I've enjoyed reading about ferrets smuggled onto airplanes.  When we were
planning Ellie's first plane trip in the spring, we didn't know of
anybody else who had done this.  My daughter Jenny took Ellie across the
country, with one stopover, with no trouble.  As others have mentioned,
she got through security by tucking Ellie inside her sweatshirt and
waiting for her to calm down, then immediately went into a bathroom and
transferred her to a zippered backpack-suitcase.  During the flights
Jenny again moved Ellie to her sweatshirt, where she slept peacefully.
 
The trip back across the country a few months later, however, did not go
as well.  During the one-hour stopover in the Chicago airport, Jenny
was relaxing, when she realized that Ellie was 20 feet away, under the
feet of some other seated people.  Ellie had apparently figured out how
to open the zipper from the inside!  Jenny immediately scooped her up,
and back into the suitcase.  It seemed that all was OK again, except that
while boarding the plane, a woman declared to the airline people, "That
girl there has a ferret with her."  (old busybody)  The flight attendant
came over to Jenny's seat and told her that ferrets were not permitted.
They discussed it, and since the flight would be less than an hour, the
attendant said that if Jenny bought a cage, she could put it under the
seat.  (What irony -- a cage under the seat is what we would have
preferred all along, if only the airline permitted it for ferrets.)  So
Jenny left the plane, bought a cage from the airline, transferred Ellie
to it, and continued the trip with no more problems.  The only trouble is
that the whole experience traumatized Jenny so much that she refuses to
take Ellie on a plane again!  I'm hoping that she changes her mind by
next summer, since I so look forward to ferret-sitting my grandferret
every summer.
 
 
[Posted in FML issue 0661]