On Saturday, September 29th, I (Bob)
flew up to Boston, MA to get Angel. Lisa met Angel's aunt in Lynn, MA and
then brought Angel with her to pick me up at the airport and take us to
a hotel. Angel and I then hung out at the hotel until noon on Sunday and
Lisa then took us back to the airport and we flew back to St. Louis, via
Denver.
Why did we go via Denver? Good question, you
see there was this "helpful" United Airline ticket agent who said he could
get us back to St. Louis 2 hours earlier than the flights I already had
scheduled, if we left on a early flight and went via Denver instead of
Chicago. He was wrong! By the time I discovered his mistake is was too
late to switch back to the original flights.
So, Angel and I flew from Boston to Denver,
about 4 hours and 2,000 miles, and then to St. Louis, about 2 hours and
1,000 miles.
Our "helpful" United Airlines ticket agent
got us to St. Louis two hours later
that we would have arrived had we stuck to the original flight schedule.
Neither of us was very pleased! Instead of Angel spending about 4 hours
in the carrier on the flights, he had to spend about 8, counting boarding
and deboarding times.
In spite of this, he was, well -- he was an
angel during the entire trip. I suspect, however, that since his diabetes
had never been brought under control and there was little I could do over
Saturday night, he was not feeling very well and this contributed to his
very passive nature during the transport.
About 10 minutes after taking off from Boston,
I caught a whiff of something familiar to most cat parents and checked
the carrier and found that Angel had not only urinated but had also defecated.
I quickly got the soiled pad out of the carrier, I had lined it with 4
pads, put it in a plastic bag, and then disposed of it when the seat belt
sign went out.
When I went to the rear of the plane to dispose
of the soiled pad, I asked a flight attendant if there was a special place
to dispose of something like a soiled diaper. She said to just put it in
the disposal bin in the lavatory. She then asked me "Oh, do you have the
baby?" There was a baby on the flight and the attendant thought I had just
changed it and needed to dispose of the diaper.
I replied, "No, I have the diabetic cat."
The flight attendant had been busy getting
ready to serve the meal and when I told her I had a diabetic cat with me,
she turned around and said "Really? I have a diabetic cat too."
We talked for a couple of minutes and gave
her the URL for the Feline Diabetes Message Board (http://www.felinediaetes.com)
and the URL for my Simon's web site (http://home.att.net/~sugarcat_simon)
and told her to visit the board when she had a chance.
Angel and I arrived home in St. Louis close
to midnight and I put him in our luxurious "guest room", actually the back
room which I use for my office and in which Sharon has her sewing machine
and work area.
I wound up staying up all night and thus kept
him company.
I'll write up a more complete description of
his 5 days with us later, suffice to say for now that he was a perfect
house guest and on the next Saturday, October 6th, he and I left St. Louis
around 6:15 AM and drove to Oklahoma City to meet Renee who then took him
back to Dallas to his new parents, Patricia and Robert.
He arrived at his new home around 9:00 PM Saturday
and first reports are that he is settling in nicely.
Angel traveled a total of 3,000 miles by plane
and 700 miles by car to reach his new home.
My thanks to all involved - Laurie, Lisa, Renee,
and especially Patricia and Robert for offering him a new home.
Update - October 10, 2001
Patricia reports that Angel has spent a great
deal of time "downstairs" checking things out and that the other cats haven't
given him any trouble, lot's of sniffing and a bit of growling, but nothing
serious at all. She says it is almost as though he has always been there.
I should tell you that there were a couple
days, after he and I arrived home in St. Louis, when Sharon and I considered
keeping him here. He looks so much like our Marco(GA) that looking at him
was like seeing Marco(GA) again.
I finally decided that proceeding with the
plan and taking him on to Oklahoma City to meet Renee was best for both
of us.
First, We were/are going to have a few hectic
weeks and I'd not be able to devote as much time as I would want to aggressively
and quickly determining his insulin dose.
Second, because he reminds me so much of Marco(GA)
I learned that I was not as healed from the loss of Marco(GA) as I had
thought. Every time I looked at Angel I saw Marco(GA) and I knew that it
was not going to be good for me to be reminded so vividly of Marco(GA).
Not that I don't think of him often, but to see another cat who looks so
much like him was a bit too much to take.
Incidentally, the 1st anniversary of Marco(GA)'s
death, October 3rd, was on the Wednesday of the week Angel stayed with
us :-(
