Home again!

Thank you to all of our friends and relatives and other interested parties who inquired about our flight. Here's a little narrative from one who flies "under the seat of the pants":

We boarded two hours late... and sat on the ground for another hour or so. Lighting hit all around us, maybe yards away. Me? Oh, I was in my cozy little car seat UNDER the seat in front of the console. I made a couple of polite comments about my unfortunate situation and the next thing you know Mom covered me with a dark blue US Airways blanket. Like...what am I? A bird?

I took the hint and slept most of the time. There was a 3-year old girl kid on the flight who probably never heard the word "No!" in her entire life. She disobeyed her parents several times and the best her mom could come up with was "Now you've really hurt my feelings. You can't get back into your seat until you say 'I'm Sorry!'." Oh great. The holy terror was climbing over the seats, using a mirror to shine the reading lights all over First Class and into other passengers eyes, and doing other self-entertaining tricks. You got the picture?.

She tried to get me, too. ("Where's the puppy? I wanna pet the puppy!") and she crawled across the aisle on the floor so we were eyeball to eyeball. I gave her a couple of warning arfs, telling her I was working and to back off. She kept coming and Mom said, quite firmly, "NO!!". Her Dad gave Mom a dirty look, and Mom told the little brat...I'm mean...girl, that if she was still awake when we landed she could visit with me. Lucky me. She conked out and was in a stupor when we de-planed at what would be about 3:30AM Eastern time.

As soon as the plane and the gate paired up, I "arfed" a couple of "thank you" barks to the Captain for a job well done. Anytime we land back on the ground after flying 7 miles high is, to my way of thinking, a job well done.

I visited the ladies' room after an eleven-hour stint. The last time was at 4:40PM Eastern, but us Yorkettes have quite a holding tank, you know? Front paws on piddle pad, back end over tile....and SQUAT! Yup. I think I got my point across. Mom flipped the pad over and soaked it all up. "Oh, Mary-Margaret. You must be pretty mad about now, huh?". Well, yeah? You think??

We got home at what would be about 4:45AM Eastern (1:45AM Pacific). I peeked through the slider glass at CATS. CATS IN MY BACK YARD!! Well, I fussed and squeaked so much that Mom let me out to clear the yard and do a patrol of the perimeter. "NO MORE CATS!!", I told her, and I came back in with wet feet and tummy, but with the satisfaction of a job well done.

This is Mary-Margaret "East-West" O'Brien, reporting from Temecula, California. Back to youuuuuuuuuuu, fans.