Some days my animals reign over my kingdom. All my life I have done things a bit differently than others. I guess in many ways I have led my life according to my own drum beat. Perhaps that is how at this point in my life I am living with 14 animals; three divine dogs and eleven curious cats! (read more)

Dogs, Cats and Humans packing for trips.

How much do we actually need when travelling?  I think that dogs perhaps join the male population from Mars and the cats join the females from Venus. Dogs like men could care less what they pack as long as it is something to wear.  While Cats like women want all their accouterments with them, frequently over packing and preferring that someone carry their luggage.

I guess on my past travelling adventure, I was more like a cat wishing I was more like a dog. That was the thought I had as I returned from my infamous trip to Florida and New York.  Let me set the stage for this adventure by telling you that I was flying from Carlsbad, Ca to Los Angeles and then on to Florida and soon after that to New York City for a family wedding.

I decided instead of driving the early morning bumper to bumper commute to LAX,  I would take a commuter flight from a small airport near my home to Los Angeles and on to Florida. So at 6:00 AM I got on the plane, checked in my large suitcase for the short flight to LA ready to pick up my luggage in baggage claim and trot off to Virgin American Airlines and onto to Orlando. Well to my surprise, when I went to baggage claim and waited an hour, I got the sinking feeling something was drastically wrong.  How could that be since I was the only checked in bag on that flight and was told by both airlines I had plenty of time between flights?  Especially since it was a commuter flight and most people hand carried their luggage onto the plane. Slightly panicked I spoke with a United Airlines representative and he couldn't figure it out either, but said I better run to my next flight a few terminals way.  I did and figured that my suitcase would arrive on the next flight to Orlando.

Remembering, I guess as they say "back in the day" an airline would fly your bag out on the next flight and have someone in an old van deliver your bag at any time during the night.  I was fairly confident that my clothes would arrive. WRONG!

When I got up the next morning, no bag, and I discovered through tracking that my possessions went to Memphis via FedEx and stayed put. Now this was presenting a problem because very early the next morning I was flying to New York with my sister and had no warm clothes except my cotton dress, a sweater and some over sized Uggs my neighbor had given me from Goodwill the night before. Luckily I had thrown them in my purse as I ran out the door of my house in Ca. So I borrowed a coat and pajamas from my sister and hoped a plane to NYC. Again positive that my bag would arrive that afternoon and my brother in law would have FedEx pick it up and all would be ok, just 1 one day in New York without any warm clothes.  wrong again.

So I put on my cotton dress, sweater and Uggs and headed out the door in 16 degree weather to meet some friends for lunch. By now it was Friday, the day before the wedding and that was the main reason I came to NYC and I was not a happy camper.  I called FedEx and they said they had tried to deliver the suitcase the night before but they had the wrong address and the front security people wouldn't let them in. So they promised that they now had the correct address and would deliver the suitcase sometime that afternoon. And yes they did, my suitcase was now in Florida and I was in New York. at least a little closer to me. My brother in law said he did not want to send the suitcase, but would pack a box for me of some clothes and send it to me FedEx one day air. At this point in my journey I was doubting everything. So I went that afternoon with my sister to Lord & Taylor to buy a few things to wear like nice boots, gloves, a hat, wool pants, sweaters and a suitcase to carry what I purchased and got from my brother in law back home.

Luckily my niece lent me a beautiful dress and velvet jacket to wear for the wedding.  Lo and behold my box arrived Saturday afternoon two hours before the wedding and I was able to wear a few things from my list that I gave my brother in law.  However, I truly think that men and women have a whole different clothes realty when it comes to what is necessary to pack and wear on special occasions. I won't go into what he didn't pack because I am grateful that my coat and flat boots arrived and a bra, but wow Mars and Venus are a few galaxies away from each other.

I am back home in California and my suitcase finally arrived after my sister sent it from Florida. When I called the airlines the other day to find out about reimbursement, they had a recording that said, "due too extreme weather conditions in the East and South, no calls would be answered and no messages could be left".  So travel light and hand carry every thing you want for a week and think of a dog's motto, "Wear what you need, and leave the rest home".