In Atlanta, we went to our connecting gate for the next leg to San Diego and our luck started to run out. Ballou and I had to fly standby since I'm an airline employee. The flight had been wide open just the night before, but that was no longer the case. Besides being full, it was delayed because they were waiting for the pilots to arrive from another flight. I knew that there was one flight attendant jumpseat that was not taken, but it is not standard to fly on the jumpseat with a pet. Where would we put Ballou? In a closet? In an overhead bin? Hey, I would have considered any of those options, but it didn't seem professional to ask. So I waited until I was sure that we really weren't going to get on before I finally mustered the courage to ask one of the agents. He was very busy, and a bit stressed, but I started my question, "Excuse me. I know that there is still a jumpseat available, but I was not standing by for it because I have this cat. (The guy had that kind of glazed over look that says, "I'm busy"). I continued, "He has no tongue! He's going to a Sanctuary!" Now, I had a real human being looking back at me. He said, "I guess if the crew doesn't mind, it wouldn't be a problem." So I left everything and literally ran down the jetway to ask the crew. They too had that glazed over look that said they'd had a stressful boarding with the full flight and the delay. When I got to the part about, "And he has no tongue! He's going to a Sanctuary!" The said, "Well, go get him!" I did. He went under the last row of seats just a few feet away from me. We weren't even going to be that late...until we had to abort our landing. Yup. We were on our final approach, when we all of the sudden started to climb again very sharply. The flight attendant in the back who was working the flight was very glad to have company at that point. The captain came on a few minutes later saying that the flaps were sticking midway and wouldn't go into position. We ended up flying for another half hour or so and then landed with emergency vehicles lining the runway in case we needed them. It was all in all a spectacular entrance made by Ballou!

My friend Paul was there to help us with the final leg of our journey. It was wonderful to see him and we got to do a lot of catching up as we sat in traffic on the long drive to Valley Center. I was really worried about Ballou at that point because he hadn't had any food since the night before. He wasn't even trying to talk. He was just silent. We followed the directions given to us by Stacy. The closer we got to the sanctuary, the more we had to pay attention. There were beautiful hills with mountains in the background and hidden drives. We were desperately trying to read the numbers on posts and mailboxes when I saw the most beautiful thing hanging from a gate.

Ballou was home. We were met by Stacy, her husband Steve, and one animal after another, each one sweeter than the last and each with an amazing story. We fed Ballou right away and then put him in the guest room I was going to be using that night. He of course retreated under the bed, but when I lay on the floor talking to him, he rolled around upside down like his normal flirty self and rubbed his cheeks on anything he could reach. I began to relax too. I took Paul out to dinner and made a new Olive Garden fan out of him. I knew they were good! I turned in early that night and for someone who's not usually a good sleeper, really slept. Until 2:00 in the morning! Ballou jumped up on the bed and was purring and purring. He head butted me, got a couple of hugs, and then jumped over to the window and talked. Then he came back with more purrs and head butts. Then he went back to the other window and talked some more. He was obviously having a good time, so I went back to sleep only to get up at 5:00 and start another long but much less stressful day of flying home. When I got home I went straight to my computer and read the following: