There are three sets of rules - one for your current country - in my case Kuwait.
There are another set of rules for country of entry, in this case the US. Then
Lufthansa, Germany’s largest airline, has its rules. All of this is times
4, because in addition to me, I have 2 cats. One flew cargo, the other stayed
with me.
To get out of Kuwait, you take the cats to the vets for their exit shots and
microchips and to the government to be sure passports are in order. Yes, cats
have their own passports. If you do not speak Arabic, this is a problem.
You hire people.
All of this happens after you have made flight arrangements. Lufthansa only allows
one pet per cabin, so you have to be sure when you book your trip you are the
only one traveling with a pet.
Finally,you need to measure the cat carriers. They need to be different sizes - one for
cabin cat, the other for cargo cat. If you get to the airport and ALL of
this is not perfect you are stuck at the airport, with non-refundable tickets, in the middle of the night and no way to get on the plane.
Getting this crew through security in Kuwait is surprisingly simple. They take Cargo Cat
with the luggage. You see him again in Seattle. Kuwait security peeked into the cage and waved him through.
Now, steps from the plane, you realize Lufthansa has its own security procedures.
You take Cabin Cat out of his cage, in a room full of people, at 1:30 am. What
could possibly go wrong?
It took three of us - one to hold the cat, one to be ready to grab said cat if he
ran and a third to put the carrier through security. Luckily Goliath - aka Cabin Cat - took it
like a pro.
At last you are on the plane headed for Frankfort, Germany – the first leg of your
trip.
The Germans were great. They let Goliath use the baby changing room to stretch his
legs. When he had to go through their security, they had a room just for us.
So now we are on the plane to the US. Bless his heart, Goliath slept for the
entire 10 hour trip. As we were deplaning, someone actually said, “There was a
cat on this plane?”
Beforewe landed, Lufthansa's flight crew directed me to a person to clear Goliath
through customs. Said person was waiting for me even before I got into the
terminal. Then they took Goliath.
Not having to keep track of him as I gathered luggage, art work and all the electronics in an
airport I had never seen - 13 pieces in all – was a great help.
I zipped through passport control, gathered both Cabin and Cargo cars. and met my son.
We found food. We found margaritas. My first night in America in 8 years and I slept like a log.
