DAY 0: BELIZE OR BUST..!
DAY 0 - Monday, August 5th, 2024
When I last left the blog, we had been picked up by my in-laws for a ride to Phoenix Sky Harbor.
If you prefer the TL:DR version, here is a video re-cap of our travel day: Traveling 13 hours and 3 flights with 3 cats to Belize
Since we had cats/pets, we weren't able to check in online, we had to check in in person. That upped my anxiety as while we are always early for flights, we aren't, "3 hours early" and I feared cutting it too close, they might allow someone else to take our pet slots. I had mentioned previously that a huge stressor was the fact that American Airlines only allows 2 pets per cabin, although I had a call with customer service and a chat that I printed out, where I was told we could put 2 cats in 1 carrier, and the 3rd in their own carrier, and be okay.
We unloaded all our people, pets, and gear, said our goodbyes, and trudged to the AA Check-In counter, in a zombie-like state, to meet with the most surly of customer service reps, Paula. Paula made it abundantly clear that she did not like cats; "I would never take cats on a plane, I'm allergic". Well, we didn't ask you, Paula. She also told me we could only take 2 per AA's policy. It took everything I had in my sleep-deprived, stressed-out core not to lose my shit! I told her I had both a phone call and printed chat telling us we could take two in one carrier. Thankfully, Nathan and Ethan are charasmatic and smoothed her over some; in the end, we put Roxy in Selene's carrier and she didn't say anything else. Which is good, because I was teetering on the edge of a breakdown. I knew we would have trouble when we arrived. We were probably at check-in for 20-25 minutes as she checked if Belize even allowed pets (yes ma'am, here is my import permit), she slowly entered bags, and was a general sourpuss. Not off to a great start.
On the plus side, she didn't ask to see any of the cats' paperwork, nor return flight bookings, she simply asked when our return flights were booked. Belize (and many other countries) often want you to have a departure ticket to prove you can afford to leave. For what it's worth, no one asked us again on this day of travel.
Once we were checked in, we headed to TSA where my next hurdle waited - taking 3 cats out of their carriers, and carrying them through the metal detectors - in a loud, bright, unfamiliar place. I am the only one who could handle Selene; she is wily and a momma's girl. Nathan took Shadow, the next-most feisty, and Zach took Roxy, who is a puddle of fluff. We sent Ethan ahead of us so he could gather up the bags after x-rays, and we could focus on the cats. They didn't care for this experience and let us know! Everyone was so frazzled, that we realized as we were putting shoes on after security that we had left a bag behind, and naturally, TSA flagged it. It was cat litter - which I expected to be an issue. Not the new box, but I had some in a bag for their travel litter box, and that's what TSA wanted to see.
We had about an hour from when we arrived at our gate, to when our flight could board, so I re-upped on ginger ale and bought some Lifesavers Gummies for some sugar for my body to process.
When we were able to board, Nathan and I took the girls on our side, and sent Shadow with the boys across the aisle. The sky looked absolutely stunning as the sun started to rise!
And while it was before 6 AM, it was definitely, "Champagne Time".
The storm clouds were forming and I was hoping for a smooth takeoff; these cats don't like gentle car rides, who knows what they'll think of a bumpy departure! It was pretty smooth, thankfully.
Everyone was so exhausted from the lack of sleep, we were all nodding off once we were at cruising altitude.
Ethan mentioned that Shadow was in, "full-on 'Wolverine' mode" in his carrier, wanting out, with occasional meows/cries, but eventually settled down. Or so we thought.
I had JUST dozed off, where you don't feel fully asleep but also aren't entirely conscious when I heard Nathan say to me, "Shadow's out". SHADOW'S OUT OF WHAT...?! It took me a moment to get my bearings - I'm on a plane, and just been told that we have lost a cat, in our first hour of travel. Full-on panic ensues - I hop over Nathan in the aisle seat and headed back on the plane, as I imagine he would take the path of least resistance and most space in front of him. 3 rows back, I startled those folks when I asked, "Did a black cat stroll back here...? If you see him, can you let me know..?". Imagine having a panicked, disheveled lady poking around your feet at 6:45 AM on a plane.
I started walking towards the front of the plane and I saw a portly black cat confidently strutting to the cockpit. Shadow cowers in new situations, I am still in disbelief about how he sauntered right up that way as if they had treats for him in the galley or something. I deftly scooped him up and returned him to Ethan, who had his carrier. The flight attendant came by to see if everything was okay, and told us, "That's why they're supposed to stay in their carriers...". Lady, we didn't let him out, he busted out! We determined that he had Freddy-Krugered his way through the Amazon Basics Pet Carrier he was in, so I am not endorsing that one! It was brand new; I picked it up when he was able to push his head out of the nicer one I had for him on vet trip #1. With a gaping hole in his carrier, and 10 hours/2 more flights to go, what in the hell were we to do...?! Fortunately, I had Roxy in her own carrier originally, and that carrier became a carry-on bag when we boarded, so it was in the overhead bin!
After that, sleep did not come again for Nathan or myself; if Shadow was too quiet, we were worried. If any of the cats were meowing too much, we were worried. Their gabapentin from the night before had clearly worn off and wasn't a full dose to begin with. Between the meowing and the escape, I feared AA wouldn't allow us to board the second flight; we had to sign a doc that the cats would stay in their carriers, not create smells, or noise/disturbances. We were good on the smells, not so good on the rest! My stomach continued to roll...
About 90 minutes after the jailbreak, we were landing in DFW. We deplaned and headed to the SkyLink/tram system where I was able to get a good look at Shadow's carnage of that carrier - he sliced an "L" shape through the mesh large enough to get out.
When we were at our next concourse and gate, I opted to try to get them to use the litter box and get them to take more gabapentin. The easiest way to do this is to go into a family restroom so it's quiet and they can't escape. Nathan went with me and while no one wanted to use the box, I was able to draw up some water, open the capsules, shake in the meds, agitate to dissolve, then shoot about a 2ml dose of the kitty cocktail into each mouth. We also decided it best to "double bag" Shadow and put his new/Roxy's old carrier into the ruined black one in case he was able to bust out again, hopefully it would be in a different part of the bag.
I will say, if you are ever lonely for attention, take a pet carrier through an airport, EVERYONE will want to ask what you have, why, etc.!
Thankfully, AA didn't blacklist us and we were able to board plane 2 of 3 on the day, and the longest one, from DFW to Belize International. We switched with the boys and took Shadow on our side just in case. Those 2 can sleep through a freight train rolling through a nitroglycerin plant, the ONLY reason they knew Shadow had escaped was because he grazed Zach's bare calf on his way to the aisle, which woke him up.
The meds definitely kicked in and their kitty cocktail took the edge off; all three were much more relaxed and quiet on this flight, with nary an escape attempt. In fact, as we were walking into the airport, another passenger on our DFW-BZE flight didn't realize we had cats until they passed us in Immigration.
Lunch was served but I picked at it; the nerves were still fully engaged.
We landed at BZE and it took a bit to get through Immigration as the agent wasn't expedient, he was more social than expected.
After claiming our bags, we headed to the Customs line and were told because we had pets, we had to go through the, "something to declare" line. We waited through that process then I was sent to the BAHA office, in the far-left corner after the Customs' booths. It's super-tight, with a few gentlemen working in there. They made copies of my rabies certs and Import permit, I paid the fee, and we were on our way - they didn't even check to see what was in our carriers.
Normally we go to Tropic Air and book the next available flight, but since this trip we were landing about 2 hours later than normal at 2:14, I didn't want to risk that we might have a flight delay, Tropic Air wouldn't know we were coming, and we'd be stuck on the mainland overnight. I pre-booked for a 5 PM flight, knowing we could always move it up. As expected, they shifted us to the 3:20. We did pay $10 U.S. for our second checked bag each, and $10 U.S. per cat carrier.
We were placed at the back of the plane so we had more room for the cats, and did a dropoff on Caye Caulker - two folks hopped off, and we were on our way to Ambergris Caye.
The Split - The island of Caye Caulker was torn in half by Hurricane Hattie in 1961.
Once on A.C., I headed to Carts Belize to pick up our rental cart, while the men waited for checked bags to be released. They then hopped in a taxi with the cats to meet me at our villa.
I arrived first, and raced to set up what I could - a spot for a litter box, turned on the A/C, but didn't look out back/at the water. Since we were last here in May/June 2023, we had our dock expanded on the water, and I wanted to wait for Nathan so we could see it together in person. I let family know we had arrived safely, and waited...and waited...and started to worry. The men were taking a long time to arrive, I was hoping there wasn't a baggage or cat issue.
As I was about to hit a fever pitch, they rolled up - whew! The driver helped with the luggage as the guys brought the cats in first. I guess they were pretty quiet in the taxi, the driver didn't realize they had cats until one meowed as they entered our neighborhood. With all of the bags inside, we showed the boys to their respective rooms, and let the cats out, expecting not to see them for a few days. Au contrare! They popped right out of their carriers and checked everything out like it was nothing - the very same cats that two weeks ago were terrified for days at the AirBnB! I guess us moving before the actual move made them realize it's not so bad. We were planning to get takeout/delivery so we didn't leave the cats alone after a chaotic day for them, but they were so comfortable, we decided to go out to eat.
As we were freshening up, Nathan saw a cat sleeping on our neighbor's dock and made calls toward her, and she immedately came over. So, SO skinny, you can see her skeleton through her fur. She has face scrapes or maybe mange starting. And she's incredibly sweet. I was hoping we'd make it at least a few weeks before we were duped into an outdoors cat, but it seems the cat distribution system had other plans. We lasted exactly 20 minutes.
I was feeling fabulous once we arrived to our villa, I caught my 5th or 6th wind of the day. We opted to go to Waraguma for dinner, on Back Street. Shortly after sitting down, I hit a wall - I was sweating profusely, nauseous, lethargic. No sleep had caught up in a big way. When food did arrive, I could barely nibble and decided to go to the market a few doors down, buy a banana and a ginger ale. I wanted to go back to the villa desperately but also didn't want to ruin everyone's first meal in Belize, so I toughed it out. An exceptionally long, stressful day was nearing the end, and all I wanted was a shower and bed!
That is precisely what I did when we returned to the villa, for our first sleep in our new home country! What a day!