Socks and I go to Canada

      I was leaving Curacao after thirty years and travelling to Canada for the first time to stay with my friend Lyndsay. "Bring your cats" she tells me, and after some thought I decided that would be wonderful. Sadly one of my cats, Kalki, had to be put to sleep shortly before I left so I just had Socks to transport. In hindsight, after my adventure with Socks I am glad I only had to transport one cat!
On the flight to Aruba, Socks had to travel as luggage because it was an island hopper. He seemed to survive that well and was very happy to see me at the airport. Going through Aruban customs was easy, the customs officer took cat and cat box over the X-ray and I went on as usual. I had a few hours wait in Aruba and my friend Sandy met me at the airport.
     As I always seem to have little adventures when I travel, the real fun began when we boarded the flight to Toronto. My cat box did not fit under the seat in front of me and the cabin staff were surprised that I did not have a soft-sided box. I explained that no one had told me I needed a soft sided box so here we were. Fortunately, the flight was not full and we had three seats to ourselves, so Socks was able to sit in his box on the floor in front of the middle seat. He was very quiet all the way and we both had a good flight.
     Arriving in Toronto, I went through immigration and on to customs. It was not easy as I always travel like a Christmas tree, with things hanging off of me, this time with handbag, travel bag, computer and cat box! Once in customs, I put all my belongings where I was told and waited for the cat box to whiz over the X-ray. Oh, No. I was asked to get the cat out of the box. I explained what had happened in Aruba and was told very politely that I was now in Canada and the rules were different. Very well, I opened up the box and tried to take Socks out, but he was having none of that. I pulled and pulled and he stayed put. I tilted up the box but still he would not come out. As you can imagine this took time and the line behind me was getting longer and longer. I was getting more and more embarrassed as I turned to the family behind me and apologized profusely for taking so long. Finally, I asked the customs officer to hold the end of the box up and hopefully Socks would fall out. With a struggle he came out. I clutched him tightly and went through the metal detector. As usual, I set off the alarms because of my bracelets, so I ran, put Socks in the box and got checked. We went on, I paid everything that had to be paid, and of course after taking so much time I missed my connecting flight!
      Fortunately, all the rest of the journey went well and Socks has settled in to his new home that has six dogs, one more cat and a rabbit!