Through a bizzare course of events, mainly it being a small world, I went from working in the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico to working in a city called Ismailia, Egypt, 90 minutes north east of Cairo. Our job site had a cat that showed up before I got to Egypt and she was skinny, dirty and pretty beat up. Luckily, some really kind hearted coworkers, all men from varying areas of the commercial diving world took the cat in. She was named Cleopatra, started being well fed, brushed, cleaned up and started to become a very beautiful cat.
She quickly learned when meal times were and who the suckers were (I was included in this group) that were going to share their food with her. As a result, she made herself quite at home in the workshop we have:
Time went on, and she kept get bigger and bigger. We attributed this to her steady diet of chicken, hamburger, and now the addition of canned and dry cat food that she had available 24/7 since we worked around the clock on the job site. Finally, one day when she was sleeping in a shower stall, we had to accept the inevitable..... Cleopatra had either swallowed a football, or she was REALLY pregnant
It was time for me to head back home to the United States and I had considered bringing her home with me. I did not due to not having the proper paperwork ready for customs to travel with a cat. It turns out that this was for the best. If I had brought her home, she would have gone into labor and been giving birth on the airplane right over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I paid for the in flight internet access, and started getting nonstop updates of the new arrivals at the job site.
Cleo ended up having 6 kittens, but unfortunately only 4 of them survived. One that didn't make it was the runt and the other had a deformed leg and could not feed properly. The 4 that survived got plenty of care from their mom and all of the people at the job site. They quickly grew up being indoor kittens, then outdoor, but penned in kittens when started getting destructive, then back to indoor kittens in a different workshop where the people food wasn't kept. One got lucky and was brought home to the US by a coworker at this point when I had gotten back to Egypt. Katy the kitty was the first winner of the Egypt kitten lottery.
When I had gotten back, people said that Cleopatra has disappeared. She left one day and never came back. I like to think she found a good home here. Plenty of the Egyptian workers were very fond of her too. We still haven't seen her again, but we also now had 3 kittens that were completely reliant on us since they had no feral cat skills and have been handled by people since the day they were born.
Cairo (girl)
Kamilah (girl)
Spats (boy)
They were moved indoors and provided plenty of entertainment.
It was coming time to head back home to the USA again and the kittens were now becoming small cats that were unable to be stopped from going wherever they wanted in the workshop. No jail could contain them. So a coworker and myself reached out to the guy who had already brought Katy the kitty home on the plane to see what it took.
For kitten under 6 months old, to get from Egypt to the US on Egypt Air and through customs into the US, they needed a letter of health within 10 days of traveling from a vet saying they were healthy and a rabies vaccination. It turns out that they need "pet passports" photos and all. So spending an afternoon out in Ismailia, Egypt with 3 cats found us at a wedding photography place getting photos of kittens taken. It was one of the more humorous things I have done here.
My coworker took Cairo home first. I ended up having to stay longer for work. Cairo was good for the Cairo to New York 11.5 hour flight, but from New York to Austin, the description I was given of the cat was "whaling banshee for 3.5 hours" under the seat in front of him. Cairo now lives in Austin with 5 other cats and 2 dogs. She is hyper, playful and a terror to all of the other animals in the house. She was always the most outspoken one of the litter.
My girlfriend was coming to Egypt for us to take a vacation, so she was able to bring the bag-o-cat supplies including airline approved carriers, calming pheromone collars, and a Benadryl based medicine to help them sleep. Since you can only have one pet per person, her coming to Egypt meant that we could bring Kamilah and Spats home together.
After our 2 weeks traveling up and down the Nile river, it was time to go retrieve the cats from work and prep for the trip back to the USA. The carriers had fold out sides to make more room which worked out perfectly on the flight from Cairo to New York.
Both cats fit into one carrier under the seat in front of us in business class, which I upgraded to out of my own pocket to have that much more room to deal with the cats if need be. Armed with plenty of baggage, two pet carriers and people and pet passports, we made it onto the flight. Adding the blanket over the carrier helped them sleep most of the 11.5 hour flight, along with the Benadryl induced kitty coma. Once we arrived, and went through customs were all went smooth, the last two Egyptian kittens were officially US residents!!!!!!
We had an overnight layover in New York, which worked out great for us and the cats to get some exercise, eat drink, get cleaned up and get ready for the final leg of the trip from New York to New Orleans.
We loaded the cats back up into the carriers the next morning, but they had to stay in separate ones this time. We flew Jet Blue and got the extra leg room, but normal coach seats. Dosed up on Benadryl again, luckily for us, the cats fell asleep just after take off and slept the whole flight all the way to New Orleans, only waking up after we had landed and were taxiing to the gate.
One last car ride to my house, and they have settled in wonderfully. They are spoiled, love having windows with a view and are either playing or sleeping all day and night.
When I am out of town for work, they are living at my parents house, being equally spoiled and enjoying the view from the suction cup window hammocks looking at the normal bird feeders and well as the humming bird feeders right outside the window.
And that's the story of the Egyptian kittens who won the lottery.