SHE WHO DANCES WITH CATS

A Cat Tale...When you were growing up, didn't you know someone in your neighborhood who was knows as "that weird old cat lady"? I think that was me. I have always loved cats. When I was about 5 I moved with my parents from a small town to a ranch about 120 miles away. We, of course, took my little white kitty whose name was Nina. About a week after settling in Nina disappeared. I cried and cried. Then the neighbor down the road offered a little kitten to me and I wasn't so sad anymore. Two months later, my sister Aleene (who was a lot older than me) wrote to Mama to tell her that Nina showed up on their doorstep. She and her husband JC had moved into the house we vacated. Nine had traveled over 100 miles to go back to her home. I didn't start out to have 5 cats, it just happened that way. When I made the decision to move to Brazil it was never a question whether or not my cats would go also. My son Pat argued with me to no avail. Naturally, I won out. So when he made our reservations with TAM Airlines, he also made reservations for the cats. All 5 of them. We learned that they only needed their Rabies shot to enter Brazil. The vet gave them all a shot and good advice on traveling so far with them. We arrived at Miami International several hours ahead of time with luggage and 5 cat carriers. People standing in the lines or just walking around gathered around the carries and were ooohing and aaaawing over the beautiful cats. They had been given a mild sedative recommended by the vet, so were nonplussed by all the attention they were getting. This is good, because my cats had never been around strangers and would have freaked out otherwise. So far the beginning of our trip to Brazil was off to a good start That is until we reached the ticket counter. Pat explained we had reservations for the cats. "Okay", she said and clicked away on her computer. She looked over the counter and said "how many cats do you have"? Five, we have five cats. "Oh nooo! You can't have five cats. There are only two cats allowed per flight"! No, No, Pat said, we made reservation with Tam for the five cats. "You are mistaken, Tam only allows 2 cats per flight". No Ma'am I'm not mistaken, this is verified, we have five cats and we five have reservations. "Sorry, only two cats per flight". LOOK LADY. . ."excuse me a moment", and she left the ticket counter. She returned shortly with her supervisor to back her up. "Sorry, folks, Tam allows only 2 cats per flight". Now, I'm getting edgy and so is the crowd who had been admiring the beautiful cats. Her supervisor fled the scene and by now I in full-throttle panic. We are trying to decide what I am going to do when we are approached by a short round mad with a busy mustache dressed in a black suit and black tie. He said he understood we had a problem, but there was nothing that could be done. Only two cats per flight. We looked him in the eye and said what are we to do, we had reservations for all five cats and now you tell us we don't and that we can only take two of the five cats with us. Are we supposed to just board the plane leaving 3 drugged cats in carriers sitting in the middle of your airport floor. I'm sure the newspapers would love to here this story. You know the one where TAM Airlines abuses cat owner who wants to fly to Brazil. "Okay, Okay lady, I shouldn't do this but it will cost you $300.00 U.S. dollars to put them on your flight." Pat began to walk away, wait Pat, wait, 300 dollars isn't so bad. "No, no, lady that's 300 dollars each cat! That did it! Pat suddenly evaporated right there into thin air. The crowd is looking uglier and I mustering up tears as big as a house. Two of them dropped and the crowd is now beginning to mutter in angry tones and the fat man is looking at the floor. I had decided to throw myself on the floor writhing and screaming until he relented, when he looked up at the the mean faces in the crowd, looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, turned to the ticket agent and said put those blankety blank cats on the plane and get her and her cats out of here, NOW. A cheer went up from my faithful standing gallery and I ran to catch a plane already boarding. I got to the gate still in panic mode because I didn't know where Pat was. I looked and there he was standing at the gate. All the way to Brazil he muttered for a full 8 hours how he would never ever travel with me and five cats again. WELL BITE YOUR TONGUE SONNY BOY! Fast forward to the boarding counter at a busy Sao Paulo airport. Once again we are standing in a very long switch-back line and again we have attracted friendly Brazilian who are talking about what beautiful cats we have. This time though I have backup since Ana is now traveling with us. Being Brazilian and having made all the reservations, not only for us but, yes you got it, five cats boarding that airplane should be a breeze. Not! Oh no! We are flying TAM Airlines again? I had a lump in my throat and butterfly's in my stomach. Not to worry Ana said, I have all the verifications for the cats. Oh be still, my heart. I wanted to pull a Pat Disappearing Act. But, figured he would and I couldn't leave Ana alone. Ana had booked two flights. Pat on one with two cats, leaving one hour ahead of us and Ana and I on the second flight with three cats. According to the ticketing agent this was no problemo. Pat and Jessie and Goldie where checked in and ready to go. Then it was our turn. STOP FRAME, ROLL BACK to..."How many cats do your have?" Three, we have three cats. "No, no, Tam allows only two cats per flight. I was a little better off because it all happened in Portuguese and I couldn't understand most of the heated conversation. ENTER SUPERVISOR...only this supervisor was a female. I purposely did not use the term lady, because lady she was not. She entered on an elevated walk-way directly behind the ticketing agents. She did not smile. Brazilian are extremely animated conversationalists and I was mesmerized - back and forth, back and forth the conversation went. Again it was over the reservations, that how somehow disappeared from the computer. Supervisor: "There is nothing in the computer to indicate you made reservations." Ana: Here are the confirmation #'s for the reservations. Supervisor: "There is nothing in the computer to indicate you made reservations." Finally, Pat entered the fray. But Supervisor Lady was having none of that. She bent way over the counter, remember she is standing on her dais, and looked him straight in the eye and said "one more word for YOU and I am going to call the police!" A ticket agent who was on break went to Pat and told him his plane was boarding and he needed to run to catch it. EXIT PAT...good thing too. So now we are back to square one. We were told we could have Murphy and Annie in the same carrier. "No, no, Supervisor Lady said, Annie had to have her own carrier". It is now midnight, we missed our flight and Ana has to take a taxi to go somewhere to buy a cat carrier for Annie. Out of this our darkest hour Ana connects with a Taxi driver who knows right where there is an all night pet store open!! Wonder of Wonders. In the mean time there is a shift change and when Ana gets back there is a new supervisor who wants no trouble on her watch. She arranges new tickets for the last flight leaving in 15 minutes for Ana and I and our THREE cats. Oh Praise be. We get to the security check and we can see people boarding the plane when I am stopped because I have a small bag of scissors in my carry on. Ana is faster than me, she runs it all the way back to the ticket counter to get it tagged for luggage. When she gets back, security makes us open the already open air carriers and remove each cat. There are now no more persons boarding the plane. Security was not focused on our plight of missing yet another plane. Finally, we were passed through and with 3 cat carriers, 2 large carry on bags a case with my 35mm camera and a brief case plus our purses we ran...well, we tried to run to the gate. Fortunately, an attendant saw us lumbering toward him and held the gate open for us. BACK TO REAL TIME...We arrive at the small Pousada we had booked and Pat was already there. He glared daggers at me and without saying hello ir how are you, he said Never again, I will never ever travel with you and your cats again. After that he didn't speak to me for a solid month. The moral of this story? Ticket agent who say more that two cats have reservations, no problemo - lies! "...To Dance by the light of the Jellicle Moon." T.S Eliot - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"