Around the Patch

That ad campaign also made me remember I had some family members at home who hadn’t been on an airplane ride.

Dogs that enjoy riding in cars generally enjoy flying in airplanes. That’s the conventional wisdom, and it holds up for the most part—although dogs that ride in cars without an issue can become airsick, so many pilots don’t feed dogs before taking them up.

I once toted our Pomeranian, Dobi, down to the Outer Banks for a fall weekend at a dog-friendly beachside hotel. Dobi didn’t have such a great experience. She threw up in the backseat on the way down and on the way back. She pawed off the Mutt Muffs that had taken many minutes to secure to her tennis-ball-sized head. That was the first and last time Dobi flew.

I had better luck with Sammy. She enjoyed riding in cars. She would sit in the back and look out—or stick her nose out the open window, weather permitting—with a serenity that all our other dogs have lacked. No whimpering or barking; no bouncing back and forth between windows. She would simply take in all there was to see.

I wanted to take her flying, so I finally did. She was 13 years old and 56 pounds, so it wasn’t easy to load her into the back of my Piper Cherokee. She didn’t understand that she was to head into the open passenger-side door, and she tried to walk out onto the right wing. Once in the backseat, however, she realized that she had simply been helped into another kind of vehicle. She sat up, just as she had always done in our car, ready to take in the view. She didn’t lie down or move around; she simply gazed out the rear window and watched the Earth below, much as she’d watched cars and people and landscapes while traveling on the ground.

When we were finished with our flight, I drove to the nearest drive-through and bought Sammy a $100 hamburger. She had earned it.

That was our one flight. For me, it was enough. For Sammy, who knows? Dogs just like to be with their people, and while she enjoyed her hamburger, she probably wouldn’t have cared whether we went for a walk, or a drive, or a flight. Still, I’m glad I took her flying. This picture is from November 2012, before arthritis and a tumor eventually took their toll.

If you want to take your four-legged family member flying, I’d suggest you try it at least once. By the way, if you take a cat flying, you better send me photos and a detailed write-up of how that worked out for you. Please.