Psychic and investigators: Search for missing cat captivates Bolivia

Firefighters, aviation authorities and most recently ... an animal psychic have joined the Bolivian government's mission to help find Tito, a gray and white male tabby cat that went missing on a domestic flight last month.

The plight of Tito and its determined owner, Andrea Iturre, has captivated the nation.

Consumer Rights Minister Jorge Silva said last week that authorities had even called in a physic to try to make contact and locate the cat.

"Through her techniques, (the psychic) can communicate with Tito to find out where he is," Silva said in a radio interview. "We are exhausting all our resources to find Tito."

The cat went missing on Dec. 8, Iturre recounted on a social media post that went viral, after she was told by the airline the cat had to travel in the hold of plane flying from Tarija to Santa Cruz. When she landed, her pet was nowhere to be found.

On Dec. 12, Public Works Minister Edgar Montano announced a big state-led search effort.

"The cat likes tuna, so we have left out tuna," he told a news conference, adding he suspected the cat may have been roaming the original airport since the departure date.

Some animal lovers have criticised the airline, BoA, over the missing cat. BoA has said little publicly about the case so far and it did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on Friday.

Iturre called in a recent video for people to stay alert for signs of the cat, adding, "I have not stopped, and I will not stop, searching for him".