Today was exhausting. Harley (my new mature kitty from the Humane Society of Tacoma) and I made the trek from Seattle to Dallas and it was a workout. Let's take it step by step, shall we?
1. After much deliberation, my mother and I go down and get Harley who we take home and confine him to my bedroom so that he is quarantined from the other 2 cats living in the house.
2. After feeling bad for my mature kitty I let him out and he promptly starts making friends with my mom's cat Vino and having a five day stand off with Berkeley. He also decided that under my mother's bed (which has an un-liftable mattress) was the place he wanted to hang out.
3. On day three I take Harley to the vet to get his certificate of health and prepare for our cross country trip. Although he'd already had his rabies booster, we didn't have the brand name so he was given a one year booster and I promptly started worrying that too much rabies was introduced into his little kitty system and he would be frothing at the mouth by the time we got him home. Simultaneously the hippie granola tree hugger vet lady says, "New research suggests against sedation for traveling animals." Uh . . . what?! How am I supposed to get this mature baby home?!
4. On my birthday my mom and I go to the hippie hut and pick up some "Happy Traveler" pills which are natural pills that help calm animals. They told us we should try it out and make sure it didn't hurt his tummy so nurse mamma shoved the horse pill down Harley's throat and he starts lazily wandering around the house.
5. On travel day, Harley is loaded into his cage, given a "Happy Traveler" pill and put in the car. Where he proceeded to cry all the way to the airport. Then my dear sweet mother helped me get him through security (do you know you have to remove the animal from his cage to go through security?! How how how can this be a good idea?!) and then helped Harley swallow another pill before leaving me to fend for myself. The cat did not like sitting in the airport although he was ok walking. When we finally got settled in the plane there was another kitty in our same row and a violently airsick girl in the seat behind me. Harley did great (although every half hour if he didn't move I though he was dead and had to wake him up) until the last 45 minutes of the flight, at which point he got pissed and wanted out of his cage. When we finally landed we made it back home in the 108 degree heat and cooled the apartment. He's now panting, giving me the evil eye, begging for lovin', and hissing at me all at the same time. Good times.
I don't know how people do this on a regular basis and if I ever move to Italy this is going to take some MAJOR planning.
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