OT: Cat Cargo

[paredown]

Originally Posted by CDollarsign

I drove two cats from St. Louis to Cincinnati for a move. The vet gave us something to 'calm' them. One was knocked out and the other had an adverse reaction and went nuts the whole time. Never again.

Accepted wisdom these days seems to be 'don't sedate cats'--they will tend to go "catatonic" on their own when the stress levels get to high.

We've moved ours more times than I can count--the easiest of course was one time when they got to fly on the corporate jet, and were roaming around the cabin and sitting in the swivel chairs--you could see the thought balloons above their head--'I'm not sure I'm liking this...' but they did OK. One of ours developed a real antipathy to loud noises that sounded anything like an airplane after the flight to London from Seattle though--anything from leaf blowers to Brooklyn traffic noises upset him from then on.

Two stories--first, flying through Heathrow--post-911, but before they had efficient scanners, I had to go down into the bowels of the baggage facility with three cats in cages, and take each one out and hold them (in the midst of industrial-level din) while the cages were put through the scanners empty. It took all of my cat-foo to get them out, cuddle/clamp them, thinking the whole time that if they got away, that would be it.

The second was less stressful--but pretty funny. We had to get the three cats back on a flight to Chicago from North West Arkansas (NWA) and was flatly told by multiple people that there were no planes on that route that could hold three cages--this despite having flown there with--you guessed it--three cats in cages.

Finally someone said--'Oh you have to talk to Frank' (head of the luggage loading/ground crew) and I coordinated my flight with him, based on his hands-on experience of what could be stuffed into which small plane. And yes, three cats in cages did fit--if you got the right guy and the right plane. (Of course then I had to pick them up in Chicago and make a connection for Germany which was another nightmare...)

[OperaLover]

My wife drove up to Seattle from LA with two cats. One meowed the entire time and roamed the car. The other one went down into the footwell on passenger side, hunkered down and did not move. ha ha! glad your kitty made it safe!

[weightshift]

We did something similar a decade ago when we moved from Chicago to SF. Though, we opted to have my wife and a friend drive with our Boxer dog cross-country, while aforementioned friend's husband and I flew with our two cats in cabin. It was much easier that way and allowed us to pet the cats whilst they were under the seats in front of us and keep an eye on them of course.

Given some of the horror stories I've heard about pets in cargo, we avoided it at all costs, and I thought the same as others when I got to the part about your cat not "making it."

Glad it worked out, albeit costly. In our situation, it cost more given that it was myself and my friend's flights from ORD-SFO and the cost of the cats in the cabin ($100 extra each), but the peace of mind and knowing that they were close to me and could see me was worth it.