Buddy and The Bullies

When the kids and I left the Northwest Territories to come home to Ontario for our 3 week Christmas break, we had an unexpected addition to our party from Inuvik to Edmonton.  While we were eating at Cloud 9, the restaurant at the Inuvik Airport, we were approached by some familiar faces from Tuk.

Kayla approached us hesitantly and said, "I am in a desperate situation and I am so stuck.  Do you think you could do me a favour?".  This peaked my interest.

"Um...sure.  If I can.  What's up?" I replied.

"Well....it's a long story, but here goes...." and Kayla proceeded to describe the following scenario:

Kayla and Chad were moving back to Nova Scotia after working 4 months at the Northern Store up here.  They had gotten married in Nova Scotia just prior to moving to Tuk and due to conflicting schedules at work, they weren't getting any time to spend together, not even weekends or evenings, and as a result, they decided they were going to return home.  They had also recently become quite attached to an 8-week old puppy who was one of a litter of puppies that had been turned out into the cold by a group of unfeeling people who don't spay/neuter their animals and then kill the puppies by sending them out into the brutal polar temperatures.

Chad had found this Husky/Shepherd mix outside the Northern Store, and it followed him home.  He decided to feed it and give it some water since it looked so little and cold and malnourished.  Well, one thing led to another, and before either Chad nor Kayla knew it, this dog had wormed his way into their house, their bed, and most importantly, their affections.  They knew they were going to be leaving Tuk, so when they called to book their airline flights through Expedia, they booked not only themselves but also passage for their puppy.

When booking small dogs or cats on an airline, you may bring them into the cabin with you provided that they are 1.  under 20 lbs; 2 in an appropriate kennel/container that is airline approved; 3. that you don't remove the animal from its carrying case throughout the entirety of the flight; and 4.  that you book passage for the animal because there are only two animals allowed in-cabin per flight.  Given that, when Chad and Kayla booked their flight, they mentioned to the customer service rep from Expedia that they had a dog, and the CSR said right there on the phone that both people and the dog's passage had been booked the entire way from Inuvik, NWT to Halifax, NS.  All was well.

Or so they thought.  When they arrived at the airport the morning of the flight, the airline representative was surprised to hear they had a dog.  On further investigation, not only was the dog not booked on this leg of their trip, but it hadn't been scheduled for any of their flights across Canada! No problem, right?  They just hopped on the phone to Expedia because there must have been some kind of misunderstanding.  Wrong!!  Not only did the people at Expedia insist that they had never booked passage for the dog, but they said that they could not rebook their trip or cancel any part of it.  The Airline Attendant checked and he could get the dog on every leg of their journey to Halifax except the Inuvik to Edmonton part because when the plane stopped in Yellowknife, there were two in-cabin animals boarding from Yellowknife to Edmonton. The trip had been prepaid on a credit card and they would not reimburse any part of their tickets so they could re-book on a flight that could accommodate their beloved puppy.  Expedia was going to make them eat the price of two cross-country tickets and rebook at last minute fares to include the dog.  They were devastated!

This is why Kayla approached us at Cloud 9 and asked us if we could take the puppy with us.  There are two airlines that fly out of Inuvik to Edmonton; Canadian North and First Air.  We were flying with First Air and they were on the Canadian North flight.  We checked with the First Air ticket agent, paid the $50 passage for the dog, and we were good to go.  By this point we had about 15 minutes before the flight was called and so we got loads of last minute puppy instructions, and before we knew it, out we went across the tarmac to our giant plane, up the stairs and on board with a 3-month-old puppy as yet un-named, although Buddy seemed to be what they were calling him for now.

Before I continue, I would like to mention that we owed the universe a debt of humanity.  Our beloved 8-year old kitties, Orlando and Florida, do not travel well to say the least, and there was no way that they would have made it across the country, let alone across London, to be re-homed/fostered to another family while we are going to be out of province.  Anyway, we tried everything we could think of and enlisted loads of help in trying to foster our kitties.  The thing is, who wants two persnickety adult cats?  Nobody.  Things were getting desperate when, thanks to our former Cat Sitter, Rhonda, a foster home was found for Orlando and Florida.  I was so relieved and grateful!  We owed the universe big time, and Rhonda said the only thing she asked in return was that we pay it forward.  This is why, with no prior knowledge of dogs, we found ourselves boarding a flight to Edmonton by way of Norman Wells and Yellowknife with a 3-month-old puppy.

When we boarded the plane, Buddy (as we will call him from here on in....) was asleep on his back spread eagle, or spread puppy, whichever the case may be, with his limbs all stretched out. The Flight Attendant took the case from me and carried it up to our seats for me, and all the while she was saying, "Is he alive?  I am poking at him and he's not waking up!  Is it normal for him to be asleep like that?"  I assumed it was, and we stowed the adorable sleeping puppy down by our feet.  He slept the whole way to Yellowknife.

Here is the where things get creative.  When southbound flights arrive in Yellowknife from Inuvik and other smaller airports in the North, everyone must disembark the plane with all their personal effects, descend the stairs to the tarmac, walk outside in the cold and wind from the plane to the airport door, and go through security, since there are no security measures in place in Inuvik.  When you think about it, who would care if terrorists blew up a plane up here, just so long as it is not close to populated areas, like Yellowknife, which is so far south in the Northwest Territories, it may as well be in Alberta.

This meant putting on our sweaters, coats, and outside accessories, picking up the backpacks, computer bags, my purse AND Buddy the dog in his carrier, disembarking the plane, limping across the slippery and snow-covered tarmac to the airport, praying all the while I didn't slip. We made it inside, and an airport attendant saw me limping and asked if I would like a wheelchair because there was a rather long line for security.  Thank goodness our checked bags did not have to be claimed and re-checked!  By the time we got the wheelchair, let the puppy have a quick bathroom break outside the front of the airport, and got in line for security, another plane had landed and the lineup was about 30 minutes long.  We had been in line about 15 minutes when we heard our flight called for boarding!  I alerted an airport attendant about it and she said, "Oh don't worry!  This happens all the time!  They'll hold the flight for you."  A few minutes later another attendant came by and mentioned that we were the final passengers for the flight to Edmonton and the flight was being held for us.  Would they help us to bump the line? No, not necessary.  So, we waited with Buddy the puppy on his leash in the carrying case so we could pull him out and walk him through the security screening.

You would think that we have gone through enough security lines that we would know what we were doing by now, but each time it's like a whole new experience, depending on the temperament of the security guards working at the time.  Since security had been swamped, they had pulled the janitor of the airport to run the x-ray machine so the rest of the guards could do more specific duties that only they are certified to do.  There I was sitting in my wheelchair getting the kids to put our coats, hats, mittens and scarves into bins, plus backpacks and the computer bag and then this particular security guard wanted us to remove sweaters and shoes too.  I also had one particularly grouchy woman demand passports from me, but not boarding passes, which she threw at me because they were all loaded into the passports, each boarding pass in its appropriate passport, and another separate person yelling at me to give them our boarding passes at the same time as the passports, and when I couldn't produce James' boarding pass because they had been thrown at me by this rude woman I must have dropped one, which couldn't be found.  At this point, they had pulled James and were manhandling him, and I had to step up and tell them to get their hands off my son.  There was no reason to treat him that way, and James was visibly upset by what was happening to him, and then in the middle of all this chaos, the x-ray machine started beeping loudly.  We had forgotten to take the laptop out of the computer bag.  The janitor then started yelling at us, telling me how irresponsible of me it was to have left the computer in the bag and how now it had to go back through the machine and did I know how much time I was wasting?

To recap, I had one person demanding passports from me, another rudely pressuring me for the boarding passes which the other had literally flung at me seconds earlier, all our stuff going through security plus I had to direct the kids to take their extra clothes off and Patrick, who was overwhelmed by the situation, started walking back and forth retreating into his imagination which sparked more controversy, James was being manhandled, the laptop went through the x-ray machine, and while all this was going on, I looked over and saw the dog in his case going through the x-ray machine, which is a huge no-no.  I ignored everybody at that point, struggled out of the wheelchair, and lunged over to the machine, but it was too late.  Buddy had had a total body x-ray.  The janitor then stopped the machine, backed him up  through it, and yelled at me some more about putting a live animal through the machine.  At this point, I just stood there and burst into tears.

At this point I heard somebody say very sternly, "Stop!".  All the security staff stopped and stood back.  Then this wonderful woman, who was not wearing a security uniform, stepped in and took the boarding passes from the one woman and our passports from the other and put them together neat as a pin, just as I had had them arranged when I entered security.  She instructed one of the guards to print James a new boarding pass and she had James returned to our family.  She let me attend to Patrick, and the two of us took the computer out of the bag.  When we tried to take Buddy out of his bag, this wonderful woman laughed and joked, "We know he's safe.  If you ever need x-rays of the poor pup, call us!".  She got other staff to help the kids assemble our belongings and even to help hold our sweaters and coats open for us so we could get back into our winter gear.  She stayed right beside me the whole time giving me a squeeze, and then she personally wheeled me outside to the waiting plane.  We boarded and prepared for take-off.

The plane wasn't even half full, and the flight attendants were able to chat a bit, and one of them said to me, "The security people in this airport are notorious bullies.  They are rude and flaunt their authority like they work in a major US city.  When we realized you hadn't boarded the flight yet and we got word that you were being held up by security, we figured that you were being bullied by them.  They target those in wheelchairs, single parents traveling with a group of kids, and those with a lot of items, all of which you had, including an in-cabin dog.  As you left, we figured it would be your family who had to go through it all, and you did.  At this point, I burst into tears again.  Why would they do that?  To be targeted like that?  At this point, the kids were listening and James started telling the flight staff how he was being treated when I couldn't produce a boarding pass for him which I had had just a few seconds before.  He was still visibly upset by it all, and Charlotte said, "You mean we were being bullied?" and she started crying.  Even Patrick, who had had to retreat during the whole thing, mentioned that it was pretty overwhelming.  When we told the flight staff about Buddy the dog's x-ray, they weren't surprised either.

The good news is, when you are traveling northbound from Edmonton to Inuvik, you go through security at the Edmonton airport so we didn't even has to deplane in Yellowknife when we landed to board more passengers.  Whew!

I am happy to report that after his x-ray, Buddy the dog made it uneventfully to Edmonton, whereupon we waited for a few hours in the baggage claim area for Kayla and Chad to make it to Edmonton on their flight.  Charlotte and Patrick played poor Buddy into oblivion, and a few minutes before Kayla and Chad arrived to claim their puppy, Buddy had curled up into a ball between my feet and fallen asleep.  After a few minutes, he stood up and staggered his way into his carrier, which was all soft and snug, and lay down, zonked in deep puppy sleep.  I zipped up his carrier and when his ecstatic owners arrived, all they had to do was add the carrier to their cart of luggage, and we went our separate ways.

So, Rhonda and the universe.....it has been paid forward.  Kayla and Chad, the only thing I ask of you is that one day, and you'll know when it's right, that you share the love and pay it forward too.