09/11/2025
Two humans and 10 cats - update on the Texas cats
Our designated international rescuer Mandy, accompanied by her trusty sidekick and daughter Maya, have returned from deep in the heart of Texas, with 10 new feline Canadians.
Two years ago, a woman in Texas contacted RAPS to make arrangements for her 10 rescue cats to live their lives at the RAPS Cat Sanctuary should she be unable to care for them herself. She had researched all the animal organizations in North America – or enough of them to know who she wanted to care for her beloved survivors. She made provisions in her will and discussed everything in advance with us.
A few weeks ago, we were contacted and learned, sadly, that the woman was in end-of-life care and it was time to pick up the cats.
Here is Mandy’s play-by-play of an… ummm… unforgettable adventure.
We contemplated, with urgent timing, different travel options including driving (four days each way to Dallas and back) or flying. Ultimately, we chose air travel as it seemed to be the least stressful – or at least quickest – way to do this.
Maya and I drove to Seattle for our return flights, parked my van and headed to Dallas. We landed Saturday night and checked into our hotel. The next morning, we headed to the cats’ home to meet them, their temporary caregiver, and their late guardian's sister and niece. They were the loveliest people and were so grateful that their sister, aunt and friend's wishes for her beloved cats were being realized.
The cats, all 10 of them, are all rescues. All but three were very skittish and no doubt distressed and confused without the presence of their human mama and with new faces coming in and out of their domain. They ran to hide under beds, behind and under packing boxes, inside furniture, and behind the washer and dryer. It was a challenge to find all 10. The woman also had two golden retrievers, whom had been rehomed in the weeks before.
We then set out to buy all things for their transport ... carriers, absorbent p*e pads, water bowls, Feliway spray (a synthetic copy of the feline pheromone that calms stressed cats) and so forth.
The next two days had us make several trips and returns and exchanges to Walmart and Petsmart, keeping the cats' comfort in mind.
We also squeezed in some fun over the next two days, including feasting on Mexican and Cajun food, checking out the trendy Dallas neighborhoods of Deep Ellum and the Bishop Art District, Fort Worth Stockyards, the Fort Worth Water Garden and Bonton Organic Farm.
We devised a plan to meet at 3 AM with the cat's caregiver and their guardians’ sister and niece to find and catch the cats to get them into carriers on our day of travel back to Seattle. It was chaotic and we gave ourselves over five hours before our 8:20 AM flight. All veterinary paperwork was in order, health & travel certificates for the cats complete. I made many phone calls to the airline prior to this journey, ensuring I understood everything that needed to be done.
We packed up the rental van with 10 carriers, our luggage and said emotional goodbyes. Arriving at DFW, I dropped Maya and 10 cats off (no easy feat) and started the drive of 12 minutes to the rental car drop-off (no on-site car rentals at DFW). I stopped to pay my entrance/exit ticket at the automated gate... and...
My wallet?!?!? My wallet was gone!
Frantically searching my backpack for my wallet with a growing line-up of impatient cars behind me, I realize my wallet is gone. I am pretty sure it fell out at the house during the chaotic round-up of cats.
I press the "Help" button and beg them to send someone to let me out. Someone comes, writes me up a ticket for the parking fees (and a penalty!) and lets me through the exit gate.
I call the cats' caretaker, Mary, to check the house for my wallet and continue to return the rental van. Fifteen minutes later, Mary calls and says she found my wallet. Which is great. Although the house is 40 minutes to DFW without traffic and there is no way I am getting my wallet back in time to catch our flight. I make arrangements to have my wallet couriered wallet home. Thankfully, my passport was stored separately.
Next disaster, in a series of many... I get on the shuttle back to DFW and realize I am going to the wrong terminal. There are six terminals at DFW. Maya, with 10 impatient cats, is waiting, anxiety at maximum level, in Terminal E. I am en route to Terminal B. This mistake costs me an additional 40 panic-filled minutes, as well as a maxxed out anxiety meter.
Maya’s stress levels are also rising. She has an urgent personal need to find a washroom, which is not feasible while she is sole guardian of 10 cats.
I finally arrive back to Maya, allowing her a moment to get to the washroom, and we load 10 cats onto luggage carts and into the elevator up to the check-in. It's now 7 AM and our flight is at 8:20 AM. The gate attendants are kind and start checking us in. Each cat in its carrier needs to be weighed and paperwork completed for each (this paperwork cannot be completed in
advance). The paperwork would take at least three minutes each, while I scrambled and sweated trying to write as fast as I could. On the third piece of paperwork, the gate agent looked at us and said, "Ladies, I gotta be honest, there is no way you are going to make this flight." Maya bursts into tears. I was simply numb.
We beg the agents to check for the next flight we can take, but (I knew this) there is a heat embargo in summer months, so animals can not fly in cargo on flights departing after 9 AM. We are told we have to make our own arrangements for another flight. We are now stuck on the departure level with 10 stressed cats, no rental vehicle, no hotel, and a missing wallet. Thankfully, the gate agents took pity on us and got us and the cats on a flight at 6:15 AM the next day.
I leave Maya and the cats and shuttle to the car rental place, explaining the situation to Alamo, where I dropped our rental van off less than an hour before. No physical driver's license / no physical credit card = no vehicle rental. I had photocopies of both.
No choice now but to Uber back to the house to retrieve my wallet (an hour each way as it's now rush hour) and Uber back to the car rental place to get a van. Back in the van, I drive to pick up Maya and the cats. We make arrangements to meet the sister at the home, drop off the cats and retrieve the wallet. We secure cats in three separate areas to make the catching and crating process as smooth as possible the second time around.
We make arrangements to meet Mary, the cat caretaker, at 1 AM the next morning to do it all again – only earlier! So another "night" of anxious sleep in a new hotel from 9 PM until midnight and we hit the highway again back to the house. The round-up, crating and loading cats into the van goes much more smoothly the second time around. Practice makes perfect. And Mary, being the sweet person she is but also possibly wanting to ensure we actually get away this time, she accompanies us to the airport.
We park, unload cats (sooooo much easier with three people) and arrive at the gate check-in. It's 3:30 AM, and there are no gate agents in sight. We line up with the cats and other passengers and the gate agents arrive at 4:15 AM.
There's a beautiful, cat-friendly Doberman in front of us and his check-in takes 20 minutes. Panic is again setting in and I am sweating. Check-in for cats takes 20 minutes and then we wait for someone to take us to TSA where the crates for eight cats in cargo need to be inspected – with no cats inside! I kid you not. TSA wants me to remove the cats from the carriers while they take the crates, one by one, into their testing room to check them. There was no mention of this in any of the calls I had with Alaska Air prior to the trip. The cats are all so stressed and they are not easy to handle. I tell TSA that I cannot remove the cats and stand in the public areas as there is a good chance I will lose grip on the struggling, terrified cats and lose them in the airport. We beg them to let me into the room while they inspect the crates and, 10 minutes later, they finally relent.
Meanwhile, time is tick tick ticking away and Maya and I, plus our two in-cabin cats (a maximum of eight animals are permitted in cargo on the flights, so two got to ride with us) still have to clear security. The swabbing of the carriers takes 15 minutes and the cats cooperate in my grip in the inspection room.
Finally, we are done and literally run 10 minutes, with one cat each, to the shortest security line-up that the TSA agent has checked and directed us to. I am no runner and it's already 90 degrees out and Maya and I are panting our way outside along the sidewalk to the shortest security line way on the opposite end of the terminal. (At least we were at the right terminal!)
At security, we encounter an agent with a nasty attitude who, despite our story, directs us to the end of the line (it's not that long thankfully). Now we need to remove the two cats from their carriers and proceed through security while the carriers go through the x-ray. At this point, Maya breaks. Crying and yelling that security people are so unhelpful, and getting scratched by a struggling Syd Jr, who is terrified with the chaos. My cat, Sunshine, also struggles but we make it through, gather our belongings, get yelled at by another security person for leaving our cart (which we did not bring through the scanner... another security person must have pushed it through).
We literally make it to the gate with 20 minutes before boarding begins... only because the flight is delayed slightly. Time to breathe. We made it.
The cats in the cabin do well on the flight. Syd Jr. sleeping peacefully with Maya but Sunshine singing the song of her people with me unless I constantly pet her... so much for the much-needed rest I had hoped to grab on the four-hour flight.
We arrive at SEA and everyone there is so helpful and kind. We load up my van with the cats and drive up to the border, paperwork and story ready.
I roll down my driver window and back window, carriers double stacked in the back, and the border officer, a sweet young woman, asks us about our time in Dallas ... standard questions ... length of time away … how much we have spent ... and does not ask a single question about the 10 cats in the back. She doesn't ask, I don't tell. She hands us back our passports and we drive to the Cat Sanctuary ... astonished that the 10 cats in the back of the van were now Canadian feline citizens without even being acknowledged by the government of Canada.
The cats are settling in now and decompressing after a harrowing and stressful few days. They will be loved and cared for by our RAPS staff and volunteers and their human's wishes fulfilled.
The two humans on the same journey aspire to the same level of resilience.
