We still have the cat!

We have all arrived in Ottawa. But the cat, Elly, almost didn't make it out of Colorado Springs.

She was mildly sedated - too mildly, as it turned out - and cosily ensconced in her soft-sided travel crate. Everything would have been just fine, but when we got to security, they wanted me to take her out of her crate and carry her through the sensor.

Remember how she doesn't like to be carried?

Well, she really, really doesn't like to be carried. As in, she panics. She will claw you to within an inch of your life if you try to restrain her. (And she only has her back claws.)

I hadn't expected to be taking her out of her crate at all, so I didn't have a towel with me to carry her. And we've never even tried putting her on a leash. I grabbed Emily's hoody and wrapped Elly, and walked through the detector. The zipper set off the alarm. Fortunately, the crate had passed through the scanner and was ready to receive our little rebel.

Unfortunately, before we got the crate zipped shut, the cat TOOK OFF! She bolted as if she were about to be fed to a Doberman. She ran - smash! - headfirst into a plexiglass barrier, then escaped out into the non-secure side of the airport. I had visions of her escaping the airport and being lost in the wild - she wouldn't survive: she has only four teeth left, and only her hind claws. Leaving Colorado without our cat was NOT an option.

One of the Customs guys ran after her and miraculously managed to capture her. She froze in his arms while we re-scanned the carrier and re-stuffed her into it. This time, it worked. But I was shaking.

The rest of our trip "home," with a very brief layover in Chicago, was uneventful.

Remind me never to travel with an animal again!