Talisker is booked

When we first started to think about booking our flights to England, I called both Virgin and British Airways to get info about flying our cat. There are a variety of rules for flying Talisker. He can only fly Monday through Friday (kitty immigration is closed on Sundays), he has to fly in the cargo section, the crate must have ventilation on all four sides, there must be a 4 inch gap between the top of his ears and the ceiling of the crate when he is standing up, he must be able to demonstrate that he can turn around without touching any of the sides (how the airline thinks they are going to force him to execute this trick, I have no idea), he must have food and water that attaches to the door, he must have a puppy pee pad and blankets totaling no more than 1 inch thick.at
So we measured our very tall cat and found that the top of his ears measure 15 inches high. Since you cannot buy a pet carrier in whatever size you want, we settled for a 22in tall crate since the others were 14 or 16 inches tall and the LAST thing we need is to be turned away on the day of our flight for inappropriate crating.
I have also been calling British Airways regularly to attempt to book Talisker into cargo, despite them telling me that he can only be booked two weeks in advance ( I don't want them to run out of room for him!!). Finally today was the two week mark. I called twice this morning and was told that the line for pets was too busy and they would call me back. On the third time I told the operator that I really wanted to hold, even if it would be a long time, because I didn't want the pet section to be full by the time someone called me. She suggested that I called back in 30 minutes.
30 minutes later....success!! I got to talk to a real person who was able to book my cat onto the flight, but he said my crate is awfully large for a cat. I told him that I was just following the rules and he said, "It doesn't have to be exactly 4 inches....as long as his head is not touching the roof, it is fine." ARGH. So I went online, ordered the size smaller (this time with 3 day shipping to make sure it gets here).
Anyone need a medium dog sized crate??