The story of Jack the Cat, lost by American Airlines baggage handlers at JFK International Airport, continues to captivate public attention six weeks later--as evidenced mostly by tweeting, clicking the Like button on Facebook and commenting on Facebook. This is a guest post by a

I logged onto Facebook August 29th. There is an adorable little cat out there in cyber-land, called Willow. She has her own page because she’s “different”--she’s not everyone’s idea of a “normal cat.” Willow has a physical disability with a spunky, outgoing personality, which is showcased through the efforts of her family to show the world their version of a “normal” cat. Props to them. Willow commented on a news item--“omg! There’s a cat lost in the airport!” I clicked the link--what the heck, I thought, the noodles are still cooking--and began to read.

We need your help. Please--we have no way to do this alone. Our sheer frustration, worry and concern has brought us here to Facebook to share the story of Jack the Cat. The honest desperation just jumped off the screen as I scrolled. And didn’t click away. I was there on day two of the Facebook page, with just under 1,000 likes. Over the course of the next few days there were times I’d log in to see numbers doubling, tripling, and often it appeared people were caring and listening at the rate of one per a minute. I’d never seen anything like it.

Few people can sit down and write on Facebook something that propels strangers to care; act, or even keep reading. Maybe it was the writing, or the story, or the pure honesty of Karen (Jack's owner) and Mary Beth’s statements, who from the very beginning were overwhelmed by the love and support. Maybe we--the public--are so starved for truth and sincerity that we latched onto the story and vowed to stick with them until Jack was found.

And stick with them we did; for almost five weeks--until day 35 rolled around--until the ticker clicked 15,000 likes on September 29th. What was in this story, or group, or mission, that had people all over the globe joining in with encouragement, blessings, advice, suggestions and thoughts? In such a short period of time I’d seen comments from Brazil, the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, France, and the one that we needed a spanish-speaking person to translate and post underneath for us, the best wishes for the quick recovery of Jack the Cat.

HOW was it possible that this one little cat could draw this assembly of fans?

What is so special about a long-haired debonair cat who looks as if he could be in show business? How did 15,000 fans like his page in a little over a month? And who are these many people spending hours on emails, flyers, posting, phone calls, walking the streets, etc., for a cat that is not theirs?

Another photo of Jack.

I’ve been around the internet for a while; am familiar with websites, news blogs, social media. However, I never in a million years thought that an event happening the day after my 40th birthday in August would have me hooked; sucked in; addicted to watching a Facebook page. Was I--at my age--actually becoming a groupie?? Am I really following a fan site at all hours and even getting text updates sent to my phone?

Maybe it’s because we don’t get honesty a lot. Corporate biggies, mainstream advertising, media – they never give off the “We are really, truly sincere” vibe, do they? It’s sort of manipulative the way political news is fed to us; how we’re told to eat; where we should be shopping; what we should be driving. We all sort of watch the news with a cynical eye, right? So I’m betting that when something comes into our lives that looks real ... FEELS real ... appears genuine; maybe we just grab hold of that and hang on. Because the “rest” of the world is well, out to manipulate how we think and offer us only carefully-screened information, and deep down, I think we know that. And resent it.

Don't tweet us, we'll tweet you.

Had a flight delayed due to rainstorm Irene? Perhaps you experienced something like this! American Airlines,* AirTran, Continental and United did not respond to customer inquiries on Twitter during the influx of questions caused by the storm, according to New York-based customer service clearinghouse STELLAService. TL;DR press release: "If you were one of the unlucky airline passengers stranded due to Hurricane Irene, be thankful you weren’t flying on American Airlines."

According to the report:

American Airlines did not respond to any customer queries sent via Twitter and was slowest in answering customer calls, making customers wait on hold for an average of 1 hour 32 minutes and 39 seconds.
Delta responded to 100 percent of customer tweets, clocking an average response time of 14 minutes.
JetBlue also shined on Twitter, responding to 83.3 percent of tweets in an average of 11 minutes.
U.S. Airways ranked first when it comes to fastest customer support, answering customer calls in an average of 2 minutes and 38 seconds and responded to 16.7 percent of tweets

In other news, American Airlines also lost a passenger's cat.

More data from the survey:

Average call hold times of ten largest airlines during Hurricane Irene (hours:minutes:seconds)
U.S. Airways 0:02:38
Southwest Airlines: 0:08:10
Continental: 0:08:15
United Airlines: 0:12:04
Spirit Airlines: 0:24:07
JetBlue: 0:24:17
AirTran: 0:27:52
Frontier Airlines: 0:29:54
Delta Airlines: 0:33:43
American Airlines : 1:32:39

Average Twitter response times of ten largest airlines during Hurricane Irene (hours:minutes)

o Delta Airlines: 0:14; Responded to 100 percent of tweets
o Frontier Airlines: 4:04; Responded to 100 percent of tweets
o JetBlue: 0:11; Responded to 83.3 percent of tweets
o Southwest Airlines: 6:12; Responded to 83.3 percent of tweets
o Spirit Airlines: 1:10; Responded to 41.7 percent of tweets
o US Airways: 0:24; Responded to 16.7 percent of tweets
o AirTran: No response
o American Airlines: No response
o Continental: No response
o United Airlines: No response

Methodology:
The survey was conducted on Friday, August 26th. An average of eight phone calls were made to each airline from 9am ET to 6:30pm ET on Friday, August 26th. For the Twitter data, 12 tweets were directed to each airline between 12am ET to 12pm ET on Friday, August 26th.

UPDATE: On Wednesday, August 31st, American Airlines sent Betabeat the following statement disputing the accuracy of STELLAService's survey.

“We disagree with the findings of the study. We believe it is highly inaccurate and based on an insufficient sample size – eight calls and 12 tweets on average – that skewed results and does not represent reality. We handled more than 100,000 calls on Friday, and during the period in question our customers waited an average of 21 minutes – far less than alleged and in line with most of our peers. Our response time for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold customers averaged from 30 seconds to less than three minutes per call.  Of the 78 tweets directed to us from Thursday through Sunday, a significant number of which did not request action, we responded to 46 tweets either publicly or privately to assist customers, and we also sent four proactive tweets with travel information related to the storm. Each day, and especially in times of service disruption, we make responding to and informing our customers – whether through social or other traditional direct channels – our highest priority.”

UPDATE: STELLAService updated its study: "The tweets sent to American Airlines were sent to an account they deem to be inactive, so we have removed their Twitter findings and updated the above chart for that as well." American Airlines's response: “We disagree with the findings of the study. We believe it is highly inaccurate and based on an insufficient sample size – eight calls and 12 tweets on average – that that skewed results and does not represent reality. We handled more than 100,000 calls on Friday, and during the period in question our customers waited an average of 21 minutes – far less than alleged and in line with most of our peers. Our response time for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold customers averaged from 30 seconds to less than three minutes per call.  Of the 78 tweets directed to us from Thursday through Sunday, a significant number of which did not request action, we responded to 46 tweets either publicly or privately to assist customers, and we also sent four proactive tweets with travel information related to the storm. Each day, and especially in times of service disruption, we make responding to and informing our customers – whether through social or other traditional direct channels – our highest priority.”