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Airline travel can be stressful, adding a pet into the mix can bring a whole new level of difficulty, headache, and expense. For example, last Thursday our neighbor was supposed to leave the British Virgin Islands for good, and while she is not lucky enough to be heading to Culebra, she was packed and ready to go back home to England. However, her cat had other ideas.

Apparently, while our neighbor was loading her luggage into the taxicab that was going to take her to the airport, Fluffy the cat managed to get the travel crate door open and was last seen heading for the hills at breakneck speed. When we arrived at the scene we discovered a British Virgin Island’s taxi driver standing in the driveway with a very strange look of complete and utter disbelief on his face. I don’t know if the driver’s look of astonishment was because he was afraid of cats, if he thought our neighbor was crazy for carting a cat back to England from the Caribbean, or if he was thinking she was completely insane for (considering) canceling her flight until Fluffy could be found?

Have you seen Fluffy?

As we were walking away from the taxi driver and departing on our walk we managed to speak with our neighbor for a few minutes and she told us if the cat did not come back by 10:00am then she would miss her connecting British Airways flight in Antigua. The next available flight was in five days so she would not be able to leave Tortola until this coming Tuesday. The cat is not stupid…she did not come back…and as of today (Monday morning) our neighbor is still here.

Tip number one - always check that the gate door is properly closed…

In part two tomorrow I will have a look at what airlines charge to travel with a pet, embargoes and blackout dates for pet travel, and animal quarantine at your new destination.