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I can handle myself pretty well in most any stressful situation, but THIS situation was really giving me a run for my money. After driving out to California to get settled in my new home, I had come home to pick up my cat and fly her out to our new home. Jane's situation, unfortunately, is not all that uncommon. After rescuing her from a dirty cage in the back of an abandoned barn, we soon learned that she had been abused pretty badly by her previous owner. It took months to get her to trust me and years before she would let me even hold her. And now I was going to have to put her in a carrier and take her on a 6 hour flight across the country!

After a car ride, a lengthy check-in process and a security check where I actually had to take her OUT of the carrier and carry her through the metal detector, we finally made it to the airport terminal. Though we were both pretty stressed out by then, I knew the best thing I could do for her was to stay as calm as possible and beam that calming energy her way. So I listened to my meditation cd and started taking BIG breaths. The process helped us both. It was working pretty well until they announced the first delay of a ½ hr. Then came the second delay and the third. At the 3 hour mark, I had a pretty strong sense that this flight was not going to take off tonight.   →Read More in Michelle's blog