One man and his dog

As we pack up the house around him, our chocolate Labrador has looked a little bewildered in recent weeks (they do say that dogs take after their owners), yet more disorientation is still to come.

Due to the hot weather at both departure and arrival locations – Bermuda and Florida, which at the moment could be anywhere in the northern hemisphere, the airlines won’t take our dog. He is too big to go under the seat, and frankly we had neither the time nor the cheek to register him as a ‘service animal.’

So, at great expense, he will fly via cargo jet to the United States, but not Sarasota, he’ll go to New York.

The pet re-location service we are using would happily drive him the 1,200 miles, at of course further great expense, but knowing the flight alone will throw him out of kilter, I have volunteered to drive him myself.

So, whilst my first-class-other half and daughter travel direct to our house on Saturday, me and the dog will fly to New York on Tuesday. Me on United Airlines and him via the cargo jet a service that flies back and forth to Bermuda every single day.

The cargo jet has a temperature controlled storage area for animals, and frankly he won’t know what to think. This the dog bought during the pandemic and hasn’t ever travelled further in a car than a couple of miles.

He will have to clear customs, and hopefully all of his paperwork is correct, and then I’ll collect him from the cargo area, spend the night at a hotel at the airport and on Wednesday begin what I have planned to be a 3-day journey south.

It could be fun, it could be a disaster but a one man and his dog road trip awaits.