Hartsfield Jackson Airport
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport shared a photo of Maia, the dog that went missing there three weeks ago and was found safe on Saturday.
CNN –
After nearly a month of heartache and fear, a dog owner can finally rest after her missing dog was found safe at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta on Saturday, airport officials said.
Maia, Delta Air Lines passenger Paula Rodriguez’s six-year-old dog, got lost in August at the airport, considered the world’s busiest.
According to a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the airport’s operations team found Maia hidden near the northern cargo facilities. “Tired but apparently in good health, she was taken to a veterinarian and is expected to return home soon.” airport officials said.
On August 18, Rodriguez and Maia embarked on a trip from their home in the Dominican Republic to California for a two-week vacation.
However, when they arrived in Atlanta for a layover, Rodriguez was informed by Border Patrol personnel that her tourist visa did not meet the required requirements. They canceled her visa and told her she had to return home on the next flight, Rodriguez previously told CNN.
With the next flight to Punta Cana scheduled for the next day, Rodriguez was faced with the troubling reality of spending the night alone in a detention center, separated from her beloved canine companion.
“They called a Delta agent who took Maia away from me,” Rodriguez told CNN.
The next day, Rodriguez arrived at the gate of her flight early and eagerly awaited her reunion with Maia. To her dismay, Maia never arrived.
Since Rodriguez couldn’t stay in the United States for more than 24 hours without a visa, she had no choice but to board her flight to Punta Cana without Maia, an experience that she said caused a panic attack on her journey home.
Paula Rodríguez
Paula Rodriguez poses with her dog, Maia, in a photo taken just before her loss.
“Anyone who knows me knows what she means to me,” Rodriguez said of her beloved pet. “I don’t go anywhere without her. She is so well behaved that I literally take her to restaurants everywhere. She is my partner in everything.”
Two days after Maia’s disappearance, a Delta representative contacted Rodriguez to share unfortunate news. “He said she was being transported on the runway (to the plane) and the staff opened her cage and she escaped into the middle of the runway,” Rodriguez told CNN.
Despite Rodriguez’s tireless calls to Delta for updates, weeks went by without him receiving any new information.
A Delta spokesperson previously said in a statement to CNN: “Delta teams have been working to locate this pet and reunite it with the customer, and we remain in contact with the customer to provide updates.” The Delta people feel “We are deeply concerned about the customer and the dog and we are committed to ongoing search efforts and working closely with the City of Atlanta Department of Aviation and other stakeholders.”
After her tourist visa was canceled, Rodriguez sent her mother to Atlanta to join the search effort at the vast 4,000-acre Hartsfield-Jackson Airport site.
Rodriguez shared the agonizing toll that Maia’s disappearance took, describing her experience as “living a nightmare,” she previously told CNN.
Her worst fears disappeared Saturday when Atlanta airport officials announced Maia’s discovery three weeks after her loss.
CNN has contacted Delta Air Lines regarding the circumstances of Maia’s escape.