Delta dog

This coming Fourth of July Chad and I are planning to head back down to Alabama to visit my sister and her family at their lake house on Smith Lake. It’s about a two-hour drive from the airport but worth every second. The house is located in an isolated section. Weekend activities include wake boarding, swimming, and barbecuing. I go every year and last year was the first time Chad and I went together. We had such a good time that we promised to make the trip every year. Well, I had my fingers crossed behind my back so it was a soft promise.

This year we were planning on bringing Hoffman. He would love running around unleashed, and it would be the first time he swam in water not from a bath tub. On our last trip to Alabama we flew Delta. So I looked up on-line what the regulations were for flying with a pet. Apparently, Hoffman is too large to ride in the cabin with me because he is nearly 35 pounds and wouldn’t fit in a kennel under the seat in front of me. The rules state that Hoffman would have to be placed in a kennel and then stowed below the cabin with the luggage. Of course I am hesitant. I don’t want to put my baby in a cold, lonely cabin with luggage. I want him next to me with his seat belt fastened over his chest, watching movies and sipping Bloody Marys. Chad and I discussed it and after much debate we thought it would be worth the trouble because Hoffman would have such a great time outdoors with the kids. So we decided we would sedate him for the journey, and of course, me as well. Otherwise Chad would kill me during the flight especially if we got held up on the tarmac.

But then I read the most horrible story. 

 

Josiah Allen says his dog, Paco, didn’t make it home in Seaforth, Canada from Mexico. Paco was transported in a kennel below the cabin in the luggage compartment. Delta Air Lines says the dog escaped from a carrier on the tarmac.

“I am hopeful that Delta will be able … to locate and retrieve Paco and that he can come to my home and be loved and cared for,” Allen said.

A Delta spokeswoman, Susan Elliot, said Paco broke out of a dog carrier at the airport in Mexico City, Mexico, on May 3. “Our staff have conducted exhaustive searches to locate the dog,” she said. Unfortunately, they have still not been able to locate Paco.Delta has offered its “sincere apologies that we have been unable to recover the dog,” Elliot said. “The airline has compensated Paco’s owner and offered to reimburse all expenses associated with the dog.”

Reimburse them? How much money does it take to reimburse the love you have for your dog?

When the plane landed in Detroit, Michigan, Allen said, the dog was gone. Delta contends that they couldn’t recall another instance when a dog got lost while its owners were in transit. “This is extremely rare,” insisted Elliot.

I should hope it is rare. How do you lose a dog? How many dogs were on the plane? What is Paco some kind of doggie Houdini? I’m sorry but something is rotten in Denmark and eventually, I fear, we are going to hear that the remains of a dog were found in someone’s Louie Vitton bag.

My prayers are with Josiah Allen and his dog Paco. May you two be reunited again soon.