Flying fur! We have Gayle Martz to thank for creating a soft sided pet carrier and for persuading airlines to let dogs travel. Actually, we have her Lhasa Apso Sherpa to thank because Sherpa would sit quietly in the carrier while Gayle talked on and on and on to airline execs about how quiet and good and perfect pets would be in cabin.
But the new thing is Jet Blue starting an airline Miles-For-Pets-Program, and allowing more pets in cabin per flight than other airline previously and even selling a pet carrier and travel kit. Well, of course that’s just commerce isn’t it: sell product and aggrandize your own commercialism into altruism… but this brings me to the main point.
Dogs are big (we know, we know already) and dogs are evolving rapidly. One century they were snarling outside the campsite and, in only a few hundred years, here they are sitting patiently in a duffle 10,000 feet in the air. It’s the new nomadism. And people are evolving too. One century we couldn’t manage without sled dogs and watch dogs and hunting dogs, and next, just a few centuries later, we were all about compartmenlizing the dog into doghouses (for the unfortunate) and dog shows (for the slightly more fortunate.) And now, we can’t leave town without a dog, well behaved and sociable and patient. Especially patient.
On one of our flights to Puerto Rico, with particularly un-evolved flight attendants, we were sorely tried by those nervous ninnies telling us that if “that dog” barked while in flight, he would be carried to the” lockup” in the luggage hold. And meanwhile all “that dog” did was snore mildly and dream of Puerto Rico’s endless dog beach. (But more about that later.)
Point being… it’s getting easier and easier to put the pup on the plane which is just about the only good news I’ve read in months. Think about it and you’ll know I’m right. A small, small part of the world is getting better.
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