The Great Escape

Let it be known that the next several blog updates will be *back* updates. Wahoo!


Before leaving the US, we had to make a lot of arrangements to bring Coda (our cat) along with us. Microchipping, official-ified certificates, vaccinations, etc. My greatest fear was that I was going to have forgotten (or not heard of) something huge that was going to prevent us from bringing Coda into Germany. As we were getting ready to board the flight, and were paying the fee for allowing her to travel in the cabin with us, I made the mistake of asking the ticket counter lady what happens if the paper work isn't in order (wondering if they put her in quarantine, or if they send her back on the next flight). Her response? They put the cat down. Way to settle me down for the impending 12 hour trip, lady.




Coda, for the most part, was extremely quiet and well behaved as we were boarding the plane. I kept waiting for her to start yowling, but nope. She seemed to enjoy her new travel carrier ("Jetpaws"), and after we watched a movie, they turned the lights off for the passengers to sleep. About two hours later, I was woken up by a flight attendant. I was groggy, and thought maybe she was coming around with the drink cart, but I assure you that as soon as she said "excuse me, miss, but are you the one with the cat?" I was wide awake. Why? Was she making noises? Had there been complaints about her being on board? She asked me if it was "possible that she'd gotten loose? Someone in the back of the cabin said they saw a cat walking around." Sure enough, the zipper on the carrier had been worked open from the inside, and the carrier was empty.




Once we had gotten to the row of people who had seen "the cat", they couldn't tell us where she had gone to. Luckily, one of the other flight attendants had caught her and she (Coda, not the flight attendant) seemed pretty happy to be receiving a lot of attention. The flight attendant, on the other hand. gave me an earful about how I shouldn't have "let the cat out of the bag". Okay, maybe not in those exact words, but she did think I had on purpose let Coda out so she could roam around.




The rest of the flight went fine (outside of my embarrassment over the ordeal) as well as the transfer and trip to the hotel. Turns out they didn't even care to look at Coda's documentation. I brought her through customs, and they seemed confused as to why I was showing them a cat (even though I tried to explain in German). Ah well. Here she is! And she seems to be adapting well. Lots of windows and birds where we are staying, currently. And places to sleep.