Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (41 page)

Many airlines, however, allow you to take a small dog with you in the passenger compartment. Your dog must weigh less than 15 pounds (or it will have to go cargo). If small enough, however, it can be put in a carrier that will fit under the seat in front of you. You will be responsible for hand carrying your dog into the plane.

The airlines have strict rules about the size
and type of carrier to use with your small dog:

• The carrier may be a hard plastic, metal, or soft-sided one.
  
• There must be adequate ventilation on three sides.
  
• It must be leakproof.
  
• It must fit under the airline seat and be no larger than 17 inches in length, 16 inches in width, and 10½ inches high.
  
• If you will be taking a prop plane or small jet, your carrier can be no larger than 15 inches in length, 16 inches wide, and 10½ inches high. The difference in the 2 inches in length is because the space between seats on the smaller planes means that a larger carrier will not fit under your seat.
  

Be warned that there will be a charge for bringing your dog or cat with you—depending on the airline, anywhere from $50 to $150, whether in cargo or in coach. There is also a limit as to how many dogs can be on a flight. When you book your flight, inquire if any other animals are already boarding. This may well keep you from being bumped off last minute.

Similar rules apply for larger dogs. You provide the hard plastic or metal container or crate for travel in the cargo hold, and it must have at least three well-ventilated sides. Most airlines will only allow two large dogs to ride in cargo on a flight, so confirm with the airline that your dog will be traveling with you on the same airplane when you book. It is a good idea to label the crate with identification and contact information. Add a number to call if for some reason you can’t be reached. Attach this identification so that it cannot be lost during travel. You can also put in feeding instructions and any medical requirements—just in case there is a delay in the two of you getting back together.

Either way, before you’re allowed to board, you will need to show certification of your pet’s health from a veterinarian. This is required for public transportation, interstate shipment, and foreign travel. I do not advise taking your pet if your destination is a country that has a lengthy required quarantine time or any special health hazards. Check on the destination country’s requirements before making your plans.

Generally, try to use nonstop flights and avoid layovers, which require unloading and loading again. It is scary enough to be on a flight, much less the hustle and bustle of being cargo. Realize too that there won’t be the same temperature control in the cargo section, so there will be further stress for your pet. Because of possible temperature extremes, some airlines will not fly pets in cargo in certain months. Check ahead. It is also very helpful to have water available to give as soon as you arrive.

A
UTO
T
RAVEL

Respect motel and campground properties. You and your pet, as well as those that come later, are much more apt to be welcome if you assure the management that you will:

• Never leave a dog alone in a motel room while you go out for an extended period (which may lead to barking and chewing).
  
• Have a bag and scooper with you and clean up any messes, inside or out.
  
• Only bring a neutered or spayed pet. This discourages wandering and terri tory-marking.
  
• Keep the pet on a leash at all times, so it doesn’t charge through tender flowerbeds or bother other guests.
  

These guidelines help make you welcome with your pet when visiting people’s homes, too.

PETS ON THE MOVE

Besides our round-trip vacations, every year many Americans make a significant one-way trip: moving to a new residence. This means an awful lot of animals have to pull up their roots, dealing once more with the stress of getting used to and claiming a new territory, as well as adjusting to new neighborhood challenges.

These relocations can easily disorient animals, so they run off, get lost, and can’t find their way back. So make sure your pet is under your control at all times while the move is in progress. During the hustle and bustle of packing and unpacking, confine the animal to a quiet room, perhaps the bathroom, laundry room, or (for dogs only) a securely fenced yard. During this time, provide your pet with some familiar items for reassurance, such as its bed, some toys, or a favorite rug. Why the excessive precautions? Because this is a time when pets get lost—people coming and going, leaving doors open, scaring the animals with noise. Cats will try to hide and end up inside a crate or furniture in the moving truck. One cat I know about spent two months inside a sofa bed before being found. It was skinny, but it lived.

Some unlucky pets are simply left behind when people move. This usually means slow and painful starvation, illness, bewilderment, or (if they’re lucky) a quicker death by euthanasia in an animal shelter. Others may be foisted off onto a reluctant new caretaker. For example, one of my friends bought a house from a woman that moved back to France. When they moved in to their new house there were two abandoned cats waiting for them and a note saying they would be cursed if they did not take care of them. I suppose this was her way of transferring responsibility!

Pets forced to switch allegiances too many times can develop insecure personalities and behavior problems that make them undesirable to anyone. For the same psychological reasons, a high turnover of family members (through such events as divorce, marriage, birth, death, and children leaving home) can also be stressful to an animal’s sense of security. Try to give your pet as much attention as possible during times of change or upheaval.

Unfortunately, even the most loving people sometimes find they cannot keep a
pet because of housing problems, allergies, animal incompatibility, or other situations that make dealing with animal care an impossibility. If so, follow the Humane Society guidelines (below) to help find your pet a good home. These guidelines also apply to placing a litter of puppies or kittens.

F
INDING
A
N
EW
H
OME

Begin your search for a good adoptive home by advertising through the local paper and posting notices. Run newspaper ads several times to ensure wide coverage. List the animal’s qualities (such as “Loves kids, healthy, quiet, house-trained and affectionate”) and state simply that it needs a home. Post photocopied notices (preferably with an appealing picture of the animal) where responsible people might see them—in community centers, health food stores, doctors’ and veterinarians’ offices, churches, senior citizen centers, and employee lunchrooms.

Many local rescue groups now have Web sites that post pictures of animals needing homes. They might help you out. There are also breed-specific rescue groups that find new home matches across state lines. E-mail is a great tool as well.

Be aware that if you advertise that you’re giving away a pet “for free,” you might attract people who would neglect or mistreat it or sell it to a lab. Unfortunately, such things do happen to pets given away indiscriminately.

When someone calls to express interest, take your pet to
their
home so you can check it out for yourself. This may ease the transition for your pet also. Ask yourself the following questions.

• Does the house have a safe, fenced yard of adequate size?
  
• Is there a dangerous highway nearby?
  
• Will the pet be left alone too much?
  
• Does the interested party appreciate the basics of responsible pet care?
  
• Does anyone in the family oppose the adoption?
  
• Is anyone in the family allergic to animals?
  
• Is the potential caretaker apt to move around a lot?
  
• What happened to any former pets? (Beware of people who have gone through a series of pets that were lost, hit by cars, or given away; this will likely be the fate of yours as well.)
  

If you find it difficult to ask these kinds of questions, remember that a responsible pet care person-to-be will appreciate your concern for your animal.

Though it may be difficult and even sad to place your old friend in a new home, you will feel best in the long run if you take the time and care to do the job well. Some time later you may return to find everyone pleased with the new relationship.

LOST PETS

The danger of losing a pet is not limited to moves and vacations. The possibility is ever present. By tagging your pet with proper I.D.
and licenses and keeping it under your supervision, you greatly reduce its chances of being lost or stolen. Despite the most thoughtful precautions, however, animals sometimes still get lost. Here’s what to do if your pet is missing.

Visit your local animal shelter.
Go in person every day for a week or more after the disappearance. Most such organizations try to find you, but if a pet is unlicensed or not carrying identification, connecting that animal to you is almost impossible. In any case, the burden of responsibility is really yours. Visit all appropriate kennels, asking to see any quarantine, isolation, holding, and receiving rooms. Call out your pet’s name as you go. Giving kennels or shelters a brief description over the phone is inadequate, since only you know your pet for sure. Many shelters are busy places and it is not unusual for the staff to be overworked and unable to remember all the animals there.

While at the shelters, be sure to fill out a lost pet report, providing photos, if possible, as well as noting any unique markings. Also, check out reports of found pets. To prevent possible euthanasia, people who find lost pets often keep them at their homes and just file reports with the local shelter or humane society. I once reunited
a dog with a grateful person this way. Frightened by fireworks, the dog had jumped into the wrong pickup truck during a Fourth of July celebration. When this same truck accidentally rear-ended me on the way home, the driver was astonished to find a dog in the back of his pickup. I filed a “found pet” report and, fortunately, was able to make contact with the dog’s person, who never would have traced this same path with his own inquiries.

Check with local police.
This is particularly important if you have reason to suspect your animal was stolen.

Place an ad in a local daily paper.
Put it in the lost-and-found section. Give a description of the animal, note the area where you last saw it and, if possible, offer a reward.

Post notices in the area where the pet was
lost.
The form shown opposite is a good model. Adding the word “reward” doesn’t hurt. People are more likely to look at your flyer.

Most photos will reproduce adequately on a good copier. Post the notices on telephone poles, at laundromats, and on grocery store bulletin boards. Ask around. Ask the mailperson and neighbors that work at home in the area if they have seen your animal. Ask parents to ask their children. They are the ones who are often most aware of strays. Cats will get into garages and sheds surprisingly often. Our cat would do that occasionally, and one time it took repeated requests before a neighbor would check out his garage—but there our cat was!

REMODELING

A common problem time is remodeling the home. It is enough upset for you, living there, but it is also disorientating and confusing for your dog or cat. They can escape due to workers leaving the doors open or get trapped inside the construction. Patti Howard, a sometimes pet-sitter in Washington, D.C., tells me of the family that went to Hawaii for three weeks while construction was going on in their house (an attractive idea). Unfortunately, they did not arrange a comparable vacation for their pets. The sitter came in to feed the cats and could not find one because the bathroom contractors had walled her into the newly tiled bathroom. One of the cat’s lives was saved by the diligent sitter searching and searching until he heard the muffled “meow” behind the wall. It took a hammer and screwdriver to break through the tile and rescue the cat. Another cat ended up stranded on the rooftop, having reached it through a temporary hole during the remodeling.

The most famous case was when Bill and Hillary Clinton’s home was being renovated and the First Dog, Buddy, ran out and was hit by a car.

Remodeling time takes some thought. Invite your critters in for the planning.

HAZARDS IN THE HOME

Often, animals are unable to understand and avoid certain dangers unique to their human environment. It’s hard to anticipate all the
unexpected things a pet can get into, and we needn’t worry excessively about them, but here are a few basic concerns.

Cats can sometimes die from the complications
of swallowing yarn, string, or rubber
bands.
Because their barbed tongues make it difficult to spit objects out, they may be unable to stop the process once it starts. So offer them a ball of yarn for play only when you’re there to supervise.