The most frightening moment of any trip for most kitten owners traveling by air is walking through the security X-ray checkpoint. Officers will instruct you to remove the kitten from the carrier, place the carrier on the conveyor belt, and carry your kitten through the human X-ray scanner. Never place your kitten in the carrier to send through the X-ray conveyer.

While you try to walk through those X-ray arches and return your kitten to his carrier, alarms are blaring, people are dropping change and keys into metal bowls, and any number of other unfamiliar noises, sights, and motions are scaring the fur off of your kitty. He will struggle. Make sure you have a harness on him. Security may not be too helpful. They may even watch nonchalantly as your kitten scratches three layers of flesh from your chest while you try to fit a spread-eagle four-legged acrobat into a carrier opening. If you're traveling with a companion, have him go through the checkpoint first so he can hold the carrier door open for you.