[PyrNet-L] The Next adventure--

[Catherine Oldham <cmo@together.net>]

Sasha, Lilly, and the Next Adventure--

The “woman going to France” who had willed me Sasha and Sasha herself
who had vowed to, and did in fact, “send someone” when she left this
earth were not prepared, however, to deal with “Agony Airlines.”

Nancy Coombs drove the soon-to-be Maranatha Mountain Lilly from Nancy’s
home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to the Baltimore, Maryland Airport, 
so that Lilly could be placed on a direct 45 minute flight to Albany,
New York, where I would be waiting.  It would be an easy, direct flight,
no change overs, no hassles for my beautiful, fluffy, ten-week-old pup.

Nancy called me from the counter-to-counter phone saying that the pup
was about to be loaded  on the plane.  In the background I could hear
loud, healthy, vibrant barking.  Nancy said, with laughter in her voice,
“She’s talking to you already.”

The flight from Baltimore to Albany and the drive from my home in
Readsboro, VT, to Albany would take about the same length of time--45
minutes.  My Dad and I left immediately.  We found the
counter-to-counter building easily and awaited the unloading of the
flight from Baltimore.  As the cargo was unloaded, it occurred to me
that the barking that I had heard from Baltimore was not coming from the
unloading cargo in Albany.  There were goldfish, there were live
rabbits, but there was no Pyr puppy on the plane.

“Where is my dog?”    “Where is she?”   “Did she fall out?”   “What
happened to her?”  I screamed all of these questions at the
counter-to-obviously-not-counter clerk who looked as puzzled and
distraught as I.  

“I don’t know”, he stammered, “I’ll find out,” as  he started a series
of phone calls around the Northeast corridor to locate the “flying Pyr.”

After ten agonizing minutes, the announcement came:   “Well, we found
her,” he smiled.

“Where is she?”  My heart fluttered; my father sat and wiped his brow. 
“Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, and she barks a lot they’re telling me, and she’s in
Norfolk, Virginia!”

The ground crews turned Lilly around, sent her back to Baltimore and
finally to Albany, NY.  In the meantime, Lilly’s future Mom had, shall
we politely say, an animated and stern talk with the ground crew chief
at Baltimore Airport.  Suffice to say that the largely one-way
conversation was punctuated by phrases like “not some out of the pound
puppy”,  “pure bred Great Pyrenees”,  “family will take great pride in
suing your airline”, “ will be nothing for us to follow through on this
travesty.”  When I  think back on the absolute gall and ferocious venom
that came out of my mouth that day, I’m amazed and, I guess, a little
proud that I wanted whoever did this to my girl to feel my wrath.

Lilly finally arrived in Albany.  What should have been a 45 minute
flight turned out to take six hours.  In all that time the wee lass did
not make a mess in her crate.  She stepped out and buried her head in my
lap.  She still does that when she wants comfort.

The not-so-counter-to-counter clerk of the you-know-who airlines
announced with pleasure that the airlines was going to give Lilly a
complimentary flight.   I wonder why???

The next time you send someone, Sasha, could you make the arrival a
little easier?  Thanks, hon.

Catherine