Any of you who have read the “Norton” books — “The Cat Who Went to Paris”, “A Cat Abroad”, and “The Cat Who’ll Live Forever” (the trilogy is available through Amazon’s used books program) have probably harbored — even if for the briefest of moments — a fantasy of being able to take your cherished feline on your world travels.
And a split second later, the thunder clap of reality jolts you from your reverie, as you realize that this would involve a flight of ten or more hours in length, during which either the said cherished feline is screaming from his carrier, or you are downing scotch after scotch to allay your fears about his well-being while he is stashed in the cargo hold.
I couldn’t do the cargo hold thing. I know that it is commonly done and many animals are safely shipped cross-country by that method, but I would worry of how terrifying it might be for the cats — especially for sheltered indoor cats. A ride in the cabin would be no picnic, either. In my family, Mao (the very vocal Siamese) would be braying like a donkey in his I’m-being-tortured-somebody-call-PETA voice; Rocky (under normal circumstances, a pretty quiet cat) would yowl himself hoarse; Tripper would be rockin’ the carrier like a Mexican Jumping Bean (actually, he’s too big to fit in an underseat carrier so the point is moot); Skeezix would be fairly quiet, but when it came time to poop (which he does frequently), the stench would clear the cabin and he would likely projectile-squirt the contents of his bowels on anything and anybody within a five-foot radius. The TSA would subsequently ban “loaded cats” on planes.
And that is why today I salute Snuzzy (whom most of you know from Snuzzy.com), the penultimate Cat Guy, who is today flying from San Francisco to Sweden to bring his cat-buddy Tailer (that’s him on the right) home to live with him. Snuzzy recently relocated from Sweden, and now that he’s settled in after the initial move, it’s time to go back and retriever Tailer. He’ll do the whole roundtrip this weekend, and the return trip will involve about 20 hours of air travel with cat in tow. Yes, you read that right. He’s flying to Sweden and back over a weekend, solely to ensure that Tailer not be subjected to travel in the cargo hold. (After all, we all saw what happened to that Siamese in Snakes on a Plane, right?)
Snuzzy is going to videotape this adventure, and has consulted with Catster Vetblogger Eric Barchus DVM for tips and tricks on how to accomplish the feat. Check out Part 1 of the video series here. If you’ve ever contemplated air travel with your cat, this promises to be a must-see. And, don’t forget to enter your guess of how many cocktails Snuzzy will need to buy for his fellow air travelers in the comments field of this post.
Snuzzy will have periodic WIFI airport access to see comments left for him, so please drop by Snuzzytown if only to leave a comment saying, “Dude, you rock.” Because Snuzzy really really really rocks.
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