The plane with pets

Packing up the house was relatively painless, and it was a rather lovely experience having people do all the hard lifting. Our little Brooklyn apartment looked like someone else's when we left. One last sweep through, and it was time to close the door on our life there.

I thought I should write a post on how to travel with pets. Or how to travel cross country with pets. 2 pets: one dog, one cat. Plus one husband.

So the key thing to remember is bag size. My cat was a starving little rescue kitten who never really realized his full potential of being 'cat' sized. He's remained kitten like, so he fit perfectly in the bag we got. This would have been ok if we didn't have to take him out of the bag to go through security.

I had tricked him into a harness earlier by offering treats and capturing him. Then I put on a leash. He wasn't really having any of it and as I held him close he flipped out, trashing, scratching my arms and lacerating my left wrist. The spectacle was regarded with amusement by the bored TSA staff, who found it funny. I purell-ed my arms from finger tip to arm pit.

Achilles, who never really likes to be told what to do, jumped back into his bag and stuck his head in the corner, in total denial of the whole incident. He spent the rest of the journey counting his lucky stars tucked safely under the seat in front of me.

Now the dog was fine. Dexter tolerates being in his bag for hours - a trick that comes in very handy when traveling on the subway in New York, or say, a long brunch with friends. So he sauntered through the airport without a care in the world. 2 hours into the flight, however, he was bored and wanted out. He started cartwheeling the bag around our feet and became a bit of a problem. So we took him out and he sat on my lap for the rest of the flight.

This is how I developed lack of feeling in my legs for the next 24 hours, and why I walked like a cowboy for sometime afterwards.

As for the Husband? Well he was happily watching his iPad and required no other special consideration.

We arrived in PDX, stiff, but excited for our new adventure together!

Coming up next ... Life in Corporate Housing.