Written by Cecilia Rosas Fuentes of Foster Furry Rescue
Professional photography by Lucanne Havenga Photography
Beautiful nine-year-old calico cat Shanti survived an incredible ordeal after a simple relocation flight went horribly wrong…
She had escaped
On the 1st of June 2023, Shanti and her guardian relocated from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. The little cat was placed in the cargo hold of an aeroplane, ready to start a new chapter in their lives.
It was a very turbulent flight and Shanti’s guardian, Sharon Stevens, was very concerned about her. Upon arriving in Cape Town, her human eagerly waited to welcome Shanti to move to their new home in Onrus but, to her horror, she was approached by an official who told her that Shanti had escaped from her carrier. They couldn’t find her.
From the moment I saw Shanti’s face on the 6th of June on a Facebook post about her being lost at the Cape Town International Airport for several days, I couldn’t be at peace. I hoped someone else would take the task of rescuing her, as I live very far in Noordhoek.
But, by the 7th, no offer of help had been made and time was running out. I knew I had to either commit immediately and fully, or walk away. But I couldn’t walk away... So, I committed with everything I have and contacted Sharon Stevens (Shanti’s mom) to start the rescue operation.
Providence and hard work
In retrospect, as has happened so many times before, the WH Murray saying came true: “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way”. And this is exactly what happened!
My first thought was to call Paulette Bousfield from Kitten Cottage, who was in the UK, as she’d rescued a cat at the Cape Town airport years ago. From her, I received the essential contact details of Shivanie Sahatu from the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), who helped me with further important contact names, as we needed urgent authorisations from ACSA, SECURITAS and the individual airlines’ managers to get access to different areas in the airport to start the physical search.
I wrote an official letter as the Chairperson for Foster Furry Rescue 260-746 NPO and made many calls, sent many messages to the various authorities, and I was grateful that within a day or two the different managers had granted us the required permissions.
Many hands make light work
Rescue is a lonely task... in social media there may be a lot of support, but it’s wonderful when you have at least one other person as committed as you to share all the hopes, all the low moments, all the sadness and happiness and all the planning. Someone who’s prepared to be called at any time and to leave Noordhoek at 06h30 and expend five or six hours at the airport. Someone who’ll not be put off by the heavy rain or very cold conditions, in other words, and for me that fellow rescuer was Beverley Anne Human, also from our organisation, Foster Furry Rescue. In the long 19 days that followed we had each other to rekindle our hopes and faith that with God’s help we might find Shanti.
Three essential things happened: Samantha Uliana offered and paid Albè Albertyn, an animal communicator from Deer Heart Connection, to contact Shanti with the permission of Shanti’s owner; Celia Fenn added another R1000-00 to our initial R1000-00 reward amount, plus she offered to pay Deer Heart Connection following readings. Amiena Davids offered to design leaflets and Suzetee Sleigh offered to print them. Many more supporters started to pray or do meditations trying to guide Shanti to us.
So, a whole community of friends became deeply connected with Shanti’s plight, especially as the weather grew ever so colder and with extreme rains.
Bev and I couldn’t sleep during those terrible stormy nights. The worry of how she was keeping warm or eating after so many days, along with the dread that she could experience hypothermia if trapped, was agonising (even if traps were protected from the rain). But there was no other choice but to persevere.
A vast area to cover
We started at the left end of the airport at the Airlink Cargo Warehouse. On the second day, as soon as we had permission, we moved to the right side of the airport where the Flying Club and its kitchen and all the hangars are situated. It’s a vast area and we started at the SAA technical hangar and moved in the following days to the essential Foxtrot 5 area.
During these long 15 days we met a lot of people and distributed the leaflets offering a R2000-00 reward. Some of them were very committed to help us and learnt how to check the traps and reset them. We put traps in 21 places and went almost daily to check them, as we soon realised that at the airport people work different shifts; we were very anxious about the traps being checked as early as possible due to the extreme cold.
One of the most enduring moments that will stay with me was when Paul Lelaka, who’s the guards’ supervisor and the most wonderful caring man, walked calling Shanti and playing the recording that Shanti’s mom sent calling for her. This will always stay in my heart.
Not giving up
From the 7th of June to the glorious 20th of June, we had the most extraordinary connection with Shanti through Albè (from Deer Heart Connection) – a journey that will stay with us for ever. The airport is a vast place, and Foxtrot 5 is a big area; each hangar is a large building, and without all the landmarks and descriptions shared by Shanti though Deer Heart Connection to us, we would have been blind. Bev, Sharon (Shanti’s mom) and I also worked deeply with the visualisations and prayers to guide Shanti to us
On the 18th of June I went early on that beautiful sunny and slightly warm day, full of hope that, given the break in the bad weather, I’d at least spot her sunning herself from afar. I set many traps in different places, but by 14h00 there was no sighting (there hadn’t been any confirmed sightings since the 1st of June), so I left to go home.
This was a very difficult day – the most difficult emotionally – and I accepted inwardly that it wasn’t in our hands to find Shanti, it was in God’s hands. I cried when I wrote my Facebook post, called in God we trust, as it pained me so deeply to accept that even though we’d try our very best, we might not find her. It was an inner act of surrender, but not of giving up.
I just wanted Shanti to know that her plight wasn’t being ignored, that she was loved, and that whatever happened, she wasn’t abandoned and that we hadn’t turned a blind eye to her suffering. That Bev and I – and indeed all the friends who’d been praying for her safety – love and care for her.
And THEN, the very next day, were the first two sightings of Shanti!
It was a miracle
When Ryan messaged us from Robin Coss Aviation we were all beyond happy and full of hopes! He promptly set up the two traps we’d left with him… and then we waited. On the 20th of June, Bev, with Richard Hardy (I couldn’t go as I was teaching that day), left at 05h45 to go and check the traps as the staff only arrive around 08h00, and we couldn’t wait!
But all the traps were empty....
Another very flat moment. We knew Shanti must be so hungry – why didn’t she go into the trap and eat? Had she been trapped before, meaning she wouldn’t be trapped again? Or had she been scared by the excitement of the people who saw her and run away? Where was she? We’d been so close. I prayed she didn’t look for another place to hide.
However, leaving things to God doesn’t mean not to do your very best. It means that you’re open to a higher guidance and to an outcome that’s not in your hands. It means trust and keep working!
After being there for a few hours, Beverley asked Richard: “Richard, where to from here?”
THEN, looking to the left, she saw THAT GATE that had ALWAYS BEEN CLOSED was OPEN! They strode across the grass towards the hangar of Swissport GSE workshop and there met the wonderful Bernett, who was there only for a short period of time that day – he was supposed to be working on the other side of the airport!
You can draw your own conclusions, but for us, this was a miracle! This opportunity, this OPEN GATE, wouldn’t have been available if Bev had decided to lose hope and go back home a few hours earlier... Bernett not only allowed Bev to put the trap up but, following his own intuition, suggested rather than the hangar a small side room, where some of the guards warm up food and make tea, that has a broken window. The trap was put there around midday.
It was her
Bev left, full of hope. Just as she was reaching Ou Kaapse Weg SHE RECEIVED THE CALL THAT WE’D BEEN PRAYING FOR! I can’t imagine how she managed to drive back. I was teaching at college and waited to hear from her those magical words... yes, it is her. And it was HER!!!
At long last I could share this happiness to all the friends who helped us through Facebook. I wrote a post: “Dear friends, WE GOT HER! WE HAVE SHANTI!”
The photo with the pink outline is where the trap was, and the big yellow plastic in the other photo stopped me in my tracks when I went to pay the reward to Bernett. OMW! That big yellow was the only part of the reading of Deer Heart Connection that we couldn’t find outside in the airport because it was inside that hangar!
A heartfelt thank you to my dear friend Bev (Beverley Anne Human) for being on this difficult, taxing and long journey together with me. Only you and I know all we did and all the times we needed to lift our spirits with new hopes, with faith.
I did “The Cappuccino Large Challenge” to fundraise in order to recover our costs and have Shanti treated for advanced dehydration. She received the best vet care plus a full blood works including the thyroid as she’d lost a quarter of her body weight. She also had a small nasal operation to remove a growth on her nose that the biopsy result showed to be a slow grow soft tissue carcinoma.
The community took on this challenge magnificently and bought 425 Virtual Large Cappuccino Cups at R42 each, raising R17,850-00. The community did well for her! We bought a lot of food plus a year’s worth of treatment for worms, fleas and ticks. Celia Fenn bought a secure cat carrier and, after 12 days with us recovering, I took Shanti to Hermanus on Sunday the 2nd of July, 32 days after she’d gone missing. Our mission was accomplished.
Shanti’s mom works in Onrus (next to Hermanus) as a carer, seven days a week full time, hence she couldn’t help with the search. On learning that we’d found Shanti, she sent this message: “I am shaking inside with excitement. I hardly slept last night. I can’t wait to meet you and thank you. I am sure I will cry all over poor you, just tears of absolute joy. I can’t quite believe yet that my precious girl is going to be in my arms soon.”
A plot twist
As life is never perfect, there was a further twist in Shanti’s story. We learnt on the 11th of July (thanks to our supporter Meryl Smith) that, after just six days at her new home, Shanti got out again and was lost.
I can’t deny that this was a terrible blow to Bev and me. All our work at the airport to rescue her, to save her, and then this...
We immediately went to Onrus the following day, the 12th of July. There, we worked until 14h00 establishing a support base and awareness campaign to find Shanti again. We combed the retirement complex and she wasn’t there; we visited the Onrus Veterinary Clinic, Onrus coffee shop and pet shop; we went to connect with the wonderful Hermanus Animal Welfare Society (HAWS) and gave an interview to The Village NEWS newspaper who kindly put up a post that very day and published an article the next day.
After all the PR and networking, we took a much-needed cup of coffee. There, in a quiet room, the reality hit us, the pain. We embraced, had a good cry, and prayed. We committed to try our best, balancing the needs of our own animals in Cape Town, our families and, in my case, my work (as I started teaching on Monday and have a few freelance jobs on the go).
I did an extensive update on Facebook for all our wonderful supporters on the 13th and wrote: “The most difficult part of writing this update is the sadness (I left anger out of my system yesterday) mixed with hope. May God help us and Shanti again. May Shanti, this brave and amazingly wise cat, who touched so many lives, be found again, may she be alive, warm and safe”.
On the Sunday, the 16th of July, after careful consideration of Deer Heart Connection’s latest reading, we recognised that the initial anger and pain we all felt was affecting Shanti in a negative way – animals are very perceptive and receptive. So, I did a plea on our Facebook group that we all needed to go back to what helped us so much when she was lost at Cape Town airport: to surround her again with love and prayers, with trust that she’d again keep herself safe, warm and would find food. Bev and I had fully embraced this.
Three days later, Shanti was found! The awareness campaign had paid off – Tillie van Dyk recognised Shanti when she saw her in her garden and agreed to set up a feeding station. Two days later, she saw her again and called Sharon Stevens. Sharon did very well by approaching Shanti in a calm way, full of trust, and staying in the garden for a long time talking to her until she was ready to just walk into the cat carrier and go home – just so beautiful.
Supporter Meryl Smith recalls, “Today, I took more food and bowls for Tillie and left them at her door. A couple of hours later she sent a voice note saying Shanti was there. She called Sharon who came and sat calmly with Shanti, talking with her and stroking her for a long time. I asked Tillie to put out her cat carrier, which she did. Sharon fetched the carrier and Shanti calmly went in. Sharon took her home with Tillie walking along.”
Finding Shanti again was a true team effort. And isn’t Shanti an amazing wise cat? She truly owns her name! She’s the embodiment of inner peace and, as Albè said, “A brave little cat that brought many people together and proved to everyone that you can survive the harshest conditions.”
PS: Caroline Busby Alleson donated an Airtag to help track Shanti if she gets out again. Shanti’s become a therapy cat and is giving and getting lots of love from both Peet and Marie (the older couple whom Sharon looks after). They’re enjoying her so much. Peet loves to throw a ball for her and they both have lots of fun.
For more information about Foster Furry Rescue, follow them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/fosterfurryrescue/ or visit https://www.fosterfurryrescue.org.
