Travelling With My Cat

Last month on November 2, I flew back to Santa Barbara from southwest Louisiana.  While down on the bayous, I was busy with several projects.  After the big major hurricanes last year, our animal shelters and pounds were full.  I took in many cats and had them fixed.  They are taken care of by a volunteer, my precious friend, Lesha,  who comes to mama's house twice a day. She loves my cats unconditionally and cares for them until I return in the summer. 

 The animal control officer knows how full the pound is and often will track me down and ask if I'll take an injured kitten or an older cat.  They put them down right away and thankfully, he's sympathetic.  He called me one day and asked if I'd take a kitten whose paws had been severely burned.  Yes, I took it in and soaked its little feet and did all the things one does to cure burnt paws.    Naturally, I fell madly in love with this little all-black kitten. She was so sweet and slept on my chest each and every night.  I call her Beanie because she resembled a little black bean.  Back in Santa Barbara, we already have a plethora of animals.  All of these animals came from either Louisiana or were rescued after a couple of natural disasters here in California.  I really hated to ask my husband if I could bring back another one.  However, once I sent a picture of her, he said it was fine.  (I certainly wasn't going to take no for an answer anyway).

I made my reservations to fly home with my precious new kitten who was by now about three months old.  She was very mellow but Dr. Adrienne, the vet suggested that I take along some tranquilizers just in case she needed to calm down.  I ordered a wonderful pet bag from a place in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  It was very light-weight and easy to carry and had little pockets for Beanie's papers.  Yes, she got all her shots and a health certificate.  I decided to fly from Lafayette to Dallas and then directly to Santa Barbara.  This is a typical route for me and usually all works out very well.  I paid an extra $80 to fly Beanie one way.  A couple of girlfriends took me to the airport and helped me haul my luggage.  One of them said, I think this is way too heavy.  She was right but they allowed the luggage on and I paid a little extra.  I was there in plenty of time and had a beer and bag of potato chips in the tiny restaurant.  I had Beanie right next to me and she was quiet as could be.  Then we went into the security section.  I had to take out my computer, shoes, hat, jacket and carry Beanie through security in my arms.  She was just fine.  I was glad that I had a direct flight and this would be the last time through security.

 We sat in the tiny puddle jumper for quite a while and then the pilot announced that the airplane had more fuel than usual and also there was some heavy luggage in the plane.  They would have to ask two folks to get off the plane.  I've given up my seat before to folks who have to be somewhere.  This time, I'm glad two others gave theirs up.  However, we were quite late in leaving.  This bothered me a bit as I only had a forty-five minute lay-over in Dallas.  I usually always try to get at least an hour and a half lay-over in Dallas.  It's a big airport and I'm aware of the many uncertainties of travelling.  As we approached Dallas, I kept looking at the time and realized we would be cutting it close but I could still make it.  As luck would have it, we had to wait longer than normal before the plane could park.  The attendant tried to make things easier by moving me up a few seats and asking someone to help me get my luggage down.  Everyone was quite helpful.  I just had to run for it. 

I got to my connecting flight five minutes too late.  The plane left without me.  Here I am in Dallas with no luggage and a little kitten.  I am a happy traveller and love adventure; however, my baby needed to eat and though I had a little moisture pad in the pet carrier, my Beanie is much too fastidious to even think of doing her business in it.  The airlines found a motel for me and gave me a food voucher.  After waiting an hour outside for a bus, I got to a Best Western in Dallas.  I was too tired to even mention the cat.  There was no restaurant but there was frozen foods that I could purchase.  I bought a chicken pot pie, some water and a toothbrush and lotion. 

I would have loved a cold one after all this but Beanie and I sat in the motel room and made the most of it.  She peed in the bathtub and I prayed that the chicken pot pie wouldn't affect her little system.  She's always only eaten Purina Kitten Chow.  The next morning at 4, we awoke and went to the airport.  Our flight went from Dallas to Los Angeles.  I had avoided Los Angeles airport for years.  However, this was the only flight I could get.  This meant going through a long line of security in Dallas.  Once again, I had to take off the shoes, computer and jacket and hold Beanie in  my arms.  It was a miracle that she seemed to understand my plight.  She was extremely sweet despite the noise and all the people.  I put her little carrier under the seat in front of me. We had a great flight.  Beanie sat in my lap during most of the flight until an attendant asked me to put her back in her carrier.  At this point, Beanie had gotten a tad too spoiled and began her whining so I gave her a tiny little sliver of the tranquilizer.  It worked and by the time I landed in Los Angeles and had a short layover, she was quite calm.

Finally, that night we arrived in Santa Barbara and she joined the rest of the family.  It has been over a month and she has added loads of smiles to all of us here.  Have you ever travelled with a rescued animal.  I'd love to hear about it.  Salud!