The Menagerie Archive

As a pup Petie always defecated in the truck (I’m glad I have a pick-up). It didn’t matter how short the ride was. I think he did this because he would get motion sickness. We continued to take Petie everywhere with us despite his sickness, and now he loves to go for car rides. He knows that going for a ride means he gets to visit or do something fun. He likes going places in the car better than the truck. I think he feels closer to us that way, and he doesn’t get rained on either (he thinks he’s made of sugar). I know I should have him in a kennel when he rides in the truck, but unfortunately a horrible experience in the past created a deep fear of dark confined spaces. I have a tie-down that keeps Petie close to the cab and away from the edges. I feel that is fairly safe, so I never saw a reason to try and change his mind about kennels.

When I first got Chelan she would drool, puke, and defecate in the truck. Just like with Petie, it didn’t matter if we were just going around the block. Taking both of them for a ride presented a real problem though. If I tied both of them to truck by the cab Petie would step on Chelan’s tie down, and sometimes he would sit on it, not caring that she was choking to death. I tried to have her in the cab with me, but she drooled and puked too much. I once tied her by the tailgate and found that to be an awful mistake. She had gotten to the point where she was only a little nervous about riding in the back. I was going on a half-hour drive to my parent’s house on a Sunday and had to take the freeway. Petie, knowing where we were going started to get excited when we were approaching the exit I needed to take, started jumping up, and putting his front feet up on the cab. This made Chelan excited, and she started jumping too. She caught wind and started to tumble out; I slammed on my brakes and caught her. I had slowed from 60 mile per hour to 30 and moved to the side of the freeway. Chelan became frightened and jumped out. I came to a complete stop. My boyfriend jumped out of the truck and got to her just as she slipped out of her collar and ran into traffic. He chased her for about five miles but we didn’t catch her that day.

The next morning I called the humane society near where I lost her, and they told me that someone had just called in saying that they had found a husky. I called the number they gave and sure enough it was my little girl. The only thing I could use to describe her was that the fur on her stomach was still growing out from her alteration surgery. The people that found her had taken her to the vet to see if she had been micro-chipped. The vet said all that was wrong was some burn marks on her toes and knuckles; he trimmed one toe nail that was split. I thanked them for caring so much for my girl and sent them a Christmas card. For a while after that she rode in a kennel bungeed to the back of the truck. She was very happy to go in her kennel even though she still defecated in the kennel on long rides. Now she rides in the cab again and only passes silent gas bombs during longer rides.

Petie demands a lot of attention! Petie had to live with a friend of mine for a couple months when I was in the middle of moving. My friend gave Petie lots of attention. He took Petie everywhere just like I do, but one week my friend was required to work a couple of twelve hour shifts. After one of these shifts my friend loaded Petie into his car to go to the store. This was a very normal routine thing that the two of them did all the time with no problems, but on this occasion Petie must have been feeling neglected. While my friend was getting groceries Petie tore up the entire back seat of the car and took a big chunk of padding off the shoulder of the driver’s seat.

This destruction could have easily been avoided by having Petie ride in a kennel, but a kennel the size Petie needs just wouldn’t fit in my friend’s Mazda Protégé, and unfortunately a horrible experience in the past created a deep fear of dark confined spaces.

I have read a lot of personal WolfDog web pages that talk about the destruction of their house, furniture, and personal items as if it were uniquely “wolfy” to be destructive. They seem to act as if it’s just something you have to learn to deal with. I read them and can only wonder…why are you keeping this animal in your home unsupervised? When I was volunteering at as a dog walker for the local animal shelter we received two yellow labs, Jack and Jill. They were released by their owner because one liked to rip up and destroy the sheet rock walls of the house and the other rip and destroy the carpet. I believe they were from the same litter and were only a year old. They simply didn’t know proper indoor behavior, but how are they going to learn if they can do as they please when nobody is home!

If you’re tired of your dog destroying the house while you’re gone, but feel it’s cruel to keep Fido in an airline type kennel while you’re at work, an out door kennel is out of the question for whatever reason, or can’t afford to dog proof a one room of the house let me point out a couple things:

1. Fido isn’t going to get a lot of exercise by behaving unless he merely walks himself through the whole house for the full eight hours you’re at work, which he most likely won’t. All he’s really doing is wandering from one room to the next randomly destroying whatever catches his interest. The bulk of his time is spent laying down chewing on your stuff.

2. Destructive Fido can get hurt chewing on electrical chords, wood he splinters from doors and furniture, or mirrors, glass, and ceramic items that he breaks. He may also get into cupboards and find chemicals and cleaners.

I had a friend, whose Labrador was actually very good in the house, one day the dog went through one of the single pane windows for some reason. The dog jumped back in the house when he was done, and when my friend got home he found his dog bleeding to death from a cut on the back ankle. Each time the dog’s heart beat blood squirted and it made for an expensive emergency vet visit and quite an expensive mess!!

Actual WolfDogs, especially those that are really the high content they were advertised as in the paper may be a special case, where they aren’t being destructive out of boredom, feeling neglected, or lack of training. I’ve heard that their curiosity for things surpasses that of a Malamute so far that they will, as one more reputable website put it, destroy a couch simply to find and kill the squeaky spot. If that is the case then the animal probably doesn’t do very well even when people are home watching him and should defiantly be kept either in a safe enclosure inside or in a kennel or fenced yard outside when nobody is home.

I’ve always kept Petie and Chelan outside in a large yard. The only times I leave them inside are when I’m not home in the evenings during the firecracker month of July. Except for this year they have always done well in the room that I keep them in. This year Petie went into the laundry/bath room, where I keep their water bowl, off to the side of the main room. I can only guess that he had become so frightened of the firecrackers that he tried to hide behind the door, which caused it to close locking him in confined space, then he freaked out and scratched at the door, and ripped the molding pieces off the sides of the door. And just for good measure or maybe out of boredom he tore up three of the five rolls of toilet paper stored there.

I haven’t read nor do I have the book, “I’ll be Home Soon!” by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D. but I have read three of her other books/booklets and they’re awesome. You can get her books from her site Dog’s Best Friend Ltd. The description of the book is as follows:

This booklet explains the difference between dogs who truly have separation anxiety and those that merely misbehave, and then thoroughly describes a behavior modification program for the prevention and treatment of both problems. A treasure chest of ideas for keeping dogs happy and occupied while owners are gone, this booklet can help prevent and treat both minor and serious behavioral problems related to dogs being “home alone.”

I wish I had a book about separation anxiety when Petie was a pup. He used to howl all the time when I would be at work. It didn’t matter that I left lots of toys for him or that I gave him tree branches to chew on, and a large yard to run in. None of this mattered, and my neighbors were complaining about the noise, even though they were contributing to the problem. I found out that I had three neighbors that would come out and give Petie treats every time he started making noise, which of only encouraged him to become worse. I think some of what I did naturally as part of his socialization helped though.

I took him everywhere I went and of course he couldn’t go inside grocery store and some other places, so when I would get out of my truck I’d pet him and tell him that I would be back and, “be a good boy”. He would howl, whine, and cause people to say, “aaawww poor thing.” He would sit there watching me go into the store and then stare at the door I went in waiting for me to come out again. Eventually he learned that I would come back and now he just watches me go, then lies down and takes a nap. At home I was still having problems, so I decided to get a companion for him to play with, Chelan. Thankfully it worked in my favor instead of creating two noise makers. I’ve read that it’s a bad idea to get a second dog as a ‘cure’ for that very reason.

I decided to get a wolfdog because I like big northern breeds of dogs that I can go backpacking and skijoring with. I didn’t want to spend the money for a purebred Malamute or Husky. I didn’t see any puppies at the pound that looked like the breed I wanted, and I didn’t want to adopt an adult dog from the pound.

When I went looking for a wolfdog I really had no idea what to look for. I only had one other dog before Petie and that was a St. Bernard I grew up with (I love big dogs), so I really didn’t know much about dogs in general. All I knew was that Petie’s eyes were clear not weepy, breathing was good, belly didn’t seem to be full of worms, and that he feet were the size of snowshoes. The breeder told me Petie was 88% Timber Wolf mixed with German shepherd. I admit at first the thought of a wild animal living in my home with me seemed pretty cool. I don’t know that I considered it some kind of status symbol, but once the novelty of it wore off he became a part of the family in the same way anyone else’s dog might be to them. I saw both of Petie’s parents one of which looked like a white German shepherd with slightly smaller ears, and the other looked like a very tall husky without the curly tail.

Now that I look back I don’t think the adult dogs I saw were actually the parents. Neither of the two would have let me to believe I would have a 113lb beast. There is no way those dogs could have produced pups together with the heavy Malamute bone structure all the pups I saw seemed to have, but despite how the parents looked and how Petie’s turned out I still believed that he was what the breeder said until Petie was about four years old. Maybe I just wanted to believe I had an exotic animal, but after having Petie for now eight years, answering the same questions over and over again…there are times I wish he looked less exotic so that I can just take him for a walk without being bothered for once.

After learning more about Malamutes I’ve come to realize that Petie is just that, a big Malamute. I think the breeder had a litter without papers and knew they’d fetch more money for hybrids than paperless Malamutes. Most of the traits that so many WolfDog web sites list as being “wolfie” also apply to Malamutes. Those wanting to believe they have an exotic animal may disregard traits that don’t apply to their animal, just as I did, because a WolfDog is a mutt really. I rationalized that while my WolfDog was reported to be 88% wolf that he was more accurately a mere 75%, and therefore didn’t have all those high content wolf traits…just some.

I’m still of the opinion that people should have every right to share their life with whatever animal(s) they choose. I don’t see why some people believe it’s only acceptable for certain animals to be human companions and others are deemed inappropriate. They may say that the animals they wish to regulate a dangerous to humans, but shouldn’t it be the individual’s choice to decide to live on the edge? - So long as they are aware of and cater to the animals’ special needs, which include containment, diet, emotional, and medical well-being. They should also do everything possible to protect their family, neighbors, and neighbor’s property from the animals. This shouldn’t just apply to exotics, but to all animals kept as pets! I’ve read many accounts of domestic dogs attacking and sometimes killing people and I really don’t see how it’s less dangerous or different from a WolfDog attacking and killing. While the WolfDog owner needs to take extra care do to public opinion, local laws, and lack of any standard behavioral traits, I believe it all comes down to responsible owners.

So why did I use a deceptive a WolfDog title when I actually have a Malamute?

I want to catch the attention of people who have or are considering a WolfDog as a pet. Because it’s important to learn about how similar WolfDogs seem to other dogs according to what is described on other web sites about WolfDogs, and how they are not the same at all, so that they really know what to expect.

Take the time to learn about the breed of dog including any special needs that type of dog requires BEFORE before bringing it home, especially any large dog breed. Large dogs can be much more difficult to care for because of food and veterinary cost, housing requirements, public fears, and public lack of respect for large dogs. And due to their size are more dangerous than small dogs if not properly trained and socialized, which is why you only see large breed dogs on the “dangerous dog” lists. Large dogs in general are just not for everyone, and people considering a WolfDog should REALLY do their homework first!

Think About This …

• Every day 60,000 more puppies and kittens are born in the U.S. than people.
• Each year 10-12 million animals are euthanized in shelters for lack of homes.
• In six years, one female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 dogs.
• In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats.
• Purebreds account for 30% of all shelter animals. Just because an animal has “papers” doesn’t mean it should be bred.

Before you breed a pet to “see the miracle of birth,” you should “see the truth” about pet overpopulation. Visit a local shelter.

Spay or neuter your pet. It is the single most important thing you can do to prevent animal cruelty.

This low-cost surgery offers many benefits.

If you cannot afford to spay/neuter you can’t afford that pet!

If you have a large-breed puppy the sooner you get it done the cheaper it’ll be (smaller dose of anesthesia). I believe six weeks is the youngest vets can perform this surgery. If your vet insists on waiting until your healthy pet is six months old – go to another vet! That is an old standard. It is much better to have it done sooner, especially in the case of male cats…unless you like it when they spray urine all over you.

Peace of Mind

Did you know that a spayed or neutered (sterilized) animal is better behaved?

Males

Neutered cats and dogs focus their attention on their human families. On the other hand, unsterilized, unsupervised males roam in search of a mate, risking injury in traffic and in fights with other males. They mark territory by spraying strong-smelling urine on surfaces. Indoors, male dogs may embarrass you by mounting furniture and human legs when stimulated. Don’t confuse aggressiveness with protectiveness; a neutered dog protects his home and family just as well as an un-neutered dog, and many aggression problems can be avoided by early neutering.

Females

While their cycles vary greatly, most female cats exhibit the following signs when in heat: for four or five days, every three weeks, they yowl and urinate more frequently — sometimes all over the house — advertising for mates. Often, they attract un-neutered males who spray urine around the female’s home. Female dogs also attract males from great distances. Female dogs generally have a bloody discharge for about a week, and can conceive for another week or so.

Canines not spayed or neutered are three times more likely to bite than sterilized ones.

Good Medicine

Did you know that a spayed or neutered animal will live a longer, healthier life?

Spaying a female (removing the ovaries and uterus) or neutering a male (removing the testicles) are veterinary procedures performed with the same general anesthesia used in human medicine. Both surgeries usually require minimal hospitalization.

Neutering a male cat or dog by 6 months of age prevents testicular cancer, prostate disease and hernias. Spaying a female cat or dog helps prevent pyometra (a pus-filled uterus) and breast cancer; having this done before the first heat offers the best protection from these diseases. Treatment of pyometra requires hospitalization, intravenous (IV) fluids, antibiotics and spaying. Breast cancer can be fatal in about 50 percent of female dogs and 90 percent of female cats. With an older, seriously ill animal, anesthesia and surgery are complicated and costly.

Responsible Care

Did you know that you can help prevent the suffering and death of countless animals?

One cat or dog who has babies and whose babies have babies can be responsible for the birth of 50 to 200 kittens or puppies in one year! Almost everyone loves puppies and kittens, but some people lose interest when these animals grow up. As a result, millions of cats and dogs of all ages and breeds are euthanized annually or suffer as strays. Rarely surviving for more than a few years on their own, strays can die painfully by starvation, disease, freezing or being hit by cars.

Just the Facts, Please

Myth: A female cat or dog should have a litter before she is spayed.

Fact: Many veterinarians are practicing perfectly safe early sterilization. The likelihood of developing mammary tumors or uterine infections increases the longer a female goes unspayed. In fact, a female spayed before sexual maturity (6 to 9 months of age) has one seventh the risk of an intact female of developing mammary cancer. Spaying a female eliminates the chances of developing pyometra, as the uterus is removed at surgery. In dogs, spaying before the first heat cycle is virtually 100% effective in preventing breast cancer. Not quite as good in cats, but almost!

I don’t think the myth of needing one litter comes from a safety fear but from a people projecting their desires to be a parent. As far as anyone knows, dogs do not grieve their lost capability to reproduce like a human might. Dogs reproduce to ensure survival of their kind, not to nurture a pup for 18 years, watch it go off to college, establish a career, marry, become pillars to the community, and produce grandchildren. Female dogs nurse their pups for a few weeks, teach them doggy social skills, and move on. Male dogs have no fatherly duties, and do not recognize pups as their own.

Many men carry a macho Neanderthal attitude towards neutering their male dogs again; they’re projecting their own feelings of inadequacy about the loss of reproductive ability on their manly dogs. These men usually buy their dog as a trophy or manly symbol and should really look into getting a sports car or monster truck instead.

Myth: Spaying or neutering (sterilization) will alter my pet’s personality.

Fact: Any slight changes will be positive. Regardless of the age when spayed or neutered, your pet will remain a caring, loving and protective companion. Neutering will reduce the need to breed, and that has a calming effect on many animals. Both neutered male canines and felines tend to stop roaming and fighting and lose the desire to mark their territory with urine.

Myth: Companion animals will become fat and lazy if they are neutered.

Fact: Absolutely not! Lack of exercise and overfeeding make pets fat and lazy — not neutering. Your pet will not gain weight if you provide exercise and monitor food intake. Neutering is good for your pet, since sterilized pets tend to live an average of two to three years longer than unsterilized pets.

Myth: Sterilization is a dangerous and painful surgery for my pet.

Fact: Spaying and neutering are the most common surgeries performed on animals. With a minimal amount of home care, your pet will resume normal behavior in a couple of days.

Myth: Children should witness the miracle of birth.

Fact: Countless books and videos are available to teach your children about birth in a responsible manner. Letting your pet produce offspring you have no intention of keeping is teaching your children irresponsibility. Anyone who has seen an animal euthanized in a shelter for lack of a home knows the truth behind this dangerous myth.

If you want your children to witness the miracle of birth, volunteer as a foster home at one of your local animal rescues. I’m sure they will happily provide a pregnant cat or dog that you will be responsible for until their puppies or kittens are weaned (about six weeks old). Usually the rescue will even let you keep one of the kittens or puppies that you fostered.

I was working at this “part time” job where part time apparently means 6 to 14 hours a day six days a week…I’d hate to be full time! The woman I worked for started a company out of her house that uses Border Collies and Australian Shepards to herd geese out of parks so that people can swim in the lakes and sit in the grass without all the poop. I was a dog handler/driver. It wasn’t too bad a job except for the insane boss. All I did all day was drive from park to park and walk one of her dogs. Not too rough, but she had all these insane little rules, and after working there for a month I found out that she has 21 dogs…sixteen of them are kept in airline-type kennels inside her house. They’re only let out for ten minutes twice a day, and only four of them are used for work. In this county you’re supposed to have a kennel license if you have more than four dogs on your property, so I sent out a letter…below is an edited (took out/changed her name, address ‘n stuff) version. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 10, 2004

County Auditor
Licensing Division

To Whom It May Concern:

I currently work as a dog handler for Chris. Chris has 20 acres of land in which she keeps horses, sheep, turkeys, ducks, and dogs. Though she told me she had 17 dogs I actually counted 21. Sixteen of her dogs are kept in airline type kennels inside her house, with no water. The kennels for the dogs inside the house do seem to be the appropriate size for the individual dog that lives in it, but each dog is only allotted ten minutes outside their kennel twice a day to: go potty, drink water, and play. I’m not sure if this qualifies as dog abuse, neglect, or anything, but their living conditions are bad enough that it’s bothering me to not inform someone about it. I don’t think Chris has a kennel license, but either way I would really like to have someone do an inspection regarding the living conditions of her 21 Border Collies and Australian Shepards.

All of the dogs appear to be well fed and healthy (of course I’m only speaking as a plain ‘ol pet owner). Five of the dogs are kept in pens that are about 4’x4’ out in the barn. I don’t know if they’re ever let out to play, but even if they’re not at least they have some room. I’m not as concerned about the barn dogs as I am about the sixteen inside the house.

Four of the dogs (Rhett, Troy, Sam, and Gail) inside the house are used for goose work (herding geese out of parks). The rest of the dogs are retired workers, breeders, or younger dogs (Rim, and Chet) that will be trained for goose work.

The House:
There is stuff stacked from floor to ceiling through out the house, and it’s all covered in several layers of dust and dirt. There are cobwebs everywhere and rats scurrying around in the cupboards! - I have actually seen one run across the floor in front of me. Four of the sixteen indoor dogs are kept in kennels in what would be a dining room just off the kitchen. The other twelve dogs live in a room that is approximately 12’x8’. One entire wall of the dog room is lined with stacked kennels. The walls in the hallway leading to the dog room are coated in dirt and mud from the dogs passing through. Once I saw Gail (the dog I work with) walk across the little bit of carpet that can be seen in what would be a living room and clouds of dust lifted from her steps. None of this would really affect the dogs since they’re kept safely in their kennels, but the air inside the house is terrible. It is literally difficult to breathe in this house…especially when the windows are closed. I really have no comparison for how thick the air is inside that house, except one that very few others have experienced: It’s very much like when I went into the solids room of the sewage treatment plant where my father worked in Alaska.

When the dogs are let out, I don’t think they’re allowed to roam Chris’ twenty acres, but sent to one of the seven outside pens (I’m not entirely sure about this part). The outside pens are about 3’x3’. I looked in the outdoor pens Sunday June 6th 2004 and they all have tall weeds inside as if they haven’t been used at all, but there was also some fresh poop inside one of them. I know none of the dogs are *kept* in these pens.

Possible Animal Abuse:
On Thursday May 20th 2004 I returned from working and went into the house to put Gail back in her kennel. Two of the dogs on the second tier of kennels bark at me every time I’m there, but one was always much more aggressive. She would curl her lip and grow, lunging at the door of her kennel. I had told Chris about this dog’s behavior, and she told me that three of the female Australian Shepard breeders had been used as her guard dogs at one time. I only know two of their names, Eve and Indy. On this particular day Indy (the one more aggressive towards me) had growled and lunged to the point that her kennel was teetering and about to fall on the floor. I put Gail away and quickly left. I was too scared of Indy, even though she’s in a kennel, to push her back into place. I called Chris to let her know what was happening and why I didn’t try to push the kennel back. The next day was my day off. On Saturday May 22nd 2004 when I returned from work I noticed that Indy was very quiet. She wasn’t even standing in her kennel. I looked at every dog to see if she had been switched with another dog, but the only dog barking aggressively was Eve. I was still afraid of Indy, and I didn’t want to open her kennel to see if she was wearing some kind of bark shock collar. Since she is still (as of June 7th 2004) quiet and clam when I go in the room I’m don’t think the dog was drugged, so I can only assume she was abused or something. I don’t want to ask Chris. I can’t really believe anything she says anyway.

I keep in contact with one of Chris’ former employees, and he emailed this story to me about one of Chris’ Horses:

This has to do with her former roommate who supposedly let some dogs in the corral to harass her horse. When she found the horse it was lying down and stuck under the barbwire fence, suffering apparently from a heart attack or the horse equivalent. Of course there was no sign of the mysterious dogs or the roommate. And of course Chris did what any self-respecting horse owner would do: She got out a whip and flayed the poor animal to the point of death. This is because you are supposed to make a horse stand up at all costs (she says). She beat the horse all night and next day called the vet. The horse was in such a way that even the vet cried.

His story about this horse makes me wonder about a story that Chris told me about a former employee (not the employee that told me the horse story) that had abused Gail. Chris said that she never witnessed the abuse herself but was some how able to demonstrate to me how the employee would kick Gail in the chest with the heel of her boot in order to keep Gail from running ahead while on a leash. I don’t know if Gail had to have surgery because of that abuse or for something else, but when I accompanied Chris to her vet on one occasion the vet mentioned Gail and how close to death the dog had been. I didn’t ask what had happened or what the injuries were, but from working with Gail I know that if she exercises too much she starts to favor her right front leg. Chris’ Vet is: #### Veterinary Hospital ####. (###)-###-####.

Address & Directions:
Chris’ house is a blue two-story mass of rotting wood built in 1925 not the nice little trailer you pass by on the right. Keep going on the path. There is a gate that is usually locked… smile you’re on her camera at this point. As you follow the driveway around the house there is a pen to the right with ducks. As of June 10th, 2004 there are three ducks…one has been dead for four to six weeks, but has not been separated from the living ducks. Chris has another camera that looks out onto her vehicles, and if you’re able to get her to invite you into her house you can smile again…there is a third camera in her kitchen…it’s in the smoke detector. I hope you’re current on your tetanus shots.

I’m a current employee of Chris’, so please keep my identity private. I realize it won’t be hard for her to figure out since I’m the only employee right now, but I still would like to try and keep this anonymous. I’m hoping that she will think it’s a past employee that has been giving her problems…I’m not the only one concerned for the dogs. I took some pictures of the dogs in their kennels today. The film hasn’t been developed yet but if you’d like to see them, or if you have any questions you can reach me at: (###) ###-####

Thank you,

Erica

P.S. If you find that this situation is severe enough to remove the dogs from Chris I know someone who would really like to adopt Rhett.

After receiving an apology from Northwest Air Kurt and I responded to the BBB and NWA with this letter…

I have received your letter containing a letter of apology, a copy of rules for traveling with pets and a travel voucher for $200. You stated that “from your personal experience great emphasis is placed on the read back of all reservation information”. I can assure you that no mention of a health certificate was made on any of the three occasions that Kurt spoke with Northwest employees over the phone. Nor was any mention made of it two years prior when we first traveled with our cat. At that time, Kurt informed the Northwest employee taking the reservation that we had never traveled with a pet before and asked if there were any special requirements. I hope this incident causes Northwest airlines to revise its training so that all customers are informed of pertinent rules such as the necessary health certificate.

While the letter of apology is appreciated, the voucher will be of no use to us. First of all, it is issued in my name only; Even though my boyfriend, Kurt ****, is the one who bought the tickets for our ill-fated trip. This voucher is non-transferable and can only be used by me. No compensation is being made to Kurt at all. This voucher also expires within one year. We only travel during Christmas time. The voucher says TCV seats may be limited. Currently, Kurt has over 80,000 frequent flyer miles. He has attempted to use frequent flyer miles to book our Christmas vacations for the last two years to no avail. Even booking the trip three months in advance, there were no available frequent flyer seats for any flights within a week of Christmas. If the use of this TCV is anything like that, I doubt it will be of use to us before it expires. Moreover, this voucher is insufficient to purchase one complete ticket to most destinations, let alone one for each of us. In other words, with the use of this voucher we will still have to pay $300-$400 out of pocket for a pair of tickets. It seems like an insult to me that your “apology” does nothing but force us to give more business to your company. If your apology were sincere you would send us a complete refund of the $586 Kurt spent on the tickets. Another acceptable apology would be a voucher for Kurt and I that would cover the complete cost of two airline tickets that would not expire in a year.

This would be acceptable repayment for (1) the inconvenience of a 24 hour delay, (2) the stress and aggravation caused by your employees treatment of us, (3) the added $45.95 expense to visit a vet in Madison in order to get the health certificate, (4) the inconvenience of arranging an extra nights stay as well as (5) transportation to a veterinarian and (6) back to the airport, and (7) the added expense of boarding our two dogs and our parrot for an extra day in Seattle. All of this could have been avoided if the Northwest employee taking our reservation would have mentioned the need for a health certificate for our cat and not the employee taking our tickets at the gate on our flight back home.

As I mentioned in my last letter: If any of the operators had informed us that a health certificate was necessary, we could have, and would have postponed our October 29th (that’s one day after our reservations were made) vet visit to a date closer to our departure and received the certificate for no extra charge and a lot less misery.

Copy of a letter I wrote to the Better Business Bureaus regarding Northwest Airlines…

The first time we flew with the cat (Dec 2000) we made a point of asking what special requirements were necessary to fly with our cat in the cabin. The person on the phone only indicated that there was an extra fee for the cat and that the carrier must fit under the seat. The person also said that we would have to make a reservation for the cat as soon as possible if we wanted him in the cabin with us since they have a rule restricting the number of pets in the cabin. No mention of a health certificate was made at all. We flew with the cat to our destination and back without any incident involving the cat. No one asked for any health certificate on either leg of the trip.

This year we were told two different fee amounts, and other then the fee we were not given any further rules regarding pets.

The flight to our destination went without incident. Again, no one asked for a health certificate for our cat. However, on our return trip the ticket agent told us that we needed to have a health certificate. We informed the agent that we flew with the cat 2 weeks ago from Seattle, and didn’t need a health certificate. He told us that they must have “dropped the ball”. Another ticket agent R. Krueger stepped in and told us that they were not even required to inform us of this requirement. He said it was only done as courtesy.

We were not able to board the plane. Because of this we had stay an extra night in Wisconsin as well as arrange for transportation to a local vet and to the airport the following day.

The vet visit was $45.95, and merely consisted of me filling out some information on a form and the vet transposing information from our cat’s health records. Our cat’s shots were administered one day after Kurt made our reservations. If any of the operators had informed us that a health certificate was necessary, we could have postponed our October 29th vet visit to a date closer to our departure and received the certificate for no extra charge and a lot less misery.