Despite a few little bumps along the way, we finally made it to Ithaca and I heart Northwest airlines - this is of course, I hated them with the intense fire of 10,000 burning suns yesterday morning. OK, it wasn't quite that bad. But I'm thinking if you call email the special customer service contact for an airline, not once, but twice with concerns over travelling your three cats, and they assure you, not once, but twice that it is doable and then you call the 800 number and re-confirm and pay hundreds of dollars for the priviledge of travelling your three cats, they shouldn't give you any shit at the airport. Well, let me tell you folks, due diligence was apparently not enough. Luckily the story does have a happy ending, but not after a fair amount of heartache.

After waking at 3:15 a.m. yesterday, unable to sleep for worrying about all the things that could go wrong, we checked out of the hotel, Carol took us to the house where I had no trouble wrangling the three cats into their carriers and getting everything loaded up into the car. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, with all of my 3 oz. and smaller toiletries packed into FAA approved quart sized zip top bags, generously donated by my fabulous former co-workers, to find a kind, lonely Skycap. He ferried all of cat carriers and baggage on in to the Northwest ticket counter where a gentleman proceeded to tell me that he had received notice that morning that they could not accommodate my three cats on the plane. See my note above about this being a concern of mine all along, and note that I made the reservations more than three weeks in advance of our travel.

As you can imagine, I was shocked and disappointed by this turn of events, especially since I didn't have a lot of other choices for cat transport at that point in the game. I firmly let the gentleman know of my displeasure, informed him of the steps I had taken to insure the success of this travel, and told him that I understood that he was just doing his job, but that somebody along the line apparently hadn't done their job and now both of us were in uncomfortable situations. At which point he left to go investigate, leaving me with three unhappy cats, a friendly Skycap, a mountain of luggage and a toddler who was now telling me that he "had poo poo."

Northwest guy was gone for what seemed like a long time, probably 15 minutes or so, but at times I did wonder if he would even return - we've had some bad Northwest experience in the past, and I know their customer service has not always received the highest marks. But return he did, shouting from half a block away, that indeed it was their fault, he apologized heartily and presented a plan that was acceptable to us both. In apology, my Northwest guy offered that they wouldn't charge me for any excess weight or baggage today, which I thought was quite generous. Essentially the plan was that they could accommodate only one carrier, but we could put two cats in it (luckily we have one carrier that it really big enough for a medium sized dog) and I would have to carry one of the cats on with me. Not optimal from my end, but definitely workable, especially if it was going to get everybody to the right destination at the same time. This then required some kitty cat musical chairs to get everybody in the right carrier. This netted us with one empty carrier that would just go as baggage, unfortunately a small stir was caused when an astute but distant airline employee saw the empty (unbeknownst to her) carrier go on the baggage belt and ran yelling toward us, as I shouted from the other side of the counter that nobody was in that carrier. Believe me, it was exciting.

Phew! The animals were all handled, but then I had to make it through security w/a toddler, stroller, car seat, diaper bag, my carry on and now a cat. Luckily I still had my trusty Skycap at my disposal - see I told you he was really nice. He has a toddler too, so could really relate to my plight. He accompanied me all the way through security to gate 3 at ABIA (one of the last gates for those playing along at home). Of course, security posed it's own set of challenges. T didn't like taking his shoes off, he had to get out of the stroller, since the stroller had to go on the belt and he had to be coaxed through the metal detector by the security lady, the Skycap and me. Additionally, I had to remove Fozzie from the carrier, send the carrier on the belt, carry Fozzie with me through the metal detector and then put everything back together and get everybody's shoes on after that ordeal. Mr. Skycap helped us all the way to the gate, even speaking to the gate agent to request an escort for me from gate to gate in Detroit, for which he received a generous tip.

After all this, you would think that my blog entry would be complete, but you'd be wrong. I just have one more story to share. You would think that a brand new airport such as ABIA would be lousy with diaper changing stations in their restrooms, but alas, you would be wrong. Luckily however, there was a fairly wide counter at the handicap accessible sink upon which I hoisted my child for his diaper change. This counter also had, above it (so I don't really know how accessible that is) one of those automatic paper towel dispenser. So, picture if you will, me trying to change the diaper of a wiggly toddler, while paper towels keep pouring out of this thing, nearly covering my child and the area in which I'm working. At the same time, T has turned on the water - Oh no, this sink doesn't have an automatic sensor to turn on the water, it's got one of those big, easy to work, lever handles. He's babbling as usual, and at this point, I'm thinkg, "oh what the hell is a little water in the greater scheme of things?" Until I start to comprehend his babbling and realize he's saying "Hot, hot, hot." Eesh! Fortunately, it was not hot enough to cause any damage, but it was also not as if I needed anything more to be concerned with.

So all in all, we made the trip unscathed. Nearly every Northwest employee we encountered went out of their way to help. I had at least three pilots help me carry a carseat and/or cat. Fozzie didn't make a peep the entire trip, the other two cats made it through just fine. Everybody's able to sit up and take nourishment and explore their new surroundings.