Friday, January 28, 2011

Catty

Did you see this?

Snickers, an eleven-week-old hairless kitten, flew from from a breeder in Utah to her new home in Connecticut in the supposedly climate-controlled cargo hold of a Delta Airlines plane. Her new family paid the airline $70 extra so she would be removed immediately. Instead, she sat under the plane for about 50 minutes, on a 10 degree Fahrenheit evening. When she finally met her family, she showed symptoms of severe hypothermia. They tried to warm her up and rushed to a vet, but it was too late.
Cargo holds are pressurized these days, and have temperature control, as well.  Still, I'm sorry, but who does this in the depths of winter to a hairless kitten? 

But if you do, you have to provide at least a little knitted jacket for her from the pet store.  Adding a hot water bottle would be better, safely tucked under several layers of bedding, of course, with kitty's claws having been carefully trimmed beforehand.

Tip:  There's a wonderful product called Hot Hands available in the sporting sections of stores like K-Mart or Wal-Mart.  It's a dry chemical mixture like ThermaCare which, when exposed to air, heats up.  If you wrap this in several layers of rags or a couple of old baby blankets and put it at one end of the cat's kennel so she has the choice of sleeping on it or not, it will keep her warm.


Another Tip:  Whether using a hot water bottle or Hot Hands, you do have to be careful to give kitty  room enough for making this choice, as overheating can kill a small animal, too. 

Okay, with this post I've fulfilled my newly-made vow to the Sisters of Snark to post something catty.

3 comments:

margaret said...

Poor little Snickers. Every time I think of leaving Scotland I remember I'd have to entrust my girls to an airline and that's just not happening.

Anonymous said...

Oh that poor baby! Some people I know pay extra and have their baby on board with them under the seat in front of them.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Nina, yes. But in this case, the cat was being shipped from breeder to buyer, no human accompanying it.