Cat on a Plane

Days 121-125

I left Ryan’s house and drove to my friend’s house in Lakewood. I had a flight from Los Angeles to St. Louis, Missouri, so that I could take my cat to my parents’ house. I left my car at Debbie and Robin’s house, and Robin took me to the airport. First, we stopped at Jen’s house in Inglewood, so I could get my cat, Cali.

It was Monday morning, and Los Angeles traffic is horrible. I started to stress about making it to the airport on time, but Robin did a fantastic job of navigating through the sea of cars. His prior experience driving an ambulance all over the city paid off. I quickly got Cali from Jen’s house before she had to leave for work. I opened the cat carrier in the car to pet her, and she was perplexed and curious about where we were headed.

When I walked up to the counter at LAX, I asked the woman to change my last name on the ticket. I had redeemed Southwest Airlines points for the ticket, but the rewards were in my married name. While the woman worked to change the name on the ticket, I unzipped my suitcase and moved clothes from my suitcase to my carry because it weighed 5 pounds over the limit.

I was only going to St. Louis for five days, but I didn’t feel like rearranging my clothes. As a result, my bag had a lot of jeans. As I was repacking, a very tall, large man put his bag on the scale. It weighed 95 pounds! His girlfriend’s tiny bag only weighed 29 pounds. The woman at Southwest Airlines told him he would be better off getting a duffle bag for $24 because we can take two bags weighing under 50 pounds for free. The fee for his overweight bag was $75, which he paid.

I joked with the man about how unfair it is for us taller, bigger people. It’s science – my clothes and shoes will obviously weigh much more than an average-sized person, and especially a petite person. When I look at the size and weight of my friend’s clothes, I can see they’re about half the size. It always looks like I overpack when the reality is that my clothes and shoes take up much more space than most people’s do.

I paid the $95 fee to take my cat on the airplane and headed to the security line. I was anxious because they told me I would have to take Cali out of her carrier and hold her through the metal detector so the carrier could go through the machine. Cali is a true scaredy-cat, and I was afraid she’d run away. When I got to security, I took her out of the carrier, and thankfully she was so scared, she grabbed onto my shoulder tightly. It looked like she was hugging me, and as I waited for the carrier on the other side, a guy passed me saying, “Awe, so cute!”

A TSA agent helped me unzip the bag so I could get Cali back inside. I used the restroom and had to put Cali’s carrier on the floor. She meowed, and I heard someone at the sink say, “Whoa, there’s a cat in here.” While I waited to board my flight, a boy around seven years old kept staring at Cali, so I opened the top and let him pet her. I was surprised by how good she was doing. People were complimenting me on how well behaved and quiet she was.

Cali peacefully slept through the flight, as did her mother. We arrived in St. Louis in the evening and my mom picked us up. After making a stop by my sister’s new chiropractic office and the pet store, we arrived at my parents’ house.

I was able to stay with Cali in the guest bedroom, and it was so great to be with her again. It had been about four months since I was able to spend time with her. She snuggled with me all night, and I was glad she was doing better than I expected.

My sister, her family, and three dogs were currently living in my parents’ basement while building a new home. My parents also have a dog and a cat, so I kept Cali in my bedroom, so she didn’t have to be around all of the animals. Unfortunately, the next morning my sister opened the door looking for her son’s homework, and my parent’s cat ran under the bed. Cali was also under the bed, and a cat hissing fight began. I frantically got the other cat out, but Cali was not happy.

I lounged around during the day and started to consider buying a small house in the area. I was currently paying $240 a month for the storage of my household items in Los Angeles. Getting a small house would allow me to put my stuff there. I searched for houses but didn’t have enough time to actually do anything about it.

That evening, my friend Ryan Shuck was playing a show in St. Louis with his band Julien-K. He got me a couple of passes, and I took my brother, Brian, and his 22-year-old son, Anthony. The show was in downtown St. Louis at The Ready Room, which isn’t a very good neighborhood. We parked and quickly walked to the club.

The show was amazing as usual. Brian and Anthony were impressed with Julien-K and Ryan’s voice. It was such a good time hanging out with them because we don’t get many opportunities. I had missed Anthony’s 21st birthday, so I used the night to celebrate and bought him some drinks.

After Julian-K played, Jonathan Davis from Korn was playing. The place was packed, but in between shows, I met Ryan at the bar. We were hanging out talking when a fan came over to buy Ryan a drink. The fan was star stuck and said, “Do you realize who this is?” I laughed and said, “Yes, he’s pretty amazing.”

Ryan joined us in the back of the crowd to listen to Jonathan Davis, which was also a great show. Once it was over and the club was kicking people out, Ryan came from backstage to say goodbye. He was so sweet and talked with my nephew, giving him some encouraging words. We hugged goodbye, and I headed back to St. Charles.

Brian, Anthony, and I went back to Anthony’s house to hang out with Anthony’s wife, Jessica. I had them all take the Myers Brigg personality test and it was so great getting to know them better. They lived 2,000 miles away from me during the last 15 years, so most of our visits were during the holidays. This was an opportunity to just hang out as friends.

Over the next few days, I had a chance to hang out with family and a few friends. I saw my sister Amy’s new property where she was going to build a house. I got a massage, and Amy did some chiropractic work on me.

It was strange being at my parent’s house when it wasn’t a holiday. I moved from Missouri when I was 23 years old and a lot had changed since then. It felt good to get Cali situated and I felt confident that she’d be ok there for the longer-term while I continued to travel.

After a few days, it was time to fly back to California to get my car. I flew into Long Beach airport, which is so much nicer than LAX because it’s small. My friend Debbie picked me up and took me back to her house to get my car. After hanging out for a bit, I drove to Arcadia to stay at my friend Jimmy’s house. He had a spare room, and I needed somewhere to stay for a couple of nights.

When I arrived at Jimmy’s place, I set my bags down, and we went out for drinks and appetizers. His fiancé was in Japan for work. Jimmy and I used to work together, and we’d sometimes go to happy hour after work. It was like old times – except we were in a different city. We had dinner a couple of weeks prior when I first arrived in California. It was nice to have more of an in-depth conversation since we had already talked about my travel highlights. Jimmy is a great friend, and I was happy to have moments that made me feel like not too much had changed after all.

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Post Edited By: Mandy Strider