Touch Down in NYC

November 9th. Good afternoon lady's and gentleman,Welcome to JFK. To my surprise we do not pull up to a terminal.W have to get off the plane from the strip and walk to the airport. I think to myself, I am not going to catch a break here. My dog will freak out with all that noise. So now I am just waiting as everyone is getting of the plane. Remember the lady that I talked about going to Israel? Well her and her friends each blessed me on their way off the plane and gave me some encouragement. Then a lady came on board and said she would be taking my cat and putting him back in his cage and taking him to the terminal for Prague. Ok One less thing to worry about. Because three bags, a dog, a cat and two carry on, not happening by myself. I try to get off the plane, and Tesla is not moving. I am trying as hard as I can to get her to get off this darn plane. I walked back up the steps picked her up and carried her off the plane. A man comes up and says" I will take your bags to you're next departing gate for you miss." Thank you so much I replied. I looked and the lady was checking out my cat in pure amazement and I said "promise me you will take care of him, that is my baby you have." She smiled and said "No worries miss , I have a cat too and I know how you feel." So off we go.

Trying to walk Tesla to and through the airport just about broke me down. This dog was so scared and confused she fought me the entire way. I am so thankful we had a three hour layover because it took about 45 minutes to get her to our gate. I know this will sound bad, and to the people in the airport it looked badly and for me it was painful to do. But I was literally dragging Tesla through the NYC airport. Good thing the floors were slippery. In tears, sweating and about ready to pass out from an overload of adrenaline and lack of nutrition, I see our gate and head right in. Then over the loud speaker I hear my name being paged. You have to be kidding me, now what. So I go to the security guards and tell them what is going on and they were NO HELP at all. They told me to go to the phone and pointed to it. I said "I did and it is not working." So I finally found another phone and answered my page. I hear a lady saying " Miss Brown your cat is ....something something... terminal. I thought I heard her say something was wrong with my cat. I asked what is wrong with him. She said you left you cat outside on the terminal. WHAT?? Furious at this point, I calmly explained the entire situation and all she could say was "you need to go back out , get the cat and bring him back through security." Oh no she did not just say that. I replied " your staff left my cat outside, they said they would take care of him and take him to cargo for the flight to Prague. I have a dog and luggage I cannot go all that way again and back though security." She put me on hold for 20 minutes!! Ready to scream she comes back and says "I will call you cell to let you know what is going on." I again said "you need to hurry because my flight leaves in a hour 1/2", and I hung up the phone. You know, I thought I would have some anxiety over the animals but this is over the top Jesus. I kept it together and again, began to pray. People were in awe over Tesla. My poor girl she just laid next to me exhausted. This was such a nightmare for her.I know her enough to know she was exhausted from fear. My phone rings and it is my dad. "Are you ok? What is going on? The airport just called wanting to know what I wanted done with the cat." All I could do was laugh and I explained the situation to him. We continued to talk for a bit and just as I went to say I better go so they can call me, It dawned on me; this will be the last time I would hear my dad's voice for a long, long time. Fighting back the tears and the shaky voice, I told my dad that I would talk to him soon and that I loved him very much. I think he knew and I could hear it in his voice when he said "I love you too." and then we hung up the phone. I sat there for about 30 seconds holding my breath so I would not break down. Phone rings again, this time it is the airport. "We have your cat and he is in cargo for departure to Prague at five PM." Thank you God was all I could get out . Then I asked in double checking mode, he is going to Prague right , you have him set to go on my flight to Prague. With frustration I hear (sigh) " Yes Miss Brown he is going on your flight to Prague at five PM." OK THANK YOU!!

Having a few minutes to rest, regroup and deep breath; I realized that I have not gone to the bathroom since I left my dad's, I have not eaten nor drank anything either.It is four PM already. I have been up since six am. I had no way to go to the bathroom or get something to eat or drink. I had the two bags and Tesla. She was calm and resting and I did not want to bother her. So I decided to wait for my flight. I knew I could have the flight attendant watch T long enough to pee. Plus, I had ten hours to eat something and drink all I needed. My main focus was to keep T as calm and relaxed as possible. So I call my mom, giving her the details after she questioned how I was. I am just like my mamma. I love animals more then people and I am as passionately expressive about my emotions as she is. I inherited the Snow White syndrome from her. However, I would not have it any other way. My mom is the kind of mom that knows what her baby girl is feeling even thousands of miles away without even hearing my voice. She has been known to call me out of the blue and say the darndest things relating to my exact situation at hand. Moms, they know! She also has a way of calming me. Talking to her soothed my intense emotional battle. At this point the spiritual warfare was taking its hardest punches at me. She tried to get me to go pee and to eat something. But I just told her I would wait until my flight. It was time to hang up,my mom, fell apart. She has been so strong through this transition with me. She is my biggest supporter. To hear my mom break down really just brutally tore me up. I have not seen my mom now for three 1/2 years and now to be moving on the other side of the world. We talk just about everyday and now, I do not know when I will get to again. My mom cried out those very words. "I will not get to talk to you or hear your voice for a very, very long time Staciemae." My heart has not been broken like it was at that moment, in such a long time. All I kept saying was " I love Mamma and we will be together soon, I promise." We shared some more words and then said good-bye. Starring off into space, I noticed a nudge at my arm. There was my baby girl coming to comfort me. I just sat,breathing and caressing my dog as we waited to board the plane for Prague. It is almost over, we are half way there.

To be continued.....