Cat # 1 has arrived!

Here you can see a bedraggled cat and husband finally on the ground and through customs. It was quite the fun.

The morning started off a little tough, since he was moving out of the current apartment at the same time as transporting a cat.

Step #1 On about 3 hours of sleep, he drove 15 minutes, took a 30 minute ferry, and then drove another 30 minutes or so to get to the plane.

Step #2 Washed cat in airport washroom. Ewwww.

Step # 3 Put cat on plane, boarded plane

Step # 4 Sat on runway for 1.5 hours while they plowed it of snow (missed connections for the rest of the day. Called wife in Malta so she could panic and madly telephone airlines.

Step # 5 Queued at Oslo airport to rebook (# 33 in line). No idea where the cat is at this point. (see step #7b)

Step # 6 Kept queueing - still only # 23

Step # 7a Rebooked an alternative routing. Insisted that the airline must accept the cat. SAS successfully bullied Air Malta into accepting the cat as baggage (cancelled animal handler in Dusseldorf that it took us 4 hours to book originally)

Step # 7b Realized the cat has been doing laps on the baggage belt and felt guilty.....oooops

Steps # 7-10 Took miscellaneous legs around Europe to meet the Air Malta connection in Dusseldorf, hoping the cat was still with him.

Step # 11 And finally, cat and husband arrived in Malta. Both bedraggled and exhausted, but here. The biggest impediment at the customs with the cat was the number of people who wanted to pet him.

Here's the real kicker. After all of that, our old landlord in Ulsteinvik emailed to say Frank (our other cat we haven't seen for six weeks) had shown up at the house the day after Riker was transported to Malta. So we get to do it all again!