SeananSince I have not told this story on Mastodon, and have never told it threaded:
I was flying to the Pacific Northwest to visit friends. Alice was two. So still small (about 16 lbs.).
No issues at the airport, no red flags at security, nothing but net. I get on the plane.
Halfway to my destination, I finish my book and get up to get a new one from my suitcase.
The suitcase meows at me.
Alice pops her head out.
Uh.
Crap.
Alice pops her head out.
Uh.
Crap.
I flag down a flight attendant. "I have a cat."
"I have a dog. Please sit down."
"Meow," says Alice.
"Uh," says the flight attendant.
"I have a dog. Please sit down."
"Meow," says Alice.
"Uh," says the flight attendant.
Alice had REMOVED MOST OF THE CLOTHING from my bag, crawled under what was left, curled up, and gone to sleep.
I had to hold her for the rest of the flight. She thought this was the best idea ever.
I had to buy new clothes AND a cat carrier AND a pet ticket to get her home. And I will never have faith in the TSA again. (Not that I had a lot of faith to begin with, but there's "this is security theater" and then there's "YOU MISSED THE LIVE CAT.")
Lars Karlslund 
@seananmcguire not TSA, as this is Europe, but we have the same safety checks here - all carry on gets at least scanned, and some get manual inspection. I have a friend who had unknowingly (or was unaware of) been carrying a huge PH2 screwdriver in his laptop bag for several trips, until an airport inspection back from Poland finally caught up with him. So security theatre ... yeah. Also how are you going to hijack a plane with a locked cockpit with a screwdriver? It's just nuts.