One of my all time favorite books is Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck. A great retelling of his trip around the USA with his big standard Poodle in a camper.
Well I am on my own odyssey of sorts with my Pooch Jake. Jake is a SE ASian Street dog given to me as a present when I lived there. He is just a medium sized brown dog with a big bushy tail curled over his back, long pointed snout and an intelligent face. As some of you may remember I posted about it here earlier. 4 months in Europe with my dog...and how is it working out?
In a word, so far, GREAT. Getting him checked in at Dulles with Air France could not have been smoother. I let a supervisor know that I had my dog and from then on it was like I was in First class. They took me to my own check-in line checked me in, took me to the security guy to have the kennel checked and then sent me on my way to the gate. It took less than 1/2 an hour.
Of course I did have all my paperwork in order and handy in it’s own folder.
At arrival at CDG Air France brought Jake out about 10 minutes after we arrived in the Baggage Claim area. The only bag we had checked (other than Jake) was his suitcase containing his bed, His Toy pig, leash, food and other stuff. There was not even a question by anyone about bringing him into France.
One of the things I do that makes the entire process go smoothly is to tape a plastic folder to the top of his crate with copies of all the relevant documents in it. His name is printed boldly on the front and back of the crate and my name, email and phone number were also on the crate.
Our Driver which was prearranged was great and patient and got us into Paris with no Problems.
We stayed at an Airbnb (please dont comment about AirBnb Policies here) which knew about Jake and welcomed him with open arms. Jake seemed to like his new “home” and got used to the tiny elevator quickly. He seemed to love Paris and had his own version of the sidewalk cafe...he would find delicious bits of stuff as we walked around.
Now Jake is not a dog that is used to crowds and people scare him a bit. He is wary of strangers and doesn’t make friends easily. He is fiercely protective and loyal to a fault however. But he negotiated the busy streets of Paris and even the Chatelet Les Halles huge Metro station with no problem. His first Metro ride was a breeze. The only scary part for him was an escalator.
Lots of restaurants and cafes have water dishes out for dogs so he rarely went thirsty on some of our longer walks...as much as 2 miles.
The third day in Paris We took him to a Vet we had arranged in advance to get his EU Pet Passport. The Vet, Dr McCarthy (totally French despite his name) was great. A quiet, gentle man that treated Jake and us very well. And for less than 1/2 of what we paid in the US for his Health certificate we got a French one and the EU passport in one short visit. (I highly recommend this vet to anyone taking their dog to France)
We have been for the last 12 days in a rental car traveling around France and this he is used to. Right now we are in a great little hotel called the Hotel Creme Anglais in the small medieval town of Montreal where our hotel room is more like an AirBnb. It is an entire small house in the village with it’s own backyard. Jake is in heaven. He loves having the yard to run in.
We have been able to take him to several sights that allow dogs. But mostly he stays in our room or AirBnb while we go out for a few hours. He is used to this and sleeps.
He enjoys all the new smells wherever we go. I am sure it is his version of traveling. He has also taken well to laying under our table at outdoor cafes in the shade. So so far no problems. Just a great time.
So if you are going to be gone a long time to Europe and worry about your pooch I suggest just taking him/her. It is a bit more work and a bit more planning but worth it.