The Cat's Meow

It “was the cat’s meow” that drove me crazy on the hour and 25 minute flight from El Paso to San Antonio. Throw in the crying baby and the guy behind me snoring through his siesta, and I was ready to jump out at 10,000 feet. This recent flight was the first ever where someone had a kitten onboard.

I have flown on a few where the traveler had a very pampered small dog, noticeable by the elaborate carrier, the well-groomed pooch and well-dressed owner, and the rhinestone collar—on the dog!  Several times I have even sat near someone traveling with a seriously disciplined service animal, but in each case the animals were quiet as a mouse. Yikes, a mouse. I am so glad the kitten didn’t see a mouse—that could have been pandemonium.

Poor kitten. It obviously had never been around so many people, and it could not have known its owner long, if at all. He wasn’t exactly reassuring the little creature. In my writer’s mind, I figured he was taking it as a gift to someone, and was maybe attached to the soon to be owner, but certainly not to the kitten.

Later at the airport while I was waiting for a connecting flight I saw him “catless,” and I figured he had made the delivery. Not once on the flight had he attempted to sooth the little guy in the bright yellow carrier as the meows got louder with every mile in the air. I had hoped that the rhythm of the engine would put the kitten to sleep as it did its temporary owner or at least drown out the cat’s meow and obvious consternation, but this just was not to be.

Actually, I am a “cat person,” although it has been many years since I had one as a pet. Nowadays, my schedule doesn’t even work for a cat, so that tells you something about how hectic life really is—I mean a cat is pretty self-sufficient!

Anyway, another interesting flight to add to my list. Did I tell you about the time on a Southwest Airlines flight, where the seats face each other, I sat directly across from a transvestite who loved to share his/her/its life’s experiences??? Oh, now that was the real “cat’s meow.”

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