If your dog is fat, you’re not getting enough exercise.
~Author Unknown
Play with Me?
The very few airlines that allow dogs to fly in the cabin have a weight limit. Can you believe they don’t even take a cuteness factor into mind when making the final decision?
I was told by the unpleasant woman at Delta Airlines that if Loki is so much as one (1) pound over 20 pounds, he won’t be able to fly with me to see my parents at Christmas. What a nasty surprise that’ll be at 6am the Sunday before Christmas, eh? Can you imagine? I’ll be there with my precious baby, my packed luggage, my anxiety pills, and my ticket; my friend will have dropped me off so I don’t have to leave my car in airport parking and she will be long gone. Then, there will be some woman who’s cranky that she had to get up so early to deal with overweight luggage filled with presents or souvenirs by tired and irritated travelers who really didn’t want to be awake that early either and just want to get to their destination. This cranky woman will see the flag on my account made by the unpleasant woman from the phone and she will insist on weighing my darling Pug, which will require taking him back out of his carrier which took at least 20 minutes and a number of scratches to get him into in the first place.
And if he is even one (1) pound over, she will say he can’t go — because smush-faced Pugs don’t do well in the cargo space and I wouldn’t let them put him there anyway. And at that point, I’d have to change all my outgoing flights so I could find someone to come get my poor baby. Plus, it would break my heart.
I realize that airlines are becoming obnoxious about luggage weight. They are nickel and diming everyone over every ounce of checked luggage. Heck, even to take a pet as a carry-on, it’s $75 to $100 each way. As it is, the rules are getting extremely restrictive. You can take almost nothing with you on vacation anymore.
If you want to bring a laptop and a nice camera, you have to get a special carry-on bag that can pack both, because you can’t check those items — and you wouldn’t want to, right? You can bring one small carry-on luggage bag and another smaller bag such as a laptop case, camera case, tote bag, or purse. You cannot have multiples. For example, the days when we women used to be able to get away with having that extra storage space called a purse because we were women is over; the purse is now considered one of our carry-ons. Note, the pet carry-on counts as the luggage bag.
My last trip, I traveled without Loki, which I really, really hated, but I couldn’t figure out the logistics and I don’t even travel with a laptop anymore to my mother’s total shock. I do carry an almost professional camera with nice lenses that I don’t want broken. As a woman, I need my purse. I don’t know how men live without one. Where do they put all of their shit? I put extra stuff in there when I travel. Plus, I don’t like to put my medicine bottles in my checked luggage ever since the few experiences with the MIA luggage — though it showed up, eventually.
And I realize that every one else who’s going to be getting on planes that day will be considering what to pack and what to carry on. Many of them will push the envelop, especially since it will be the holidays and they have gifts to deliver to friends and family. People will be traveling with noisy, small children that always have tons of accessories like car seats and strollers — and no one ever threatens to weigh them! I just think that the few extra pounds that Loki has put on since last Christmas isn’t going to ruin anyone’s trip if they were to look the other way.
Feed me?
That last trip, I loved spending time with my family during the trip, but I hated not having Loki with me. He really is my therapy dog, even if he isn’t trained. I call him “My Happy Place.” I went to this class on Conflict Management last year where the teacher taught “centering yourself” so you can focus and calmly deal with the situation; she had us pick a place or a person to focus on to use as our “centering thought” and thinking about Loki is what calms me down. He’s just so loyal, charming, companionable, clownish, mischievous, silly, loving, childish, and precious. Even though I can barely take care of myself, having Loki to need me and having him to care for gives me strength. When I’m upset, angry, or anxious, he just is what he is and it’s enough to distract me from my self-destructive thoughts. He’s like my child and I resent that anyone would expect me to just leave my child behind because he weighs more than 20lbs. It distresses me how compassionless people, and especially big companies, are to those of us who need our four-legged companions with us.
Anyway, despite the fact that he behaves as though he’s hungry all of the time, like any normal Pug, this morning, I cut back on his food, which was already one of those “weight watcher” kind of mixes. I told him “no more people food”, but he just wagged his tail at me; I don’t think he quite understood at the time. I’ll just have to be strong when he looks at me with those sad, teary eyes that accuse me of not feeding him. No more plates to lick and no more sharing my snacks. In fact, I’ve decided not to snack at home, which will do me good too. Plus, even though I really can’t afford it right now due to having had to replace my vehicle, I’m going to take him to doggy daycare every day until it’s time to go — I told them this morning that if they see him try to nap, they should shake him awake and make him run around and play the whole 8+ hours.
If this doesn’t work, you may very well see a red head and a chubby Pug wandering around the airport at Christmas begging for a ride to New Mexico…maybe Santa will give us a lift; those reindeer can clearly handle a few extra pounds.
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