Couple reunited with rescue kittens after airliner ordeal

A newlywed couple who married in Greece said they feared the worst when three kittens they had rescued from Crete went missing after being left in the hold of an aeroplane.

- Hannah Al-Othman

The couple first travelled to the island in 2023, when they found the mother cat, who "had a very distinctive bulging eye that needed to be removed", Bethany Mulcahy-Stephenson, a veterinary nurse, said.

When the couple returned to Crete for their wedding in May, they went to look for the cat, whom they had named Abba, and found her with four kittens and pregnant again. Two kittens had eye infections and one was blind. The couple later named them Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Frida.

Mulcahy-Stephenson, 34, and her husband, Adam, 39, contacted a local rescuer, who said she could take in the kittens temporarily, but they would have to find homes for them.