Show Dog That Escaped Crate on the Tarmac at Atlanta Airport Found, Reunited with Owners

Tuesday was Gayle’s lucky day. Saturday … not so much.

The 2-year-old American Staffodshire Terrier broke out of her crate on Saturday while being loaded into a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight to Amsterdam from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, CBS 46 reports.

The dog reportedly made it through security, but according to a statement from KLM, broke out of her cage during the cargo loading process, disappearing somewhere in the airport’s 4,700-acre span.

“KLM expresses its sincerest regret and is actively working with the Atlanta Airport to search for the dog,” a rep shared.

Gayle’s owners were already at home in the Netherlands; the pup, a show dog, had been at a competition in Kentucky and was heading home with her handler.

“I’ve never felt this distraught, utterly helpless and hopeless,” owner Floris van Essen told CBS 46 by phone. “She’s nothing but sweet but as you can imagine, a strange place, hard sounds, airplanes coming over, so she’s bound to be skittish and scared out of her mind.”

Though these situations often turn out tragically, on Tuesday, Gayle’s family got the good news: the dog was spotted in a thicket near the airfield that morning, and rescuers were able to humanely trap her, reuniting her with her owner later that day.

“Kudos to #ATL’s Ops team for its effort in bringing her back,” Atlanta airport staff wrote on Twitter, sharing photos of the happy pup.