Flying with a Cat

One of the most stressful things about my move was figuring out how to bring my 2.5 year old cat Zim along with me.  I didn't want to check him as luggage, so I did a ton of research on which flights I could carry him on with me (Lufthansa, KLM and British Airways), how to get kitty Xanax and how to get through the permit process for him in Oman.  He actually got his pet visa weeks before I got my visa...

I ultimately booked a Lufthansa flight that was about 9 hours to Frankfurt, a three hour layover and then a 9 hour flight to Muscat by way of Abu Dhabi.  My entire carry on was full of stuff for him (disposable litter boxes, food, treats, toys) and I sneaked on a third carry on that was a collapsible puppy play pen that I could set up during our layovers.

So here's a picture of Zim hanging out in his playpen in the business class lounge in Houston (there's a zip up top that keeps him inside):

 

 

Of course he wouldn't use the litter box...oh no, he waited for that until we were about two hours away from Frankfurt, when I had to take him and the litter box into the tiny airplane bathroom (while I stood on the toilet to give him some space).  But other than that, he did great on the plane.  Airplane rules say you can't take pets out of the carriers, but he probably spent about four hours of the flight outside of the carrier and asleep on my lap until a flight attendant asked me to put him away. 

 

Once we got to Frankfurt I rushed him to the lounge worried he needed to go the bathroom again, only to find that he wanted to explore the lounge on his leash.

 

 

 

He was a bit crankier on the flight to Muscat, so I held the carrier on my lap for most of the flight since he seemed to calm down if he could see/feel me. 

When we arrived in Muscat I was met by a representative to assist me get through immigration and customs, though he sort of walked off to find the vet and left me alone with a cat, three carry ons and two giant suitcases.  The woman at customs also kept trying to get me to stick Zim through the x-ray machine until I finally managed to call back the representative, hoping he could explain to her that I had a live animal.  Instead he just grabbed the carrier and walked off, leaving her glaring at me, but all in all within thirty minutes Zim and I were off with our driver to our new home.

 

While flying with a cat certainly wasn't fun, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.