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It was a very hectic and stressful day. We had driven down last night from Plymouth to Nashua and stayed at my parents' house so we weren't driving this morning.
We got up early and headed over to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quantumswordsmn's and chenoachem's old apartment to pick up the cats and bring them to the vet to get certified to fly. kuantum_fizax was there and told us the movers had left stuff behind and were supposed to be coming back today but hadn't arrived at the promised time. Apparently the movers had left the stuff behind a couple days ago: the same day I had called chenoachem about a backup plan should the airline decide to not let the cats fly. It explained why I was lambasted when I called.
The cats were actually quite amicable about getting into the carriers, but once in were very vocal about wanting out. We gathered them in the car and headed to the vet's office. We got there about half an hour early. It turned out we were supposed to bring stool samples from each cat, but we weren't aware of this. We were also told that we would not get the papers we needed for them to fly without these samples. Already it was looking like my fears were coming to pass and the cats would not be able to fly. Already I could envision my pending eviction when I showed up at my apartment with three cats and no definite plan to get them where they belonged.
Fortunately the vet was very cooperative and managed to get stool samples while we were there. I let Kathy do all the handling of the cats with the vet since she's far more experienced with cats. They all checked out okay, except one of the cats was due for a couple of shots. Poor Louise. She had already been through getting wrabgled into a carrier, driven a couple towns away, having a stool forced out of her somehow (I dare not imagine) and now shots. And she still had more driving, wrangling and flying to go.
We got the cats back to their old apartment and let them out to stretch and calm down.kuantum_fizax's Dad and brother had arrived to take him for the hike he was no longer able to go for since he was stuck waiting for the movers. So Kathy and I stuck around for a bit and chatted since it would be the last time in a while before we would see kuantum_fizax. He's moving to Arizona to attend school, as well.
We ended up going to my parents' house for lunch and spending some time with my family before we left. It was pretty much the usual stuff: sitting around with no one really saying much. Lunch was good, though, and then we went back to the cats to feed them and gather them up for the trip. Selina was quite the pig and we eventually had to shut he other two cats out on the porch so they could actually eat their food. Once all the cats had finished eating, we wrangled them up once again (this time not as amicably) and gathered them in the car. We brought them over to my parents' house, packed the luggage into my Mom's car and left for Logan.
The cats were more fearful and sickened on the drive than they were on the flight! My Dad drives like a maniac. Of course, on Massachusetts parts of Interstates everyone seems to drive like maniacs, but my Dad seemed to be the king of the maniac drivers. Regardless, we arrived at Logan safe and sound with cats who were very shaken, had been sick and were foaming at the mouth. Not pretty. We thanked my parents' and went to check in at United.
What a fiasco that proved to be!quantumswordsmn and chenoachem gave us cash to pay for the vet visit and the cats' flight. It turned out to be just barely over what was needed. They insisted we get travellers cheques which seemed to make sense. United said they took them, but in the end they had to go cash them from petty cash and pay our cat tickets from the cash. In the process I had written them one cheque that was out of sequence from the others and they didn't take it because of that fact. So I was stuck with a cheque that was useless because it was signed and made out to Unted Airlines. It also came to pass that our one suitcase was overweight so we were charged extra. Once this was resolved, we got hung up even further at the security checkpoint because we had to take the cats out of the carriers so they could inspect the carriers. While we had them out, we figured it was the least we could do for the cats to clean them up.
We almost missed our flight. Everyone had been boarded by this point and they were calling for us to board the plane immediately. Kathy had stuffed the boarding passes in her bag and in the process the receipt for the cats had fallen out. So I thought we had everything we were given an the ground crew insisted we needed a receipt for the cats or they weren't flying. Eventually Kathy found the receipt in her bag and on we went.
We thought everything was cool until we tried to sit. At this point I was covered in cat vomit and piss from taking them out of the carriers to clean them, so I stank. And the guy I was supposed to sit next to declared he was allergic to cats and I was not sitting next to him. There was a nice gentleman in the back who was willing to switch seats with me, except the lady next to him also declared she was allergic to cats and I would not be sitting next to her. I got the flight crew involved and they essentially told the first guy that I had paid for the cats to fly and if he was unhappy about being next to them he would have to leave the plane, not me. It all got resolved, though, when the girl next to Kathy agreed to swap seats so we got to sit next to each other and take the cats. A few people around us were quite friendly and rallied in our defense with approving and comforting statements, which were somewhat helpful in soothing the flight.
Kathy had never flown before. Aside from feeling a bit queesy she did alright. The cats were amazingly quiet, too. They only got vocal on the landing in Denver and the takeoff from Denver. On the flight to Denver (a four-hour flight) we got to watch the movie "Sahara." It was okay. It had some funny moments and seemed to be very much of the same ilk as Indiana Jones or The Mummy, only not quite as cool. Toward the end of the flight I listened to the air traffic control audio and it brought back memories of Civil Air Patrol.
In Denver we realized we were quite hungry, having only eaten a small breakfast and a small lunch and it now getting to be later in the evening. We used one of the cheques left over to feed ourselves. It wasn't much, just a couple slices of pizza each from Domino's. Meanwhile our flight from Dnver to Albuquerque was running late. When I had returned to Kathy from getting the food, I found another passenger on the flight to ABQ had sat down and was very interested in the cats. We had a pleasant conversation before boarding the plane. We made sure to get on early this time and figured if worse came to worse, we could be the jerks this time and say, "sorry, we were here first and we have the cats!"
Fortunately things were a lot more friendly this time around and the flight went well. It was much shorter.
We arrived at ABQ, met up withquantumswordsmn and chenoachem, picked up our one overweight suitcase and headed out to get food and crash for the night. My first order of busines was to get out of the pukey, pissed-on clothes and smell a little less vile. By this time the restaurant at the hotel had closed. chenoachem had already eaten so she could stick around and tend to the cats. quantumswordsmn, Kathy and I headed to Wendy's, the only place we kknew in the area that was open, and got some food. Then we headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was good to finally have the cats where they belonged and have nothing to worry about.
Sleep is good.
We got up early and headed over to
quantumswordsmn's and chenoachem's old apartment to pick up the cats and bring them to the vet to get certified to fly. kuantum_fizax was there and told us the movers had left stuff behind and were supposed to be coming back today but hadn't arrived at the promised time. Apparently the movers had left the stuff behind a couple days ago: the same day I had called chenoachem about a backup plan should the airline decide to not let the cats fly. It explained why I was lambasted when I called.The cats were actually quite amicable about getting into the carriers, but once in were very vocal about wanting out. We gathered them in the car and headed to the vet's office. We got there about half an hour early. It turned out we were supposed to bring stool samples from each cat, but we weren't aware of this. We were also told that we would not get the papers we needed for them to fly without these samples. Already it was looking like my fears were coming to pass and the cats would not be able to fly. Already I could envision my pending eviction when I showed up at my apartment with three cats and no definite plan to get them where they belonged.
Fortunately the vet was very cooperative and managed to get stool samples while we were there. I let Kathy do all the handling of the cats with the vet since she's far more experienced with cats. They all checked out okay, except one of the cats was due for a couple of shots. Poor Louise. She had already been through getting wrabgled into a carrier, driven a couple towns away, having a stool forced out of her somehow (I dare not imagine) and now shots. And she still had more driving, wrangling and flying to go.
We got the cats back to their old apartment and let them out to stretch and calm down.
kuantum_fizax's Dad and brother had arrived to take him for the hike he was no longer able to go for since he was stuck waiting for the movers. So Kathy and I stuck around for a bit and chatted since it would be the last time in a while before we would see kuantum_fizax. He's moving to Arizona to attend school, as well.We ended up going to my parents' house for lunch and spending some time with my family before we left. It was pretty much the usual stuff: sitting around with no one really saying much. Lunch was good, though, and then we went back to the cats to feed them and gather them up for the trip. Selina was quite the pig and we eventually had to shut he other two cats out on the porch so they could actually eat their food. Once all the cats had finished eating, we wrangled them up once again (this time not as amicably) and gathered them in the car. We brought them over to my parents' house, packed the luggage into my Mom's car and left for Logan.
The cats were more fearful and sickened on the drive than they were on the flight! My Dad drives like a maniac. Of course, on Massachusetts parts of Interstates everyone seems to drive like maniacs, but my Dad seemed to be the king of the maniac drivers. Regardless, we arrived at Logan safe and sound with cats who were very shaken, had been sick and were foaming at the mouth. Not pretty. We thanked my parents' and went to check in at United.
What a fiasco that proved to be!
quantumswordsmn and chenoachem gave us cash to pay for the vet visit and the cats' flight. It turned out to be just barely over what was needed. They insisted we get travellers cheques which seemed to make sense. United said they took them, but in the end they had to go cash them from petty cash and pay our cat tickets from the cash. In the process I had written them one cheque that was out of sequence from the others and they didn't take it because of that fact. So I was stuck with a cheque that was useless because it was signed and made out to Unted Airlines. It also came to pass that our one suitcase was overweight so we were charged extra. Once this was resolved, we got hung up even further at the security checkpoint because we had to take the cats out of the carriers so they could inspect the carriers. While we had them out, we figured it was the least we could do for the cats to clean them up.We almost missed our flight. Everyone had been boarded by this point and they were calling for us to board the plane immediately. Kathy had stuffed the boarding passes in her bag and in the process the receipt for the cats had fallen out. So I thought we had everything we were given an the ground crew insisted we needed a receipt for the cats or they weren't flying. Eventually Kathy found the receipt in her bag and on we went.
We thought everything was cool until we tried to sit. At this point I was covered in cat vomit and piss from taking them out of the carriers to clean them, so I stank. And the guy I was supposed to sit next to declared he was allergic to cats and I was not sitting next to him. There was a nice gentleman in the back who was willing to switch seats with me, except the lady next to him also declared she was allergic to cats and I would not be sitting next to her. I got the flight crew involved and they essentially told the first guy that I had paid for the cats to fly and if he was unhappy about being next to them he would have to leave the plane, not me. It all got resolved, though, when the girl next to Kathy agreed to swap seats so we got to sit next to each other and take the cats. A few people around us were quite friendly and rallied in our defense with approving and comforting statements, which were somewhat helpful in soothing the flight.
Kathy had never flown before. Aside from feeling a bit queesy she did alright. The cats were amazingly quiet, too. They only got vocal on the landing in Denver and the takeoff from Denver. On the flight to Denver (a four-hour flight) we got to watch the movie "Sahara." It was okay. It had some funny moments and seemed to be very much of the same ilk as Indiana Jones or The Mummy, only not quite as cool. Toward the end of the flight I listened to the air traffic control audio and it brought back memories of Civil Air Patrol.
In Denver we realized we were quite hungry, having only eaten a small breakfast and a small lunch and it now getting to be later in the evening. We used one of the cheques left over to feed ourselves. It wasn't much, just a couple slices of pizza each from Domino's. Meanwhile our flight from Dnver to Albuquerque was running late. When I had returned to Kathy from getting the food, I found another passenger on the flight to ABQ had sat down and was very interested in the cats. We had a pleasant conversation before boarding the plane. We made sure to get on early this time and figured if worse came to worse, we could be the jerks this time and say, "sorry, we were here first and we have the cats!"
Fortunately things were a lot more friendly this time around and the flight went well. It was much shorter.
We arrived at ABQ, met up with
quantumswordsmn and chenoachem, picked up our one overweight suitcase and headed out to get food and crash for the night. My first order of busines was to get out of the pukey, pissed-on clothes and smell a little less vile. By this time the restaurant at the hotel had closed. chenoachem had already eaten so she could stick around and tend to the cats. quantumswordsmn, Kathy and I headed to Wendy's, the only place we kknew in the area that was open, and got some food. Then we headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was good to finally have the cats where they belonged and have nothing to worry about.Sleep is good.
