International travel with cats and why we can never fly with [REDACTED] again

Husband Sol lovingly recounts a common inquiry I get. "How did you travel to the US with your adopted cats?" Well, here's the answer.

A Filipino, a Mexican, and a Scot are on a plane. This isn’t the start of a joke, but the people who oversaw the journey of three cats from Japan to the United States.

Our cat family reached its present composition by September 2017, about 18 months before the end of our Japanese adventure. We were never going to become lifers but we weren’t exactly in a hurry to leave either. There was the question of where to go next. We did consider Europe for a period but, alas, the stupider half of my long-abandoned homeland prevailed in the 2016 referendum. Britain itself was off the table due to the complexity of the immigration process, there just isn’t a British equivalent of a green card.

Really, the United States was the only viable option. Strangely enough, though I’ve spent almost my entire life outside of the US, I’ve been a citizen longer than Levy has. Marrying her wasn’t even strictly necessary from an immigration point of view. But I do like when she calls me husband, so there’s that.

One of the questions posed to us when we adopted Hokke was what we intended to do after Japan. We promised to take him with us, whenever and wherever that would be. We’d never have left him behind. But then we had to go and get two other cats, making a complex issue even more difficult. We began the process of moving our cats long before the final departure from Japan. Each cat was chipped, vaccinated and given a clean bill of health over the course of several visits to the vet. We were most worried about Hokke because of his sinus troubles and his nerves. Levy bought him a Thundershirt, a tight little vest that claims to help with anxiety. It suited him.

The next hurdle was the flight. We wanted the cats in with us and not in cargo only there were but two of us and three of them. In our last weeks in Japan we were helped enormously by several people. We couldn’t possibly have navigated all those hurdles alone. Of all the acts of kindness we benefited from, none surpassed Levy’s friend Mary. She offered to fly over with us so the cats wouldn’t be stuck in cargo. She arranged to meet us in Tokyo.

After endless planning our final itinerary was set. We would depart from Kumamoto by train to Fukuoka for one night. We’d then take an early flight to Tokyo, meet up with Mary, and then catch our final plane to Newark.

We stayed at an Air Bnb in Fukuoka, the cats didn’t really know what to make of the place in the few hours we were there. Momo stuck to the top of the fridge while Hokke was scared to venture from the bed. Sunny was the most curious of three, trotting to and fro from the tatami mats in the living room to the bedroom. They were reluctant to eat which maybe wasn’t the worst thing since they’d be in their carriers for over 20 hours, but it wasn’t like we could explain to them what was going on. Cats habitually like familiar places and smells, the next day would be filled with neither.

The flight from Kumamoto to Tokyo is not a long one but that was one of the most stressful parts of the journey. They had to go into cargo for that part, all three went into the one carrier which had ample room but they remained huddled into a little corner the entire time. We were on edge for every second of the 90-minute flight to Japan’s largest airport. They arrived safe and sound but thoroughly confused by the whole ordeal.

At Narita, we had to take them for an examination before boarding the flight to the US. We did our best to clean Hokke up right before he saw the vet. She couldn’t have been any older than 25, all smiles and rapid-fire Japanese we could maybe understand every one word in five. All three were given the okay for travel and we breathed just a little easier.

We had plenty of time so I got up to spend the last of the Japanese Yen I had in my pocket. As I was poking around the stores, I heard an Asian woman who was clearly having a very bad day. She was marching up and down the airport yelling loudly about how sick she was of Japan. The ESL teacher in me was quietly impressed by the verbosity and excellent pronunciation of her rant while the expat part of me understood some of her grievances. Don’t get me wrong, Asia was very good to us but, as with any place, there are a lot of little things that can get to you over time.

People tend to be quite charmed when they see a pet carrier in an airport. Strangers would stop to have a look while on the plane other passengers and the flight attendants would wish our feline companions a safe trip. The deal was the cats were to remain in their carriers and under the seats.

For most of the flight they compiled with this protocol.

Every now and then we’d reach into our respective carriers to give them a reassuring pet. I was personally overseeing Hokke and barely heard a peep out of him the whole flight. Momo was similarly quiet, wary of the surroundings. Sunny, well, Sunny’s always been the most inquisitive one. About halfway through the flight we discovered she’d slipped out of the carrier. There are no words you want to hear less on a flight than an announcement to the owners of the cat to come get her. I was feeling a mix of pure terror and mortifying embarrassment, I can’t definitively say which feeling won out. It’s been nearly two years but I still get anxious thinking about it.

Sunny loves attention but doesn’t love being picked up. A flight attendant found that out the hard way. With still almost four hours of the flight to go, we very sheepishly got up and returned her to her carrier. Over the course of those four hours, Sunny became the talk of the plane. Now, she was barely six pounds at the time but to hear the attendants tell it, there was a feral hellcat on board. She’s probably grown with every retelling of the story and the scratches have been upgraded to mortal wounds. I imagine Sunny’s little wander will be a go-to anecdote for those attendants for years to come.

Some time after we arrived the airline tried to get in touch about the incident. Realizing no good would come from any correspondence, we ignored the calls & emails and will never book another flight with [REDACTED] again.

I suppose she’s just about worth it.