California Dreamin'

For the last 2 days my mother and I have awakened from our slumber at a bright and early 6AM. Well, that's sleeping late, if we were on the East Coast. The time change is really kicking our butts -- especially my mother who asks me to call my landlord to ask for a vacuum at 6AM. Yesterday I called Erin and Jen Lev early to give them an update and it was almost 10AM. No big deal for the East Coast, right? But no, I am not calling the movers or the landlord until at least 8AM.

I really cannot believe that I am here. The transition is so much easier with my mother here and I have to say that I could not do the flight with both cats alone.

The Hartsfield-Jackson airport was busy on Wednesday afternoon and with the cats we were not allowed to do curbside check-in for our luggage. We waited in the ever long First Class line (a courtesay for the cats) and then we had to wait in the uber long line for security. No special assistance, no nothing. I carried Maximillian's carrier in my arms and my mother had Lincoln (who weighs in at 17.4 pounds!) on one of those metal wheelie things. A little luxury for my big fattie.

As expected once we got to the front of the line, we had to remove our shoes, I had to take my lap top out of it's case and then I grabbed Maxie and walked him through. Thankfully there was one security dude who helped a bit. He consolidated our bus tubs of stuff and even grabbed Lincoln out of the carrier and walked him through. There was a little movement and a bit of mewing, but for the most part it was uneventful.

We asked to board the plane early to get the cats situated, but my mother was told no. Unfortunately, once we entered the plane with our Zone 7 tickets, we realized that with the new screens on the back of each seat, the equipment would not allow the cats to go under the seats in front of us.

We had every flight attendant and even a gate agent figuring out what to do. Luckily there were two empty seats and after a bit of musical chairs, each cat sat on the floor of an unoccupied seat at the window. My mother and I sat in two middle seats across the rows from each other.

I fail to mention up until this point that I decided not to sedate either cat. No Benadryl for Maxie for the car ride. Which meant that he freaked out in his carrier to the point that I took him out of the case and held him in my arms for most of the ride. He got away at one point and walked across the dash board of Jennifer's New Beetle convertible. She can tell you about the fits of laughter filled with a bit of anxiety.

The lack of sedation also hit us big on the plane. Maximillian would just not relax and started to widen the holes on the carrier that he made on his vet visit last week. He was moving around so much and started to mew that I grabbed my mother from across the row, we removed Max from the carrier and gave him a half of a pill. He calmed down for a while, but 30 minutes later he was up to the same hijinks. Another half pill did little and he was fighting the sedation so much that we now had 3 larger holes on our hands. I spend the rest of the flight trying to keep him in the carrier by putting my hands over the holes as he was pushing out. My hands (and arms and neck) were a mess of scratches and bites. His eyes were completely fucked up, but the monster still fought. The flight attendant brought us some fix-it supplies and look at the pretty art project that my mom and I made!

I think I will put it on ebay.

Any takers?