Toulouse and the Great Odyessy Home
I found my camera- win!- it was in my purse. As previously thought.
Anyway, that means that I can post my pictures of Toulouse's journey back to Tucson.
Now the Toulouse cat is a wily guy. My first attempt to do a trial run with his sedatives in preparation to fly home was unsuccessful. He fully knew the pills were ground up in his wet food and ate around them. Only ingesting enough to become drunk and stumble around running into walls. Fail. See the suspicious sniffing of the food.
After that unfortunate incident James and I tag teamed him on the morning of the flight and did the tried and true method of throwing the pills in his mouth and rubbing his throat until he swallowed. Barbaric but effective. My ace in the hole was getting him in the morning before his morning/mid-morning/all morning snacking had begun and putting Vaseline on his nose for him to lick off to insure swallowing.
He was so drugged he stumbled around the house before succumbing to sleep- as seen here with one foot in the carrier and unable to figure out why he couldn't get out.
James dropped me off at the airport while he parked to make sure I had enough time to get Toulouse through the hoops I had to jump through.... or he really just actually got out of all the hard parts... hum....
I had to wait in the looooong line for people that actually need to talk to a person at the counter and not a kiosk. Then I had to pay for Toulouse's plane fare (more than my fare I might add) and then head up through security after they made sure my carrier was airline approved.
With my infinite good luck there were two tiny dogs right in front of us in line. Great. Because they make you take your animal out of the case when you go through- they frown when you ask if you can just run him through x-ray....sigh. So of course the dogs are wiggling around trying to break free and the stupid owners can't manage to get the out of their cases and through the metal detector in a timely or organized manner. I have Tou on the conveyor with one hand in the case and one shuffling along my stuff waiting until the absolute last minute to take him out. Prayer that stupid dog owner would get it together went unanswered- it seemed that it was not possible for them to even have a clue. So they manage to get one dog though and have one on the other side. Fabulous! Flanked by yipping dogs! I heave my 14 pound cat out of his carrier and sling him across my shoulder. I march through the metal detector with a look toward the TSA agent daring him to make any comments or try to frisk us. Tou gives one pitiful meow and is back in his carrier before stupid dog owner even has her dog wrangled on the other side. I did hear one snippy lady mention that my cat was bigger than both the dogs combined. I gave her a nasty look as I slid my sensible flats back on and slung the 14 pound cat in his carrier around my neck.
So Tou and I made it on the flight in one piece and he was an angel under the seat the whole flight. He snoozed and I checked his pulse every 30 minutes.
The elusive Captain slipped onto the plane at the last possible minute and didn't sit anywhere near us. Well to his credit it was a full flight and I got stuck in a middle seat with the cat. I did make up for it by having him carry the cat off the flight and carry my girlie laptop case the entire time.
Tou is adjusting to the 3rd place he's lived in 4 months with ease. I think he's really getting into the Campbell lifestyle. He'll be ready to move again soon.... well he better because it's only 6 months away!
Anyway, that means that I can post my pictures of Toulouse's journey back to Tucson.
Now the Toulouse cat is a wily guy. My first attempt to do a trial run with his sedatives in preparation to fly home was unsuccessful. He fully knew the pills were ground up in his wet food and ate around them. Only ingesting enough to become drunk and stumble around running into walls. Fail. See the suspicious sniffing of the food.
After that unfortunate incident James and I tag teamed him on the morning of the flight and did the tried and true method of throwing the pills in his mouth and rubbing his throat until he swallowed. Barbaric but effective. My ace in the hole was getting him in the morning before his morning/mid-morning/all morning snacking had begun and putting Vaseline on his nose for him to lick off to insure swallowing.He was so drugged he stumbled around the house before succumbing to sleep- as seen here with one foot in the carrier and unable to figure out why he couldn't get out.
James dropped me off at the airport while he parked to make sure I had enough time to get Toulouse through the hoops I had to jump through.... or he really just actually got out of all the hard parts... hum....I had to wait in the looooong line for people that actually need to talk to a person at the counter and not a kiosk. Then I had to pay for Toulouse's plane fare (more than my fare I might add) and then head up through security after they made sure my carrier was airline approved.
With my infinite good luck there were two tiny dogs right in front of us in line. Great. Because they make you take your animal out of the case when you go through- they frown when you ask if you can just run him through x-ray....sigh. So of course the dogs are wiggling around trying to break free and the stupid owners can't manage to get the out of their cases and through the metal detector in a timely or organized manner. I have Tou on the conveyor with one hand in the case and one shuffling along my stuff waiting until the absolute last minute to take him out. Prayer that stupid dog owner would get it together went unanswered- it seemed that it was not possible for them to even have a clue. So they manage to get one dog though and have one on the other side. Fabulous! Flanked by yipping dogs! I heave my 14 pound cat out of his carrier and sling him across my shoulder. I march through the metal detector with a look toward the TSA agent daring him to make any comments or try to frisk us. Tou gives one pitiful meow and is back in his carrier before stupid dog owner even has her dog wrangled on the other side. I did hear one snippy lady mention that my cat was bigger than both the dogs combined. I gave her a nasty look as I slid my sensible flats back on and slung the 14 pound cat in his carrier around my neck.
So Tou and I made it on the flight in one piece and he was an angel under the seat the whole flight. He snoozed and I checked his pulse every 30 minutes.
The elusive Captain slipped onto the plane at the last possible minute and didn't sit anywhere near us. Well to his credit it was a full flight and I got stuck in a middle seat with the cat. I did make up for it by having him carry the cat off the flight and carry my girlie laptop case the entire time.
Tou is adjusting to the 3rd place he's lived in 4 months with ease. I think he's really getting into the Campbell lifestyle. He'll be ready to move again soon.... well he better because it's only 6 months away!
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