On a Jet Plane (Part 1)

So here's what happened when we tried to travel with Cotton. I wrote this while on the plane home and no matter how hard I tried, it was wicked long.  So you get it in two parts instead of one giant novella.  You're on the edge of your seats already, I can tell.  

You may remember I mentioned the trip briefly in this post. Well... Things didn't exactly go as planned. To say the least.

We left Friday afternoon, but I knew early in the day that things were just going to be difficult. Phil and I left the house later than we had planned for some errands by like 45 minutes. Then we went to go get my blood drawn (normal TSH stuff).

Since we got going later than I had wanted, we missed getting to the lab before the rush. I got to have a lovely 30 minute wait to get my blood taken. Then they finally call me back and did the whole needle prick "well I can see the vein and feel the vein but nothing is coming out" business while constantly moving the needle around.

Sound like fun? Yeah it wasn't.

Things were turning around after we dropped off Taylor. We decided to take Cotton to the park for a bathroom break/walk when it started raining. My shoes got soaked. So we made an emergency pit stop at Target for a cheap replacement.

I still hadn't eaten at this point (thanks to the blood draw procedure) so I was getting a tad (or a lot) on edge. I don't function right when I am hungry. We grabbed some food and headed to the airport with Cotton.

Once we arrived at the airport, we headed to the cargo area to drop off Cotton. As we walk through the door, I get an email from United. Our flight was delayed. By an hour and a half. So the cargo people start explaining how that delay makes the connection in Chicago an illegal connection for cargo and now they can't take Cotton because he might miss the connection and get stranded in Chicago.

I can't even think about how much I would freak out if Cotton was stranded somewhere without me. Let's just move on.

So now what do we do?  That flight out of Chicago was the only one that Cotton could go on. We don't have enough time to drive him home or to a kennel. But putting him in a situation where he could get stuck without me wasn't going to happen.

Phil hops on the phone with the pet cargo people (aka sat on hold for 20 minutes) while I called my mom. Maybe she can come get him and then take him to the breeder for boarding? It really was the only option we had because while Phil sat on hold, our flight was delayed again.

{Cotton entertaining himself while Phil tried twice to talk to the pet cargo people}

Then Phil gets hung up on by the pet cargo people and I thought he was going to lose it.  It's probably a good thing they weren't there in person.

I decided to make an executive decision... Cotton wouldn't be coming with us to Virginia.

We dash back onto the freeway, meet my mom at a Target located half way between her house and the airport, rush into to Target to get dog food and some bowls so Cotton can eat, give Cotton to my mom quickly without me losing it and crying hysterically (I wasn't prepared to leave him), and head back to the airport.

My mom seriously saved the day.  I only cried twice.

Tomorrow... Part 2.  Cotton wasn't the only one that missed the connecting flight...