Did you know dogs can get passports now? Hogan came into our lives as a rescue. A terrific lady in Kildare found and rescued him when he was quite literally on death row. He’s really one of our family at this stage and I feel like I owe him ever since he chased out two rather nasty burglars we had in our house some years ago. Preparations for his move to America however were almost more complicated than ours. Several months before we flew, he had to get his rabies shot. Then I had to take him back for blood tests to ensure that the vaccine had taken. He also needed lungworm medication, tick, fleas and other parasite repellents – not forgetting his annual check up, weigh in and scrub down. The dog even got a dental check. Hogan gets more medical care than I do! As if all that wasn’t enough I had to get him back to the vet THE DAY BEFORE we flew out so he could write a note to confirm that the dog was ‘fit to fly.’
How ironic is that? If the vet had taken my blood pressure that day, I am quite sure I wouldn’t have passed the medical. Then there was the small matter of booking his plane ticket. I was most anxious about this because if it went wrong at the airport on the day of departure, what was I going to do with the dog? As it happens, Aer Lingus have very particular rules on flying with dogs. You must phone in the booking exactly fourteen days before the flight is due to leave. It cannot be done on line and you must talk to a human (funny because I didn’t think there were any humans left in airline bookings offices). Anyway I spoke to a very nice girl who took my reservation. Her only concern was that he wasn’t a pit bull and that was that. There was no booking reference, no flight ticket – no proof that I had in fact made the call. What happened if this lovely girl forgot to put me in the system? What if she didn’t input Hogan’s name correctly? If I rang back tomorrow it would be too late. High stress. She assured me that the dog was on the plane. He was even in a special pet zone that was pressurised and quite comfortable and no, he wouldn’t be tossed in with the cases. She only had to check it by cargo control and if they had enough room (which they always did) he was in and on and sorted. Then she told me something really nice. The charge for Hogan’s carriage would be one hundred fifty euro. That was a quarter the price of the kids and he’s larger than two of them. The idea of putting a few of the children in the kennel with Hogan did cross my mind but I decided not to suggest it.
The following fourteen days flew by in a flurry of laughter, tears and goodbye lunches and suddenly I was in the airport with Hogan, the children and my husband. It is fair to say that the dog was not happy with the situation but our vet had insisted that he could not be sedated. The flight was too long. We did get quite a few looks as we got to the check in desk with all the cases, kids and the super sized dog on wheels but to be fair to Aer Lingus, Hogan was in the system. A very nice cargo guy came and took the dog away in his cage on wheels and we waved him off. Next time we would see our beloved pet would be on American soil – a long way from a dog rescue kennel in Kildare.
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