Stella's Journey

This blog is about getting to Doha with Stella, our 5 month old Malti-poo.  This is the first time I have ever traveled with a pet inside the airplane and I was very nervous.

We woke up at 4:30am in Clinton Township, MI to take a walk around the neighborhood and one last check of the mail.  My mom came at 6:30am to take us to the airport.  We had a little trouble checking in, but worked it out after we went to a second desk and paid $200 for Stella and $75 for our overweight suitcase.  They were going to charge another $200 for her fake grass potty (extra baggage over our limit) but said we could try and carry it on.  I took Stella out of her travel bag and held her as I went through security and the bag went on the belt.  the we waited in the Delta club before our tiny plane, short ride to Washington DC.  I boarded early as I needed extra time.

We arrived in DC and after our lunch we found a pet relief area, success!  Next we went to the KLM club and they tried to charge us another $200 for Stella, we showed all her paper work and were good to go.  Then she had lunch and took a nap on one of the chairs (in the back corner.)  One more trip to the pet relief area before we boarded our plane to Amsterdam.  I was lucky to have an aisle seat and nobody on my other side.  Another quiet and accident free flight.

 

In Amsterdam there is no pet relief area, so we just prayed.  The flight to Doha was not full at all and I moved my seat so I had the aisle and Stella got the window seat until we landed and she went back underneath the seat in front of me.  I unzipped one small flap so she could get her head out for some fresher air. 

Each plane was able to find space for the fake grass of which she hasn’t used, glad we didn’t pay the $200 to bring it.  Still trying to get over our jet lag, after our early morning walk we take a nap on the couch.