitty is captured Saturday at JFK after her owner’s pal Nuan Tang (inset) called out to the cat by her name in Mandarin, Dai Meng.
THE CAT’S in the bag!
An elusive cat that’s been roaming Kennedy Airport for a week after escaping her carrier was finally captured early Saturday when a pal of the owner who spoke the bilingual feline’s preferred language was able to coax her out of hiding.
Nuan Tang, a friend of the owner of the cat — named Pepper — who had helped care for the animal, joined Port Authority cops on the hunt for the elusive 4-yearold tabby in Terminal Four about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
Tang had a secret weapon — she knows Pepper’s Mandarin name, Dai Meng, which loosely translated means “little dork.”
Within 15 minutes, Pepper, apparently recognizing Tang’s voice — and her Mandarin name — poked her head out from her hiding place.
“She started screaming at me, like ‘Where have you been?’” Tang, 30, told the Daily News. “It looked like she was waiting for me.”
A bit of food was enough to lure Pepper all the way way back to the cat carrier she escaped from over a week ago.
Port Authority Police Officer Kameel Juman, who had spearheaded the search for Pepper, made sure the frisky feline wouldn’t get out of the carrier again.
“I grabbed some duct tape and sealed up the cat carrier,” the 15-year PAPD veteran laughed. “We were not losing this cat again.”
Pepper’s 29-year-old owner was relocating from Jersey City to China when she checked into her flight with her beloved pet about 11:30 a.m. April 20.
That’s when Pepper’s carrier fell on its side and popped open. The cat bolted, jumping onto the check-in counter, then leaping onto the low roof above the counter and disappearing.
Her owner skipped the flight but eventually had to follow her plan to relocate to China.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Farhani Hamid of PAX Assist, a company that helps handicapped commuters navigate airport terminals, spotted Pepper around 3 a.m.
Cops managed to shoot video of Pepper wandering about and got a photo of her hiding in the terminal’s ceiling ducts. But the frightened cat stubbornly remained at least an arm’s length away.
Buoyed by confirmations that the black, white and gray-colored critter was still wandering the terminal, Port Authority cops intensified their search and put out food and humane traps — which Pepper ignored.
Juman knew stronger measures had to be taken.
“I was at the pet store, getting more food and they told me the only person who would be able to get her was the owner or someone who knows the cat,” Juman said.
Enter Tang, the Pepper whisperer.
The beloved “little dork,” a bit dusty and seeming at least a pound thinner, was recovering at Tang’s home Saturday afternoon.
“She’s doing good,” said Tang, who will be watching Pepper until the cat can be reunited with her owner. “She’s eating but she’s not sleeping all that well. She’ll wake up and walk around and then try to sleep again.”
Pepper’s owner, who is still in China, was “super excited” that her cat was safe and sound, Tang said.
Juman, who rescued a German shepherd found teetering on the edge of the George Washington Bridge in 2012, was glad Pepper’s story also had a happy ending.
“We couldn’t have done it without all the workers at the airport that spotted her through the week,” said Juman.
“The pigeon population in the terminal declined when she was there,” he joked.