Collegian | Olivia Hajicek
One of Hillsdale Municipal Airport’s employees lives in the building and sometimes greets flyers by coming out from under the chairs in the terminal building. “Airport Lucy,” as she’s been nicknamed, is a cat.
Some of her primary duties include warding off mice and making people happy.
“I’d never seen her kill a mouse until this Christmas,” Airport Manager Ginger Moore said. “That was my Christmas present, to let me know she was doing her job.”
Moore describes Lucy as a “foodaholic,” but when she tries to call Lucy with a treat, Lucy doesn’t come. She is distracted by the attention she is receiving.
“One time I had a guy, he had an engine problem. His engine quit, and he made it to the runway, and then he had to push his airplane off the runway. It was at night, and it was a weekend too, so we weren’t here,” Moore said, “and he said it was the best feeling in the world when the cat greeted him and just sat in his lap and comforted him.”
Moore says Lucy has lots of fans. People take pictures with her, bring her gifts, and fly in just to visit her.
“I’m hoping when I retire to make children’s books called ‘The Adventures of Airport Lucy’, where she stows away on airplanes to unknown destinations, and she learns about geography and different cultures,” Moore says.
A painting of a green-eyed black cat in full flight gear hangs next to the counter. Moore says that is what the cover of her children’s books will look like.
“I did make a painting up here of Lucy in her outfit,” Moore said. “She’s an aviatrix.”
Stenciled beside Lucy are the letters J-Y-M—or Juliet-Yankee-Mike—the three-letter identifier for Hillsdale Municipal Airport. Pilots use a phonetic alphabet, Moore explained, so people on the other end can distinguish the letters.
No formal art study went into Moore’s paintings, several of which are hung around the room. Moore relies on talent, practice, and, in many cases, odd small parts of airplanes.
It was in search of airplane parts for her paintings that Moore met Monico Lopez, who is a mechanic at the airport. Moore says Lucy often joins Lopez and his wife Letitia in the hangar.
“I call her ‘Lucy-du;’ She calls her ‘Lulu,’” Monico Lopez says. “She likes to come out to the shop and lay on the parts and lay on the coats and just chill out.”
Other times, Airport Lucy is more adventurous and has been known to hide in planes and cars as well as in the model plane display case below the counter, which Moore says they call the “cat aquarium.”
“She’s definitely the life of the party,” Line Manager Mitchell Lockwood said.