Pep at 30,000 feet

Pep does SW airlines!

This picture above is one of my favorite pictures of Pepper and one which makes me smile during an awful day (like yesterday). This past weekend when we flew to Orange County, we actually brought her with us. It was not cost-effective-- her tickets were more expensive than each of ours (we did get a great Sac-OC deal on SW; however, I still don't understand why there is a "pet" charge for her just being a carry on [replacing one of ours]. She didn't get a seat!). We just had missed her so much the previous weekend when we were in Colorado and didn't feel like leaving her behind again.

Traveling with a dog was a bit of an adventure. Neither of us had done it before. Since we abandoned the "crate" about 2 weeks into having her with us last December (she hated it!), we weren't sure how she'd handle being cooped up in a pet carrier (which, per the airline, had to be collapsible to 8 inches in height). After we purchased it from the Southwest ticket counter, we tried to put her in it for short periods of time and with many treats in the week leading up to our trip.

She shook quite a bit in our arms while we traversed the airport. After security, we were supposed to keep her in the carrier but we (in rebel-fashion) let her out while waiting at the gate for boarding, penned in by various luggage, and she seemed to relax.  We zipped her up in the carrier prior to boarding, where she was supposed to stay for the duration of the flight. We were told that some dogs require anxiolytics prior to flights; however, we didn't want to sedate her and thought she'd probably do fine without a sedative as she's fairly mellow and it was a short (~1 hour) flight. She did.

She had some anxiety during the rumbling with take off, but otherwise, she sat/laid quietly in the carrier. At one point, we just unzipped the carrier a bit so she could stick her face out and watch us; she seemed to relax immediately.  Most of the passengers around us didn't even notice that we had a pet at our feet under the seat in front of us.

In short: SUCCESS! While the weather in SoCal was a bit warm for our furry pooch, it was so fun for K's parents to see their "grand-dog" and his sisters their "canine niece," and we enjoyed her company.  We love having Elise watch Pep when we're out of town, but we are very attached to her and she seems to travel well. We would definitely do it again.