Flight Delay - It's All Majerle's Fault

While planning our flight to Paris, we had to consider the difficulties of winter travel with a dog. Most airlines have minimum temp requirements to fly with a dog in cargo. Our original plan was to fly out of ND or MN, but we ultimately opted for Denver since the weather there is far more consistent and the average temps are warmer than in the north. We also chose an airline that didn't have a temperature restriction for dogs in cargo. We paid quite a bit more for this flight, realizing we could safely bet on traveling that day with Majerle, but burdening Brock's parents with having to drive us to Denver. We drove 8 hours through nearly constant blizzard conditions, sometimes never able to see anything other than pure white in front of us. After a long and nerve-racking drive, we made it to Denver!

The next morning we awoke to news of a major winter storm hitting Chicago which is where we were connecting flights. I checked the flight statuses over & over and while over 500 flights in & out of Chicago had already been cancelled, both of our flights were scheduled to depart on time! When we arrived at the airport however, we were immediately told not to make ourselves comfortable. Having noticed our dog's kennel, the agent advised us that at 6 degrees below zero, it was too cold for dogs to fly in cargo, therefore we were stuck in Denver for the next 2 days until we could catch another flight to Paris. Poor Majerle, he had already been drugged with sedatives and could barely coordinate his little legs to walk.

We were disappointed, since we had already selected our restaurant on google earth for our Friday night dinner in Paris and had a weekend plan of walking all around our new neighborhood, but we also wanted to arrive there safely with a healthy dog. We took the news much better than the couple at the counter next to us whose bunny was denied travel. The bunny, who was supposed to fly in cargo, was also denied into the cabin. The ticket agent explained to some angry passengers that their sweet bunny could potentially escape and chew up crucial airplane wires. This didn't go well with the couple who assured him their rabbit would do no such thing. Their outrage made Brock and I all the more polite to our ticket agent who was merely doing her job and keeping our mutt safe.

We were then told that Saturday, our new departure date, would be a pleasant 40 degrees! 46 degrees warmer than the day we were supposed to leave. Friggin winter!! So now Paris is 2 more days away and I've got a bad craving for a croque monsieur.