Cats on a plane: the move to Jerez

You don't get much sleep the night before you take a cat who's prone to bouts of stress-induced diarrhoea on a plane. Pets here are allowed to travel in the cabin with you, provided they and their cage fit in the space at your feet. There are even special airline-approved cages just the right size, which is to say, about exactly the same size as Ted is. Seriously, it was wall-to-wall cat in there. 

We were fearing – nay, expecting – that we and our fellow passengers' shoes and handbags would inevitably end up floating in a sea of high-altitude fluidic poop and urine as it pooled across the floor of the plane. Add to that horror the screaming that would go with it (Ted's, not mine). For the first time in my life I was pleased to find a couple with a squawking baby in the row in front of us. They might take some of the heat.

There's an anticonvulsant called gabapentin that my vet mate Snotty put me on to. A side effect is a kind of blissful drowsiness, apparently. So a few weeks before our trip I trudged along to a San Sebastian vet and got some; the next day I went back and got some for Ted, too. We did a test run with a week to go – just to check that another of the side effects wasn't diarrhoea – and I can attest that I've never seen Ted look so ecstatic, relaxed and poop free at the same time. 

All drugged up, the little bastard actually handled the trip very well. The narcosis didn't take hold as well as it did under the controlled conditions of home, of course, but apart from the occasional mew of perceived betrayal he was quiet. He weathered the connection in Madrid without incident and not a single airline dogsbody was called on to clean up cat excreta. 

It was a little ironic, then, that soon after we'd settled into our Airbnb (our furniture wouldn't arrive until the next day, so our new home wasn't an option tonight) I was shat on by a bird. Probably a pigeon. Jess offered to go get some toilet paper but I said don't be daft, he'll be miles away by now.* 

Still, after a big and stressful day the hard work was done. This side-note of a post about cats on planes has little to do with our new life in Jerez. Beginning tomorrow it's time to get exploring.

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* I might be the only person alive on the planet who knows this was a Benny Hill joke.