Is There a Cat Show in Town?

Once we made the decision to move to Spain, both Fallene and I always knew we would be moving our cats with us, not exactly sure how, but it was an unsaid certainty that our four furry children would be making the journey with us.  Sully (14), Gamma Ray (12 and with Cancer), Django (8) and Llewyn (8)

As we were solidifying details on our home purchase, we began mapping out all of the other plans for how we would move our stuff, first and foremost, the cats.  Fallene was quick to research possibilities.  Waking up one morning to head into the coffee shop, I could tell she was already awake laying next to me and was quickly typing things into her phone as she is wont to do when she has an idea or a plan.  I looked over at her as she exclaimed, "I found a company that specializes in international pet travel!"  As an aside, I am pretty sure that is one of the most thrilling/frustrating aspects of this whole international journey.  The internet search for just the right solution.  Whether it be for various moving needs on the way to Spain, Spanish lessons (still searching for the right fit there), Spanish driver's test, Visa requirements, pellet stoves, instant (never really instant) hot water heaters and how to fix, we both tend to thrive in the thrill of the hunt.  What did we do before the internet?  We are Gen X, so we know that pre-internet world, but seriously, what did we do?  All of the things I just mentioned are yet a smattering of the multitude of items, concepts, customs, etc that we have researched.  I can't think going to the local library and looking things up via the Dewey Decimal system in the trusty card catalog would've netted nearly the results we have found.  But I digress, Fallene had found a company for international pet travel, Starwood, and while yes it would be expensive, we would have a tailored solution that met our needs for our cuatro gatos, that's right 4 cats.  After a rather long discussion of all of the different vaccines, customs requirements and how the cats would be traveling to Spain, we pulled the proverbial trigger with Starwood and put our money down to start the process. We needed to have the hard sided pet carriers delivered as soon as possible so we could assemble them and have them in the cat's environment so they would interact with and become used to them, but we had no idea how freakin big these carrier's were. 

Gigantor Times Four

After building one, I remember Fallene looking at me questioningly, as if she was saying, "seriously?!"  I responded with, "These things could fit a one hundred pound dog at least, I think the company sent the wrong carriers". The next day Fallene went back and forth with Starwood questioning the size of the carriers and how we would get four of these carriers in the car when it came to the day of travel.  Of course, we both also had a lot of trepidation about putting our cats in the cargo area of the plane and sending them on a completely different flight to Madrid as well.  The Starwood rep assured Fallene that these were actually the smallest carrier that the airlines would allow for cargo transport and while yes they were big for a house cat, they were used all of the time.  Ok, it was settled, we broke down the massive cardboard boxes these things came in and left the one carrier assembled for the next week to observe our feline companions and their interaction with the carrier, now known as "Giagantor!"  (maybe that was just my internal monologue). Gigantor was situated in our living room where we watched TV and hung out most of the time, so every time we sat down, I felt like we could read each other's minds, are we really going to send the cats in these massive things?  And under the plane?  This didn't seem like a viable solution. 

Starwood had been great with all of the other Spain specific customs/quarantine (thankfully no quarantine once we arrived) questions and requirements, but this cargo hold solution was not going to work for us.  Our cat Gamma Ray had been diagnosed with cancer the previous December, which meant we were making a number of trips to the veterinarian with him in a soft sided/bag carrier, Mr Peanut that my mom had turned us on to the year before.  That bag carrier was much easier to maneuver in and out of the car and through all of the vet visits, but we hadn't really considered it for international travel.  That is until one day on the way home from the vet, Fallene posed the question, "What if we took the cats in the cabin with us?" I have to admit, I was skeptical, as was imagining what that would be like with 4 cats in the cabin and how the F would that even work?  In all my travels for my old job, I recall seeing people with little dogs in the cabin and maybe a cat once or twice, but it was always just one and it seemed like a whole other level of frustration and confusion heaped on top of air travel which can be challenging to put it lightly.  I most likely scoffed at her and said something to the effect of, "Right we each have two cats that we are trying to jam under the seat?!  C'mon, I don't think we can do that.  It's not possible."  Well, if I ever thought I was good at asking why not and challenging the status quo and coming up with different solutions, I was no match for Fallene's shear determination.  "No seriously, this Mr Peanut bag is great, why couldn't we each take two cats?"  Fallene responded.  When we got home, I begrudgingly began the research on United's website as to how to take in cabin pets and how many per person, while Fallene was talking with Starwood as to how we could return Gigantor times 4 and what that refund would look like.  After another internet journey, we came away with a solution.  We would purchase two more seats on the plane so that we had another under seat space for our extra in-cabin animals and return the massive hard carriers and not use Starwood for the animal transport.  That's right!!  We were going to take these 4 furry bastards on the plane with us!  We made the decision months before the trip, we would figure it out. 

The next couple of months flew by and while Starwood helped to coordinate the veterinary paperwork and customs needs, we purchased two more seats with United Airlines and barreled headlong to our date of travel.  Over this time, we carted all of the "gigantor" carriers down to UPS for a big return, purchased more Mr Peanut carriers, leashes, harnesses, collars (they are strictly indoor cats) and were using occasions such as house showings and other times to get the cats' "jackets" on and load them into their respective carriers and take them to a park or for a ride.  These trips were not pleasant, Lou (Llewyn) would literally meow the entire time and while the leash tours around a park where exciting, they were super stressful as cats will find a way out of their harnesses, which one or more did on a couple of occasions.  We quickly learned each cat's nuances with their carriers, (Sully prefers to explore every single carrier, if we let him) and which cat can slip out of their harness (looking at you Lou!).  With each new trip, we were slowly getting them used to travel or at least what we thought was comparable to travel. 

Fallene and the 4 Cats at City Park in Denver

While we were working through the sale of our home, packing up the things we were taking to Spain, selling the rest of our goods and more, we also had to make multiple trips to Los Angeles for our Spanish visas, a total of three trips (maybe a new blog post).  Each of these trips afforded us the opportunity to brush up on TSA security lines, benefits of TSA Precheck, and on one occasion back from LA we saw someone go through security with a cat.  That really helped, we were able to see that we had to remove the cat from the bag and send the bag through the Xray.  This guy walked through the magnetometer with the cat in his arms, so that was the method we were thinking we would need to do.  On another trip, Fallene sighted the pet relief area at DIA and we hurried over to check it out.  I have to admit, I was not looking forward to what we would see behind the door there, but it was pretty tame, completely catered to dogs, but tame; some astroturf, a fake fire hydrant and a hose to wash it all down the drain.  I had no idea how our cats would use this type of facility, but figured if anything we could let them out of their carriers once we were on our layover in Newark.  Ok, we were feeling better about some of the details of the cat aspect of our trip, even though we had no illusions about how challenging this flight was going to be. 

We continued with all of the other aspects of selling our home, doing estate sales, selling our cars, saying goodbye to friends and family and working through all of that including vet visits, of which there were many.  We had at least three different visits with Dr Kattman (great vet name, amirite?!), which were specific to the Spanish customs and entry needs and ranged from new microchips, (international chips have 15 digits and the chips our cats had were only 8 digits) to rabies shots and USDA certifications. We were feeling more and more ready for the big move, but there was a palpable trepidation between us and the cats could feel it too, we just knew they were going to be a challenge.  We tamped those feelings down and had a lot of great good bye celebrations with friends and family, clinking glasses and swearing to see each other down the road whether in Spain or back in Colorado, we were getting ourselves ready for the big trip.  Fallene envisioned a flyer and courtesy pack that we could hand out to our fellow travelers. The flyer would explain what the heck we were doing with all the cats and have some amenities, such as ear plugs, Benedryl and some candy. Ultimately, we opted to not go down this path, but the flyer was funny!

Cat Flyer or Excuse for Cat/Wig photo shoot?

The actual day for us to leave for Spain came up very fast, we didn't sleep very much and had almost nothing left in our house.  We had our luggage, cat carriers, travel litter box/litter, travel food, wee pads, poo bags, and much more for those crazy cats.  As Fallene reminded me, we basically had a diaper bag for our fur babies.  We rode to the airport with my dad and stepmom in a packed Mazda SUV, we had four Mr Peanut carriers on our laps while the cargo area was full of our luggage (two carryon roller bags and an oversized suitcase).

All the cats!

The gabapentin (anti anxiety meds) was taking effect on the cats during the ride, but that didn't mean that Lou wasn't still meowing his head off the whole way to the airport. 

Checking in at the United counter was strange as we had the two additional seats so the cats could ride in the cabin with us, but the names on these tickets was very generic, something like Wells Extraseat 1 and Wells Extraseat 2.  The woman at the counter was unsure how this would go, as we had no passport numbers to assign to these extra seats. 

Ultimately, things got worked out with the extra tickets and we purchased an extra duffle bag from United (did you know they offer this?) as our big luggage was way to F'ing heavy.  Then we headed to security.  Luckily, we both were TSA Precheck, which made things go a little smoother, but we each had two cats hanging from our shoulders.  We weren't just going to glide through the security line. We waited our turn and most people didn't even realize that we were going through security with four cats between us; however, some people did.  The cats were pretty knocked out at this point, so they were quiet, but you could see their little faces through the mesh on the carriers.  Some people were smiling or pointing out the cats to their children and others were asking questions, "Are those cats?" "Is there a cat show in town?" and much more.  We tuned it out and kept focused.  As soon as we got to the conveyor belt, we asked the TSA agents for help, as we had in-cabin pets and needed a private screening.  Fallene went first.  They took her and two of the cats into a small office/closet where she took the cats out of their carriers and held their leashes, while the TSA agent took the carriers and put them on the belt for X-ray.  Next thing you know, the TSA agent came back with the carriers and Fallene was on her way.  My turn went about the same, except that Django seemed like he was slipping out of his harness and disappearing under a cabinet.  I was starting to freak out, but was able to get a hold of him and tighten his harness up while we waited for the TSA agent to bring the carriers back.  I am glad I was able to keep a hold of him as Fallene's TSA person told her while she was waiting that they had a cat get free a couple of weeks prior and it scratched someone while they were trying to capture the cat, which meant they had to get a vet out and check if the cat had rabies, the person missed their flight and it generally sounded awful.  From there, riding the train with two cats each and a back pack went about as well as you would think it could.  We hung on, and the cats were calm, but we got a lot of questioning looks that just said, "Why?"  At times, I think we both wondered that, but we also love our little friends, and now they were about to be world travelers.  Boarding the plane was pretty uneventful, other than the gate agent freaking us the F out, telling us, "your tickets should be fine to Newark, NJ, but not sure how the whole extra seat/no passport situation is going to go when you land in Madrid."  Hey lady, we are already stressed and kind of freaking out and really just starting this adventure/journey, can you chill with the whole, you might get all the way to Spain and not be able to get off the plane and the rest of your overall gloom and doom action?  We each settled into our row, turns out the gate agent will let you board early when you have multiple in-cabin pets, and we took off for Newark.

This was only the first leg of the trip

  We landed and got our cat carrier straps crisscrossed like bandoliers and started roaming the concourse looking for the pet relief area.  Luckily we found the relief area using the airport map online.  The Newark area offered a couple of litter boxes and some other "amenities" compared to Denver, but really it was disgusting. 

Criss Crossed and Strapped

Newark Pet Relief, Gamma wasn’t having it!

The litter boxes hadn't been scooped for some time and I wanted to puke, the whole room was the size of a small bathroom and it stank.  We let the cats out and they kind of walked around in a drugged out haze smelling all the weird things that the relief area had to offer.  We tried to feed them a little something, but they weren't into it and we all were over this weird little stink room.  We headed out to our gate and found a row where we could settle in for the 3 hour layover.  For the most part, people were so involved with their own travels, luggage, etc, no one really even noticed that we had four cat carriers at our feet.  However, we had the cool Spanish flight attendant that sat next to us and talked to us all about international travel, missing his cat, and his upcoming trip to Italy, but also had the stereotypical Jersey Shore girl who stopped in her tracks, looked at our carriers, made a disgusted face and exclaimed to her boyfriend, "I ain't sittin by no cats!"  Whatever, they didn't want to sit by you either lady. 

Boarding the flight to Madrid was relatively painless and we each settled into our own two seat row where we could get the cats comfortable under the seats in front of us and try to remain calm for the next nine hours, of course with another dose of Gabapentin and some CBD for good measure.  The cats slept most of the time, but my buddy Lou, had a tendency to wake up and begin meowing a lot.  This only happened once on the flight, until we got to the last hour and a half, at which point he was up and he wasn't happy.  His meows, then set off the other cats to begin their meows and even though the plane was loud and most people had ear phones in, it was also super early in the morning for the last leg of our flight and the meows were waking some people around us.  We did what we could to sneak handfuls of dry food into their carriers, Lou was ravenous, trying to naw Fallene's fingertips off as well.  As we landed, both of us shared a look of disbelief and relief, relief that we were in Madrid and disbelief that we were in Madrid!  Ok, we thought, now the next part, customs, how was this going to go? 

We walked for what felt like forever through a twisting maze that seems to be every airport's international arrivals/passport control, only to join the snaking line of humanity waiting for el inspector de pasaportes to stamp our passports and release us onto the next step.  At this point, neither of us got much sleep on either leg of our flight and we had a band of meowing fur friends that we were escorting through the maze. All of our fellow travelers kept looking around as we waited in line and as they would realize the meows were coming from out luggage, we had more than a couple folks come over to look in on the cats. All, with questions of why are you traveling with this many animals? We would explain the move and slowly plod along toward the passport check. Finally, we had our passports and our newly minted visa page inspected and stamped, we were now in Spain, but what about all of the cat medical certificates and the other aspects that we had read so much about when moving cats to Spain. We collected our luggage (Apple Airtags helped with piece of mind) from the baggage claim and started for the exit. Realistically, we probably could have left the international arrivals and went to pick up our rental car with out anyone stopping us, but we did see a small office that was doing additional international checks, where we inquired about having our documentation reviewed. A very nice woman helped us with microchip scanning and medical certificate review of each individual cat. Fallene almost lost it when it came time to scan Django as he was still coming off the drugs and wasn’t waking up, she thought he might be dead! Luckily, he was ok, very dazed and confused, but OK! It was pretty hot when we finally made it outside, where Fallene and I were feeling jet lagged and edgy and could only imagine how the cats felt still being cooped up in their carriers. I went in and jumped through some hoops with the rental car, while Fallene waited on the steps of the rental car trailer with the cats and luggage.

Neither of us slept on the flight and now we were going to do a 7 hour drive to our new home. Oh man! This was going to be fun! I steeled myself for the drive and we loaded up the car and got going out of Madrid. We stopped at a gas station/convenience store where we loaded up on a coffee, Cokes and some snacks, I was hoping caffeine would be our saving grace and we would be able to make the long drive to the western coast of Spain. We drove for about two and a half hours before my eyelids would not stay open. I thought of trying some toothpicks to hold them open, Tom and Jerry style, but realized I was delirious, cartoon logic wasn't going to work in the real world.

Could this work?

So I proceeded to beg Fallene to Google for a pet friendly hotel, where we could stay the night and try to get through some of this jet lag and let the cats out of their carriers. She was great and found a Palacio in the middle of what seemed like nowhere that was pet friendly.

As luck would have it, we paid the extra twenty euro pet fee and loaded luggage and cats into our little room in what was a beautiful palacio that was built in the mid 1800's. We set up the travel litter box (Fallene thought of everything) and let the cats out. The relaxation between animals and owners was palpable, Fallene and I cleaned up and settled in for a nice nap and the cats got to use their box and stretch out after a full 24 hours in their carriers. We hadn't yet made it to our house, but we were in our new country. Yes it was an unexpected detour, but we were all so happy to have it. We had made it and were safe, comfortable and relaxed. We could get some rest and be ready for the final leg of our journey the next day. Whew!!