Army officer's dog lost by Delta turns up dead

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By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nala, the 8-year-old German shepherd that escaped from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport three days before Christmas, was found dead Saturday by a road crew alongside I-75.

Family photo Nala was last seen Dec. 22 at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Delta loses Army officer's dog

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Delta Air Lines, which was transporting the dog from San Diego to its new home in Germany when Nala escaped, confirmed the discovery, saying in a statement that the dog apparently was hit by a car. A microchip implant helped identify the shepherd. A Delta spokeswoman said the airline will donate $1,000 to Atlanta Pet Rescue in Nala's memory.

Alisa Miller postponed her move overseas -- where she planned to spend Christmas with her husband, Brian, a U.S. Army officer recently stationed in Frankfurt -- to come to Atlanta in hopes of finding Nala. But two days of looking turned up no sign of her beloved pooch, and Miller finally departed for Germany on Dec. 30.

Canine-loving volunteers continued the search, and there was reason to be optimistic, as Delta had reported a few sightings of Nala near the airport.

"It's been devastating," Alisa Miller told the AJC last week. "[Nala's] very special to us."

Meanwhile, another Army family stationed in Germany has relayed their own nightmare story to the AJC, saying one of their dogs died two months ago while on a Delta flight from Stuttgart to Seattle.

"We were notified after the first flight, into Atlanta, that [6-year-old English bulldog] Guinness didn't survive, when he had made the flight a year and a half earlier," Michelle Reid told the AJC. "The next day, they put [Shih Tzu] Lola on two wrong flights, making her fly over 12 hours and on four different flights alone in cargo.

Reid said they are awaiting necropsy results to determine what killed Guinness.

"We are demanding that Delta take responsibility for their actions and educate and inform their customers so no other family has to go through what we have," she said.

Two other incidents involving Delta and pets attracted notice in 2010. In May, a Canadian college student was told his dachshund and Jack Russell terrier mix escaped from his crate at the Mexico City airport. One month later, the carrier misplaced an 8-month-old puppy, sending him to San Jose, Calif., instead of home to Portland, Maine.