After Air Canada lost her dog, one Ohio woman reached out to a news station in Sacramento to share her story.

Before Jutta Kulic's friend died of cancer, she asked her to find a home for her 2-year-old Italian greyhound Larry.

Kulic, a dog breeder by trade, made good on that promise, and was all set to fly Larry from San Francisco to his new family in Canada.

She placed Larry in a special zip-tied crate and booked a flight with Air Canada.

"And I very clearly instructed them never ever to open the door and let the dog out of that crate, unless he’s in a completely enclosed room," she recalled telling Air Canada.

But they did open the crate, ostensibly to take Larry out for a walk, and the dog ran away.

It's been five days since, and though Air Canada claims it is looking for Larry, there's been no sight of him and Kulic believes he may have been hit by a car.

But CBS Sacramento still wanted to know what exactly went wrong, so they reached out to the airline by email for answers. What they got back shocked them:

I think I would just ignore, it is local news doing a story on a lost dog. Their entire government is shut down and about to default and this is how the US media spends its time.

The station believes they were accidentally CC'd on a email sent by Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick to a coworker.

"Oh my God," Kulic said when shown the email. "I guess I wouldn’t expect anything different from a company that would allow something like this to happen."

Fitzpatrick eventually sent CBS13 a more formal response apologizing for the delay and insisting that an investigation into the escape was ongoing.

With regards to Fitzpatrick's not-for-publication remarks, Air Canada released the following statement:

Air Canada acknowledges inappropriate comments were made to a reporter’s followup questions regarding Larry. Air Canada has been providing the best available information to media on this matter. However, these comments do not refer to the search for Larry by Air Canada employees that is ongoing or our interest in returning him safely.

"I guess I’m the poster child now for Be Careful With Email," Fitzpatrick told the Toronto Star in a tone the paper described as "glum."

[screengrabs via CBS13]