Normally, my trip to Delaware takes about 4 hours. My cats are always in their crates in the back seat. Since they have been traveling for many years, they are usually pretty calm. Yesterday, was a traffic day that I will never forget. Let me say, the traffic in the New York metropolitan area is among the worst in the world! North Jersey has gotten almost impossible and is constantly full of traffic delays and problems. At 1:00pm, I left my home with my two cats and headed to the New Jersey Turnpike (for those of you who know me, you know that I despise that road). I figured that 1:00pm on a Tuesday was a good time to leave. There are so many surprises as far as the traffic is concerned in north Jersey that you never know what to expect. As I was traveling south, I immediately knew that there was trouble. Traffic came to a complete standstill. Signs were flashing saying that the turnpike (ENTIRE TURNPIKE) was closed south at exit 14. I could not get off. So we sat for three and a half hours in stopped traffic. I began to get really concerned because my cats were in their crates and we had no way out of this disaster!! Finally after three and a half hours, we crept and crept to the exit. We crept onto route 78, we crept onto the Garden State Parkway southbound. We crept southbound to join the turnpike at exit 11. The nightmare was over but we had another three and a half hours to get to my home in Delaware. It turned out that a dump truck caught fire around Linden, New Jersey. It was a bad accident and someone lost their life. The thing that I cannot comprehend is that the infrastructure in the New York area is so poor, it cannot handle situations like this. The whole area was literally paralyzed!!

The cats did fine and I was much more stressed than them. We got to our home in Delaware fine. My advice to you is to make sure that your cats have are secure in their carriers when traveling. Make sure there is plenty of ventilation! Could you imagine what would have happen if the car did not have air conditioning?? Cats unlike dogs go into a “sleep” mode and usually will not accept food or water while on the road.

Now it’s time to forget this awful day and enjoy the rest of my summer!

Remember, your pets count!

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