Traveling with Felix

Our cat, Felix, has turned into an excellent little traveler.

“What do you do with your cat?” we are invariably asked when we tell people we are headed off to Mexico to spend the second half of the winter.

“Oh! Felix is from Mexico,” my husband, Peter, tells them. “He’s just coming back with us!” And it is true. Felix enjoys his international status.

We worried, when we first brought him from our tiny apartment in Mexico, that he would feel lost and afraid in our much larger condo in the U.S. To our surprise, Felix loved it. Felix learned that if he got up enough traction in the carpeted bedroom, he could skid down the polished wooden floors in the hall, zoom across the living room, ricochet off the wall and land on the couch, all in a matter of seconds. Our entire condo became a giant cat racecourse.

“Oh,” Peter then said, “he’s never going to be happy going back to that little apartment in Mexico!”

On the contrary, Felix was over-the-moon to discover that he knew exactly where he was when we returned to our little Mexican apartment. He jumped up on his little brushing table (aka the coffee table) and demanded an immediate brushing. He seems to like that Peter and I are forced to be in the same room all the time, and he can sit between us on the couch and keep an eye on us at all times.

Felix also loves Lulu, who comes to clean our apartment twice a week. She plays with him and speaks Spanish to him while she cleans. And he is constantly occupied by the guests and employees coming up and down the stairs outside the screen door of our apartment. They are all very interesting and a little scary (except Lulu), so he watches through the screen and dashes away whenever they get too close, only to come out and spy again as soon as they have passed.

And traveling back and forth with Felix is not bad either.

I had been out of the cat-owning business for a while and was amazed to see how many new options in cat carriers were available.

We ended up with a kitty backpack that I wear with Felix in front. The entire front wall of it is curved plastic, so Felix can watch everything, and I have both hands free for luggage and tickets. The first day I went out walking with it, a couple of small girls called out, “Taylor Swift!”

Since I knew that, unfortunately, I bear no resemblance to Ms. Swift, I googled when I got home and learned that Ms. Swift often travels with one of her cats and has popularized the cat backpack with the domed plastic window. The little girls who spotted Felix in his carrier knew this, and I certainly felt a lot cooler and more au courant once I did.

It is fun traveling with Felix. People in both countries are pleased to see him, a black-and-white ambassador to and from the U.S. and Mexico. He is welcomed by children in both English and Spanish who call out either “Gatito!” or “Kitty!” and he seems quite content with his jet-setting lifestyle.

If the inconveniences of travel ever start to make me anxious or annoyed, I look at Felix, watching the world like a minor celebrity through the window of his Taylor Swift carrier. I’m sure he doesn’t know what will happen next, but like every good mini-celebrity, he is always open to the next adventure.

Till next time,

Carrie