Cats!!

So... we have been going crazy the last couple of weeks pulling together our resumes, writing our aspiration statements and trying to assemble things for our big move. We have to be out of our house by the end of August, which means we will be floating around, no doubt staying at houses of friends and family, until our departure at the end of September. This just adds another layer of preparation and packing that we need to account for.

Oh yeah and then there are our CATS!!! We have 2 wonderful cats and... luckily for us Laurie's mother has agreed to take them while we are away in Mozambique for 27 months. The only problem is that she lives and Florida and we live in Ohio. Cats are not easy animals to transport a couple of miles to visit the vet. How are we going to get them to Florida????

At first we thought it was going to be somewhat simple, so we reserved (non-refundable tickets) on Airtran for a non-stop flight to Florida in July. Only to find out that the airline only allows animals to be carried on and the size limit for the bag is 8.5in high x 17in long x 12in wide. Which is not very big at all. Our cats laying down might be able to fit in it. And of course I realized this at 9 pm when no stores were open to see what pet carrier options were available or looked like. I went to bed imagining having to forcefully put our cats into a carrier while they yelped and cried the whole way to Florida. Needless to say it was a sleepless night.

The next day after an hour or so of panic researching (I always need a plan B, plan C and sometimes all the way to plan Z for things - just ask Laurie). I found that out we could ship the cats via Delta cargo service (called Pet First)... or we could drive the 19 hours with the cats. In any case we could not have our AirTran tickets refunded (which isn't so bad because we want to see Laurie's mom before we left, and extra trip did not seem so bad - we would just lose the extra pet fee). Luckily for us Delta had flights on the same day as ours, although they were not direct, stopping for 3hours or so in Atlanta. Regardless, the idea of shipping them cargo did not seem the most appealing.... and driving down to Florida with 2 cats seemed like hell

After work we drove to Petco to just get a visual on the carriers. Looking at the small carriers turned my stomach, it seemed way to inhumane to even consider putting our cats in those carriers. We drove home, and called Delta to find out information on thier service. After a 45 minute interrogation of one of the service reps (we asked every question imaginable on how they treat animals, how many animals they fly, etc.), we finally decided that this was the way to go! Case closed.... well not actually since we still have to buy carriers, buy the cargo tickets, take them to the vet to have a check-up/travel papers signed, and then ship them.... and then hope that everything goes smoothly!

Wow, this is going to be an insane 4 months!!!!!!!!!!!