Flight home

July 21

10:30 PM

With an hour left until our driver picks us up for the airport, I am sitting here with Paka on my lap playing with her to keep her awake. Hoping to tucker her out so she can sleep on the first leg of our 26-hour door-to-door transit from Masaki Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to White Plains NY, USA.

I have been up since 8:30 in the morning and won’t be going to sleep anytime soon. I am looking forward to getting home. To eating food that doesn’t turn my stomach into a knot. I am also incredibly anxious and nervous. I am generally anxious before a flight but the unknowns with Paka are making my anxiety even worse. What if we don’t have the right documents? Will we be able to get get out of Tanzania? Will we be able to get her on Turkish airlines? Will she make it through customs in NY? So much is up in the air and we are gambling her life on our preparedness without her consent. In addition to the legal obstacles. How will she handle the nearly 30 hours stuck in her crate? How will we feed her? How will we play with her? How will we keep her calm?

11:45 PM

We bring our bags down. Thankfully our driver had arrived early and awaiting us outside the gate. We loaded up our bags and headed to the airport. On the way, we got to see Dar Es Salaam for the first time at night. I enjoyed seeing the lights on the tanzanite bridge, peering into bars to see the patrons there for a thirsty Tuesday, restaurant employees cleaning up after a long day, and street food vendors still actively serving folks. The city had fewer people out but was still very much alive. Leaving I am sad that we didn’t get to experience the nightlife and street food. But I am sure my stomach thanks me.

We also passed under the new railroad bridge. Our driver told us about how the new line is cheaper than the bus AND takes half the time! Cutting the previous 4-hour journey into only 2 hours. Paka is thankfully very tired and quickly went down for a nap. Even while going over the largest bumps and most uneven roads. She didn’t stir or make as much as a squeak.

July 22

12:30 AM

Arriving at the airport we had to go through security right at the door. They were amused and confused by the cat. Katherine took her out of the carrier and held her in her shirt while walking through the x-ray machine. She had specifically wone one of my old shirts to have the extra fabric to wrap around Paka and keep her calm. She had also been practicing holding Paka in this shirt on the days leading up to help reduce the stress of the whole process

The security folks ended up pulling Paka’s travel bag out of the x-ray machine asking if it had sand in it. Confused I went through the bag and found the cat litter. I said, “I don’t have sand but I do have cat litter”. They were clearly confused so I clarified “Sand for cat. Cat poop in sand”. Horrified they ran the ‘cat sand’ separately through the x-ray machine.

In line for Turkish Airlines check-in, every other customer was very interested in our cat. Including some curious children. The attendant had to make copies of our documents. Something their website, office, and phone attendant failed to inform us of. Easy enough but scary having our only physical copy taken into some back room without us.

12:55 AM

Then we had to go through passport control. We asked the agent about the exporting of the cat and he just shrugged. So we continued on the second security screening. The agents were equally entertained with Paka and equally alarmed by the kitty litter. Once through security, we ended up locking ourselves in a handicapped toilet with Paka so she could sleep on Katherine’s lap.

2:00 AM

Two maintenance workers tried to unlock the door of the bathroom we are in. We cry out that the room is occupied. They waited a few minutes and then knock again. I open the door a crack to talk to them and they barge in. Ignoring us and going straight to the hand drier to dry a passport. Confused and in a daze from the abruptness I wasn’t able to get a word out before they were gone. It was a very strange interaction and Paka didn’t enjoy the loud noises from the drier.

4:30 AM

We board our flight after a few delays. Immediately, we notice a tone shift from those we are interacting with. In Tanzania, many folks were confused or disgusted with the cat. But on the plane, every flight attendant was super excited to see her. Each attendant said Hi to Paka each with their own special kitten voice.

We stay awake for take-off feeding Paka 3-4 bits of dry food every 1000 meters. Hoping the movement from chewing helps her ears adjust. She is excited to get more kibble and is scratching and biting at our fingers every time we place some in her carrier.

Once at altitude, Paka cried a little wanting more food. But once she realized we weren’t giving her any the three of us finally passed out.

05:25 AM

We are awoken for breakfast. The water came in the same plastic container as apple sauce comes in. Mind blown. Who knew you could package water like that

11:30 AM

We touch down in Istanbul. Paka was a trooper on the flight. We were able to feed her one serving of wet food. I purposely made it mostly liquid and less tuna because of all the kibble she gets during takeoff and landing. During the landing, I was giving her kibble and having her eat out of my hand. As a consequence, I ended up getting a bite on my middle finger and had a lot of blood.

We were originally thinking that our 3-hour layover in Istanbul was going to be plenty of time for us to make it to our gate, and take Paka out of her carrier. play with her, clean her litter box, and freshen up the carrier. However, due to the delay and many layers of security, our layover ended up being just enough time to make it to our gate (with a few minutes spent at the duty-free shop).

Getting off the plane we first needed to make a long walk to the security queue for international connections. As we were walking we got to an escalator going down a single floor. As we approached we noticed women trying to get on the escalator but clearly scared. We gave her some words of encouragement. And got to experience her first time riding an escalator. It was a special and exhilarating experience. I can’t imagine all the emotions going through her head and admire her bravery.

At the bottom of the escalator, we struck up a conversation with her and her friend. They were going to Istanbul to visit family and were a little unsure of how to navigate the airport. So we walked with them to the exit. Getting to encourage her first time on a moving walkway as well.

12:30 PM

Going through this security was night and day from Dar Es Sallam. The guards were so happy to see the kitten. And while they still had us take the cat litter out for a visual inspection they immediately recognized it and sent us on our way.

We walked quickly through the airport and bumped into a family from Connecticut. They were curious about our cat and we got to talking about the crazy story of adopting her and they told us about a time they rescued a cat from Vermont.

On our way to our gate, we passed by a duty-free shop and noticed a souvenir much like one of Katie’s favorite items from a previous trip to Istanbul. After a quick pit stop there we headed over to the security at the gate. Again they were super nice to us. Seeing the cat they let us cut the line.

At this point our flight was boarding and I took all of our bags and sent Katie to the bathroom to let Paka out for a few minutes and freshen up the carrier. As the agent was going through our bags he found Peggy and was very amused. He picked her up put her on his finger and started joking in Turkish with a fellow coworker. We had a good laugh about the cute baby penguin and went on to board our flight. When boarding one of the Trukish airline staff called out to us saying, “Hi Timothy”! I was taken aback. Seeing the surprise on my face. He explained that he was the one answering my email requests about traveling with Paka

1:20 PM

Once in the air, the staff was so friendly with us stopping by to say hi to us and the cat. Making sure she was comfortable. Even turning a blind eye to us taking her to the lavatory every hour to let her out so we could play with her. clean the litter box, and feed her. Paka was bored for most of the flight but was very well behaved.

5:15 PM

We touch down at JFK. The moment of truth. We have been fretting about US customs for over 2 weeks now.

We disembark the plane and join the massive queue of folks returning to the U S of A. As we move through the line a customs agent flags us mentioning that the digital checking line is open. She helps us download the app on our phone. scan our passport and get into the shorter queue. We are so grateful for this lady helping us.

We get to the customs agent. Scan our digital entry code and wait as he is typing away at his terminal. The wait seems like forever. He finally looks up and says, “It says here you are carrying animal products”. We reply, “ahhh, you mean our cat?!?” Lifting the carrier to his eye level. He looks and replies “Your good to go.”. What!?!?!?! My mind breaks. I question “You don’t need any documentation for the cat”. He quickly replies “Nope. We don’t care about cats”

6:00 PM

We pick up our bags. Walk through the final customs checkpoint and they again don’t care about cats. We couldn’t be more relieved to be back in the states with Paka in hand. It has been a really difficult experience getting her back into the states. We are looking forward to giving her the best life possible. For now, she will stay with my parents until our travels are over.