Hello Folks,
 
I am writing to give some suggestions to those of you who travel with or
without your pets.  Recently I went on two trips.
 
The first trip was to Vancouver, B.C.  (I live in Toronto, by the way.) For
the first time ever we flew cross-country and didn't want to stress the
ferrets by taking them on a plane and then keeping them locked in a hotel
room for a week.  So we employed a pet-sitting service.  I was very nervous
about it but it turned out to be the perfect alternative.  We had a meeting
with the sitter to introduce her to the pets.  That was my opportunity to
point out the "lick, lick, bite" feature so common in ferrets.  We advised
that she wear pants when visiting.  We also asked her to leave a message
every day on my husband's toll-free work number.  So we called in every
evening to hear how our children were doing.  It was nice to hear what cute
things they were doing and just to know that they were surviving without us.
And when we got back the sitter couldn't stop talking about them.  I think
she was going to miss them.  This was her first sitting job for ferrets and
it went really well.  Everyone was happy.
 
My second trip was to Montreal, an easy road trip.  This time we decided to
take the kids.  If possible, we'd always rather have them with us.  Well,
after some searching we were able to find a reasonably-priced hotel that
allowed pets.  We got a room right near the elevator and parked our car in
the garage right near the elevator so there was minimal travel time.  Once
in the room it was a free-for-all.  The were crazed beasts, not only because
it was a new and exciting place, but also because they were sick of being in
the car.  I've always noticed that females sleep just about the whole car
trip while males pace and try to break free the whole time.  We let them run
free in the washroom at night, but they were confined to the cage during the
day - wouldn't want to frighten the cleaning woman.
 
All in all, both alternatives worked out wonderfully for us.  So if you're
thinking of travelling far I would highly suggest employing a pet sitter.
Our babies had their usual free-run of their room and when the sitter came
for an hour every day they had run of the house.  Not bad for such a cheap
price.
 
Becky Shepard
and Claude and Marisol
[Posted in FML issue 1681]