[Gpdd] [MISCELLANEOUS] Rodney's Travel Journal Part 3

[Hala Annette]

We packed 6 pieces of fence, the plastic, Rodney's wood house, hammocks, and half the box of food, and water bottle in the suitcases. I had a large Ziploc bag of grass and bag of food in my backpack. I also packed the spare fleece kennel lining with doggy diaper in a large Ziploc bag in my back pack and a clean towel/rag with diaper. My sister packed a small bag of food and grass in her backpack as well. The day we left we got up at 4:30 AM. We were leaving the house at 7:00. We cut vegetables and put them in a Ziploc in my sister's back pack. We let Rodney run around on some rags (our friend rents a house with wood floors) while we took apart his cage. We threw away the whole cage except his dirty hammock which I put in yet another Ziploc bag and his food dish that I washed and put in the suitcase. We put fresh water in the water bottle, put several handfuls of hay in and filled the food dish. We gave Rodney kisses and put him in the kennel, not knowing if he would come
 out alive. We put the cover on the kennel and left for the train station only 5 minutes late. We made it onto the train fine and nobody (even our friends) recognized the kennel. I sat in the window seat and put the kennel on the floor with the door facing the wall so we could open the cover flap and he could get air. When there wasn't anyone walking through the car we put the kennel on our laps and fed him vegetables through the bars. We had to change trains twice. We ran into an old Japanese friend on the first train and when it was time to get off she wanted to help us get our bags off the train. (You only have 30 seconds to get off the train.) She tried to grab the kennel out of my hand. It tipped suddenly nearly on end as I held on for dear life and explained that there was a pet inside. I was afraid Rodney was thrown against the inside and might have been hurt. We had five minutes before the next train and I peaked at him to see if he was okay. He was eating so I
 figured he was fine. Sigh of relief. While we were riding the train we were wishing we could go the whole way across the ocean by train. It's so easy. We arrived at the Airport before 1:00PM and got into the check-in cue. We were nervous and on edge (at least I was) but we tried to look cool and collected. I reminded the family that we weren’t asking any questions. We were just going to act like this was a perfectly normal thing. We can check in at the first class counter, something I highly recommend. You don't have to stand in line as long and they treat you better. We plopped the kennel on the top of the counter and took the cover off. She made a copy of the health certificate and taped it on the top of the kennel. I signed the tag saying he had been fed and they put that on too. They printed the normal luggage routing tag and put it over the handle. We continued to stuff vegetables into the kennel while she did all this. After they finished checking us in a guy carried
 the kennel to the end of the counters and put it on the oversized baggage cart. We didn't know what was going to happen next so my sister and I stayed next to the cart while the rest of our group went to get lunch. 
   
  To be continued
  

 
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