Beloved cat on the loose at JFK weeks after escaping during holiday chaos

The cat’s out of the (carry-on) bag.

A beloved black-and-white feline has been on the loose at John F. Kennedy Airport for nearly a month after making an escape during the holiday chaos — and time is running out to save her.

Tazzy’s heartbroken owner must move out of her Queens house by the end of the month, leaving her frantic and worried about how she’ll be able to continue searching for the sorely-missed kitty if she doesn’t turn up soon.

“This is the saddest thing in my life. I’m telling you, that’s ever happened to me,” Ellen Russell, of Flushing, told The Post Tuesday.

“She’s my heart. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep looking.”

The tragedy unfolded on Dec. 30 when Delta Airlines abruptly canceled Russell’s 2 p.m. flight to Fort Myers, Florida because no pilot was available to fly the plane — despite it being loaded with luggage and passengers waiting at the gate.

After waiting several hours to get her bags back, Russell finally left the airport and was outside Terminal 4 planning to head back to Flushing when the wily cat somehow opened the zipper to the carrier without her noticing.

“With the horns and the whistles and everything, she just jumped … She just ran,” Russell recalled.

Since then, Russell has been at the international airport three to four times every week with cat treats in hand, desperately searching for Tazzie Lee.

With the help of cat trapper John Debacker and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Russell has placed traps and cameras at both pre- and post-security locations throughout the airport — including out on the tarmac, which is where they suspect the skittish cat is hiding out because “she doesn’t like people at all.”

The pair have spotted dozens of other cats, which Russell has shared pictures of online in hopes of returning any missing pets to their grieving owners, but none so far have been claimed.

Russell theorizes Tazzie is surviving in the wild by only emerging in the night to scavenge for food.

Tazzie has been riddled with anxiety ever since Russell rescued her as a kitten four years ago — naming her after the Looney Tunes’ Tasmanian Devil’s feverish temper, which she quickly shed once she found safety in Russell’s home.

“She was just my baby. We slept together every night. It was just an incredible bond we had,” Russell said, adding that she is in the process of writing a children’s book about a rescue cat heavily influenced by Tazzie’s story.

Russell’s other cat, Curious, is also grieving Tazzie’s absence, telling The Post: “They’re always together, those two. They sleep with me every night, and now Curious cries every night.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is considering deploying a search dog to help track down Tazzie, since drones are not permitted in the airspace, according to Russell.

Russell is becoming increasingly stressed over the heartbreaking separation as the final days in her Flushing home draw near — she’s closing on the sale of her new home at the end of the month and was in the process of moving Tazzie to Fort Myers when she escaped.

“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t do anything … I blame myself, I should have done something. I didn’t check [the zipper]. I just assumed everything was okay,” the devastated pet owner said.

Russell said she places the blame on Delta, vowing to never fly the airline again.

“If we just got on that flight, it would have never happened. Who has a plane packed full of people and luggage and comes back and says, ‘I don’t have a pilot?’”

Delta declined to comment on the allegations.

Russell is offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who can help bring Tazzie home, and is considering hiring high school students to post flyers in the neighborhoods that border JFK.

“It’s just God awful. I just want to get her back,” said Russell.