You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
Ok, so a vet appointment isn’t, by most people’s reasonable interpretation, a cross-country trip. However, if you have ever had to transport a screaming animal to somewhere it doesn’t want to be transported, you will know that it really feels like one.
At present, it’s a ten-minute walk across the park, and Catorze is so gossamer-light that even I, with my back problems, can manage to carry him in his swish transportation pod (apart from that one time when I couldn’t). The ease of the walk is such that the convenience outweighs the massive embarrassment of his screaming, which rings out through the park like an air raid siren and causes people to stop in their tracks and look over. However, the vet practice will be closing sometime soon, because the building complex in which it’s situated is due to be renovated. Nobody knows when, or if, it will return to the same place once the renovation is complete.
Luckily they have other branches in W4, W5 and TW3, all of which close by. However, they are further away than our current short walk to the TW8 branch. And the W5 one doesn’t have parking, which means that I would have to either carry screaming Catorze on the bus (no) or drive him to work, somehow keep him contained there all morning and then walk him to his appointment during my lunch hour (HELL, no – his path and those of my students should absolutely never cross).
So my means of transport really depends on where will be going the next time the little sod needs a vet; will it be Happening Hounslow (car), Charming Chiswick (car) or Exciting Ealing (still no idea how)?

Oh his is annoyed!
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Oh yes! He screams absolute bloody murder every time!
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The smaller they are, the louder they scream. At least that’s been my experience.
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Definitely. And lean, sleek ones have a demonic growl, whereas big, meaty ones sound like dainty fairies.
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Well…try not to worry too much…maybe things will work out for the best. (I know, I know. Me neither.)
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Hahahahaha … no. 🤣🤣🤣
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Louis’s swish transportation pod looks easy to carry.
Timon is not that lucky. His transportation pod looks like a cage which enjoys banging against your calfs.
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Oh, we used to have one of those and it was very difficult to carry, even with a light little wisp of a thing like Catorze!
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Beautiful carrier for a beautiful kitty 🙂 I drove 9 hours with two cats (when I moved from the US to Toronto): one cat was terrified and stayed on my lap (yes, while I was driving) during the whole trip without moving. The other cat screamed and jumped around the car for 9 hours! Years later, I put them both in a big dog crate and in the cargo hold of an airplane and that was scary for both of them and for me, too! Miss Penny stayed with me on our flight to Kingston, that was way easier for us both. I hope you never have to fly with Sa Maj, I would feel bad for the other passengers 😉
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Good grief, 9 hours! With two cats! LOOSE IN THE CAR!
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Catapult?
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At least he would be nice and light to fling!
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I feel sorry for whoever has to catch him then 😂
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I think he’d drift gently to the ground like a screaming leaf. 🍂
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Oh really? I kinda thought he’d drop like a cannonball (also screaming) and then glomp onto whoever was at the other end like a facehugger from Alien 😂
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🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Oh goodness! I think you’re probably right! I thought he would weigh too little to do that, but face-glomping is much more his style!
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It’s just that the image of a screaming leaf doesn’t incite much fear, you know? Much wincing at the noise, but if he’s drifting, you’d have too much time to run away. xD
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He could do both? Float like a leaf, then suddenly drop and glomp? Like when spacecraft enter the Earth’s atmosphere and gravity takes hold?
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Ahhhhh the old “utter confusion (why tf is that leaf screaming) followed by shock and terror” trick. xD
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Your petite roi diables’ eyes look as though they could burn a hole big enough to allow him to escape that posh carrier 😂
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I know! He’s terrifying!
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“black basket case for a black basket case” 😆
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Cat Daddy thought of that line!
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I love me a good pun/word play. Tell CD he wins the internet today ;D
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He will be delighted! Thank you!
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Love that carrier!
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Thanks! It’s only a cheap Pets at Home one.
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Oh big bottoms! I just typed a long message and instead of posting I hit the back arrow. So you’ve been let off a long description of the antics of Cheeky escaping her carrier and me forgetting to ask for big boy Theo aka Darren to have his vaccination until I had paid after his examination and was tucking him in the car before I remembered and dashed back in the vets to beg for them to quickly squeeze him back in for his vaccination!! Anyway what I originally had to say was that Cheeky is a little cat to look at but the weight of her, well I could barely carry her into the vet from the car!!
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How heavy was she, if that’s not too rude to ask? 🤣🤣🤣
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😂😂😂 I don’t remember I was too harassed to ask and the vet just quickly typed it in! I think Alice said she’s 6kg, Merlot had put half a kilo on and so is the same as Louis, 3kg 🙄
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Awesome
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