Flight Cat

          There I was in flight, now as a flight attendant I have seen many things this flight however became so much apart of me. We were on a returning flight home to Las Angeles California after a dramatic heart attack in air flying to Wyoming. We were only minutes away from the Wyoming airport and were providing aid as best we could. The women was traveling alone beside her cat, once the women went into the heart attack she had rang for a flight attendant and told us the problem of the chest pain and the tingling in her arm. The three of the four flight attendants ran to her aid and started to help her. As I was helping she looked up at me with tears in her eyes and she said please take my cat and give her a loving home for I can no longer have the companionship of my cat her name is Lilly. Those were the last words she said just before her heart gave out. We were all in shock as we grounded to the air port with silence through out the aircraft. We had paramedics rush on board and get her on the stretcher we all watched with the cunning silence as they tried to work on her. They tried to use the defibrillators on her even after we tried with the aircraft's defibrillators they then took the sheet and covered her whole body and left the aircraft. We then re focused on the passengers of the flight and directed them off.

          Once every passenger was off I went to grab the cat from its carrier and removed her out of it and held her. I had felt very sorry for that cat who had gone on a plane with its owner and then died in flight. As I was holding the cat and thinking of what just happened I had tears fill my eyes for the loss of a women who had loved her cat. I then took the cat with me and sat down to write the report of the heart attack. The cat sat very still in my lap and purred, I couldn't help but think how very affectionate this cat is. I then returned the cat to its carrier washed my hands and put the cat under a set of jump seats in the back of the aircraft. As we prepared for the aircraft for the returning flight home we had all talked about the way we handled the situation and talked about the cat. As we were boarding for the flight home I went to check on the cat and found her meowing I took her out and held her again then thinking she is probably hungry and in need of a litter box. I didn't know what to do, I held her and talked to her and said your going to be okay and put her back into the carrier and again washed my hands. We then took off and left for California, I kept checking on the cat and even gave her some milk to drink from my hand. We then had gotten back to the LAX airport and I picked up the cat and drove to my car. I immediately went to a pet store in my neighborhood and was able to buy cat food, a litter box and litter. I then took her to my house and let her out to check out her new home.

          The next several days I had off from work that next morning I went to see if I could find the woman's obituary online and found it saying how much she had loved to travel and how she would travel with her cat after her husband died four years ago. I felt really sad and overwhelming as I read this and knew she was with her husband again in heaven., I then had an idea came to mind that I could maybe take the cat with me as I fly as a flight attendant. My supervisor called me later that morning and asked how I felt after that flight yesterday. I talked to her for twenty minutes and told her how much the women loved this cat and how she had flown with the cat for four years and how much the women loved to travel I then asked if I could bring my cat on assignments with me and be responsible for the cat as well as the passengers on flight and she agreed. I had learned a lot from this experience with how to handle a death from an emergency in flight and how to love and care for a cat,