Spinner and I made it to San Diego this evening. I took the photo of Spinner in the hotel room, soon after we arrived. As I write this, she is sleeping on the patio outside the room. This being San Diego, I had dinner on the patio about half an hour ago, looking up at a palm tree while I enjoyed the warm (70 degree) evening outdoors.
What a difference a few hours of travel makes ... this morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow in Montana, and when we left, it was 41 degrees at mid-day.
Spinner was quite scared at first at the Missoula airport. Being blind and deaf, new environments can be very stressful for her. The TSA security guy at the airport had to examine Spinner (say what?), so I had to take her out of the crate. At first she slinked on the ground, cowering, until Mr. TSA put his hands on her. Then -- "oh, that's better!" -- she promptly rolled over for a belly rub. (Canines long ago figured out the art of human manipulation.)
I watched her load at Missoula and then unload in Seattle, each time with a lump in my throat. I couldn't see her load in Seattle. When they closed the doors on the plane to San Diego, I realized they hadn't given me the slip of paper that told me Spinner had loaded too ... so I frantically waved down the flight attendant. (I earlier had told them I had a dog traveling on the flight.) By this time the plane had pulled away from the gate, and I'm thinking, "uh oh, she didn't make it."
The flight attentant scurried to the flight deck, checked with the pilots and ground crew, and came back to confirm that Spinner was in the cargo hold. Whew.
When the Alaska Airlines cargo person brought her out to me at the bustling San Diego airport, all I had to do was blow through the crate door on to her nose, and she wiggled with delight. "There you are!", she seemed to say.
I didn't know what traveling with Spinner would be like. After getting a bit stressed out this morning in Missoula, she has settled down a lot. She is quiet, loves to explore, and I think has come to see this as a big adventure now. Tomorrow we find out if she is a candidate for surgery to restore her vision, and if she is, then the big day is Tuesday!
Hope all goes well tomorrow and that the surgery will work for Spinner!
Posted by: Nina | October 31, 2005 at 07:53 PM