At First All Was Well
Thursday, June 8 – Later
At first all was well, but after about an hour one flight attendant decided that “it is forbidden to have the dog out of her case” because, as she explained, “the dog hairs could get on the seat and if someone allergic to dogs sat in the seat on a later flight there would be problems.” I explained that I was already covered in dog hairs, which I had undoubtedly transferred to the seat I was in. But no go – she was very insistent (and very German). So we gave up and put Belle back in her case, and then put the case on the armrest of my seat/bed. It wasn’t too bad, but none of us – not Ed, nor I, nor Belle – got much sleep. Not only that, but after about 12 hours, Belle just couldn’t hold it any more and finally had to pee and poop in her case. Poor thing. And we only had a half hour between flights where we connected in Munich, so we had to rush from one gate to the next and couldn’t take the time to go into a bathroom and clean everything up. Needless to say, the smell was pretty bad. As we boarded the next plane the flight attendants were holding their noses and waving the air in front of their faces!!! I was mortified. (So was Belle - she is such a very good girl, this was beyond the pale - totally unacceptable as far as she was concerned!) But then one of the flight attendants figured out what had happened and was so kind – she gave us about a 100 moistened, scented, towelettes, and Ed really stepped up to the plate, taking Belle's case into the tiny aircraft lavatory (they let us take her out this time) to try and clean things up. He was in there about ½ hour!!!! Have you ever tried to get poop out of Velcro? This case has Velcro everywhere. Poor Ed – it was an impossible task, but he did the best job that was humanly possible. The smell was greatly reduced and we were able to keep Belle on our laps for the rest of the trip.
We arrived right on schedule at 4:15 p.m. local time (6:15 a.m. in LA) on Sunday June 4. Now we had to deal with all our luggage! What a prospect.
At first all was well, but after about an hour one flight attendant decided that “it is forbidden to have the dog out of her case” because, as she explained, “the dog hairs could get on the seat and if someone allergic to dogs sat in the seat on a later flight there would be problems.” I explained that I was already covered in dog hairs, which I had undoubtedly transferred to the seat I was in. But no go – she was very insistent (and very German). So we gave up and put Belle back in her case, and then put the case on the armrest of my seat/bed. It wasn’t too bad, but none of us – not Ed, nor I, nor Belle – got much sleep. Not only that, but after about 12 hours, Belle just couldn’t hold it any more and finally had to pee and poop in her case. Poor thing. And we only had a half hour between flights where we connected in Munich, so we had to rush from one gate to the next and couldn’t take the time to go into a bathroom and clean everything up. Needless to say, the smell was pretty bad. As we boarded the next plane the flight attendants were holding their noses and waving the air in front of their faces!!! I was mortified. (So was Belle - she is such a very good girl, this was beyond the pale - totally unacceptable as far as she was concerned!) But then one of the flight attendants figured out what had happened and was so kind – she gave us about a 100 moistened, scented, towelettes, and Ed really stepped up to the plate, taking Belle's case into the tiny aircraft lavatory (they let us take her out this time) to try and clean things up. He was in there about ½ hour!!!! Have you ever tried to get poop out of Velcro? This case has Velcro everywhere. Poor Ed – it was an impossible task, but he did the best job that was humanly possible. The smell was greatly reduced and we were able to keep Belle on our laps for the rest of the trip.
We arrived right on schedule at 4:15 p.m. local time (6:15 a.m. in LA) on Sunday June 4. Now we had to deal with all our luggage! What a prospect.
posted by Susan Spivak at 3:12 PM
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