Once upon a time, as a naive young graduate student, I believed the airline when I called to confirm that I could transport a cat as long as my carrier met X dimensions. Nary a word was mentioned about the need for a soft-sided carrier, and as grad students aren't long on common sense ... I never considered that aspect. Long story short, I showed up at the airport with my hard little carrier and the United people chuckled with glee at having me over a barrel. It was either fork over $75 for their soft-sided cat carrier that they happened to have for sale for people who didn't magically intuit their requirements or leave my cat in the Phoenix airport for a few weeks. I bought it, begrudgingly. I like to think that the stare I gave the sales woman as she offered to check my hard-sided carrier through to my destination as a free perk made my point. Anyway, fast forward six years. That sumptuous carrier (which, despite the $ never did make my coffee, answer the phones, or perform any feats of wonder) had developed a serious glitch in the zippering (i.e., the front zipper gave up the ghost entirely, halfway to the vet, allowing for a lovely 'psycho cat free in the car' story that I'll regale you with later). I came to Amazon looking for a replacement and was amazed to discover that I could get a good looking carrier for less than the price of my remaining kidney. I purchased this in taupe and mink, because who doesn't like pretending that their cats are in the 1%. I have a 15lb Siamese-ish long-bodied idiot. I say that because I'm unsure of his breeding but I'm pretty clear on his IQ limitations. While he's no shining star, he does have an amazing ability to break things. All the things. He's a scientist at heart really, I suppose. If it can't be destroyed by chewing and/or eating it, perhaps it can be clawed, pushed from a height, watered (oh, he's skilled), or otherwise desecrated. I've owned this carrier for a week, and already taken him to the vet in it (consider it a punishment). It carried great - far lighter than my previous carrier but it doesn't lose it's shape and squish him against my side when we're walking (good for his sense of space and my side's sense of not-being-bitten). While he's not fat, he is very long - but he's able to lay comfortably and spin around in there. I like to think the carrier's dusky-pink color enhances what remains of his manhood. Being at home is the real survival test though - he immediately set to work on a series of experiments. Clawing, biting, playing some sort of spinning game with a toy mouse inside the carrier. The nylon hasn't pulled. Carrier 1, idiot cat 0 I did wrap an old t-shirt over the mink pad. Some might say I did that to be nice and comfort the cat when we're away from home; others might intuit that he's an anger-shedder and t-shirts are easier to clean. Whatever the answer, I'm satisfied with my purchase and the price point ($30 some bucks). If he manages to kill it, I'll let you know!