Milsa Grant of New York holds her dog Lulu Madonna, as she waits to check-in at the Delta terminal at LaGuardia Airport in New York, in this Nov. 23, 2005, file photo. A half-million pets fly each year, according to statistics complied by the U.S. Department of Transportation. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh/FILE)
Do they get FRequent flier miles?
Our cats tolerate the trip to a vet, only a few minutes away. NO way could I imagine packing the furballs in a case like that.
When we moved to California in May 2000, our 2 cats flew with us in their soft side carriers which we put under the seats in front of us. It was HORRIFIC going through security though, I had my infant daughter in her carseat, and the two cats in their carriers. My husband was pegged to go around the corner for further checking (he’s from India but could pass for middle eastern) so that left me being told to take the baby out of the carseat and the two cats out of the carriers and send everything else through the x-ray machine. I nearly had a nervous breakdown and burst into tears not knowing what to do while a boatload of people were starting to back up behind me. THANK GOD for the kindness of strangers (angels I honestly believe!) who rushed to help me—one man took one cat, another took the other, and another broke down our stroller and sent it and our carry ons and the cat carriers and the carseat through the x-ray machine—my husband came around the corner about the time everything came out the other side of the x-ray belt.
The flight itself was uneventful, except Pebbles cried for most of it, but we were right next to the wings and the noise from that overpowered her. Poor little thing did pee all over herself though. Moose did great.
When we moved back to Texas in 2003, the airlines weren’t
allowing pets in the cabin any more, and I didn’t want to go through the hell of post-9/11 security with the cats, so we decided to drive back with the cats in the car. Had them in their carriers for the first few hours then decided to test them outside, put a disposable litter box in the back of the SUV, and fed and watered them whenever we made pit stops. They did GREAT! :-) Moose loved to stand up and look out the windows which caused many a double take, that’s for sure. Pebbles stretched out across the dashboard basking in the sunlight. Wouldn’t mind going on a family vacation like that in the future, LOL. :-)