Pet Cargo cont'd ...

Earlier this week my flight to England was booked for Friday, May 25th at 6:35 pm. After that was done, I called Air Canada Cargo to 'reserve' a spot for Fletch on the flight. I gave the guy all the measurements of the crate (its huge!) as well as the weight of the pet (100 lbs.!) and he put me on hold to calculate the quote .... yeah, so, its going to cost $3000 to ship Fletch to the UK!!! Isn't that crazy!? I have no idea why it costs so much, and thank goodness we don't have to pay for it out of our own pockets, or no offense Fletch, but I don't think you'd be coming along! Regardless of the cost associated with it, the whole process I learned, is completely different from what I thought it would be. I was initially very worried about trying to get myself, my luggage, Fletch and his crate into the airport to check in. When I say the crate is huge, I really mean it - its so huge that it would never fit on the airport carts that they have for luggage...so how on earth was I going to get it around once inside the airport!? This is where much of my anxiety was coming from surrounding the flight with Fletch - I discovered I wasn't that worried about him actually flying, it was more the details of trying to physically handle everything. Well, as it turns out, due to the fact that he is considered 'CARGO', because he's over 70 lbs., he doesn't have to come into the airport with me, I have to drop him off ahead of time at the cargo building .. phew. As hard as its going to be to leave him there, in his crate, it is so much better than me trying to get that monstrosity of a crate around inside a crowded terminal.

All that to say - I feel much better about travelling with Fletch now. Once we get to Heathrow, someone will come and take him off the plane while I go about the usual business of going through customs and getting my luggage. Fletch will be taken to the Animal Reception Center which is about 2 miles away from the airport, and we pick him up there 4-5 hours after the plane arrives. This will give us time to go home, drop off my stuff and then go back to get Fletch ... I know he will be in good hands.

And don't worry - I'll let you know how it goes :)

Team PM
p.s...you know the song 'His eye is on the sparrow'? Do you suppose His eye is on dogs too? I do ;)