Hi all!
Well, Bender is officially an American dog now
Yesterday we made the flight from Vienna to Orlando. It was Bender's first flight and I was very worried. He got to come in the cabin with me, and he had a very comfortable (cushy) carrying case I bought him, and he snuggled with his toy snail and penguin for the trip. I was so proud of him! He was in that thing for about 13 hours, with only a couple minutes here and there where I sneaked him halfway out to take a breather and look out the window. He didn't go potty in his case at all, and he slept mostly, only whining when the plane was gaining or losing altitude in large amounts. I think his ears hurt. I didn't use anything to 'dumb down' the situation for him, but we got lucky, and on the long portion of the flight there was no one in the seat next to me, so Bender's bag was strapped in next to me instead of under the seat.
Also, we had a sad experience when going through customs. There was another lady on our flight that was moving back to the US from Europe, and she was about in tears because I had Bender. Supposedly the US embassy in Germany told her that she couldn't take her dog to the US because it wasn't born in America. I don't know who she talked to, but they didn't know what they were talking about. As long as the dog is up to date on his/her shots it's perfectly fine. Anyway, she was forced to give her dog away before leaving. Bender was born in the Czech Republic and raised in Austria. The customs guy didn't even look at his shot record! He took one look at Bender and said "You are such a cutie, how could I not let you in? Welcome to the US."
Anyway, that's our story.
Oh yes, and I forgot. I had a scare in Vienna, because during the security check they forced me to put Bender through the xray machine! I was so afraid it would hurt him, and I fought with them but they insisted. Luckily, all the other security checkpoints let me take him out of the bag to hand inspect him. I hope the trip through the machine doesn't have any bad long term effects.
