Travels with cat

I was so worried about traveling with the cat. I mean, SO worried. To the point that I worried that it was a serious form of animal cruelty to extract the bunny from his comfy little apartment and stick him on a plane. I worried that his affectionate, curious personality would change; that he would become fearful or suspicious.

Boy, was I wrong. The most cruel part of the whole thing was having to stuff Roger in his cat bag, which all 13 or so pounds of him resisted firmly. He went through security in Chris's arms, looking around like his normal, curious self and didn't try to escape. He sat through the plane ride like a champ (he did exactly what he does when he goes to the vet: put his head down as if to say, "Wake me up when this is over."). He didn't yowl or have an accident or anything. I doubt anyone even knew there was a cat in the cabin. We reached down every so often to give him a little water from a medicine dropper.

We decided not to sedate the cat. We heard mixed things about this and decided that it probably wasn't worth trying out on Roger. We gave him a little herbal stuff (Bach's flower Pet Rescue Remedy) to calm him, but he wouldn't take any as the plane ride got closer. It didn't seem to matter in his case, because he just remained very much himself the whole time.

When we got to the new place, we put his food, water, litter, and mousie toys down immediately and showed him where everything was. He was slinking around for about 20 minutes, then, seeing that all of his needs were met, decided that he was totally and completely fine. He smelled every nook and cranny, jumped into the cupboards, looked out of the windows. Now our stuff is here, so he's jumping in every box (again).

I can't believe I was worried! He now has daily window face-offs with a dog that lives across the apartment complex and I can tell that he feels totally "in charge" of his new place (we had to baby lock all the cupboards because he's such a fan of exploring them). He's scared of the ceiling fan and the dishwasher, but keeps watching them to try to figure out whether he *should* be scared. And he seems to love rolling around on the carpet (guess who will be vacuuming more...).

Anyway, this is to say that cat travel was a success. Such a relief. I hope we don't have to transport him too much, but it's great to know that he can hack it.