Annie

Dogs in the Sky

For several years we maintained two homes, a non-working farm in Indiana and our house in Florida.  We traveled back and forth from one to the other as the mood struck us.  Until late 1990 the farm was our permanent home and the house in Florida was used for getaways and little vacations.  This was early in our marriage, and Annie was a rescued 15" beagle—our first dog.

We thought it would be unfair to Annie to board her in a kennel during our several trips to Florida each year, so we decided to get a carrier and take Annie with us on the planes.  I must say Annie was a veteran flyer in no time.  She'd walk into the airport on her leash without showing the least sign of apprehension.  We always gave her a long drink of water to last her through the 2 hour flight, and then when it was time, we opened the carrier door and Annie happily and voluntarily walked into the carrier, curled up on the little blanket inside, and prepared for the journey.  After her first flight, she knew what was to be expected, and I'm guessing she slept most of the way, just the way she did on a quiet afternoon at home.

We flew without much worry about Annie.  Granted, riding in the baggage compartment wouldn't be very pleasant for you or me, but Annie had what she needed—a toy, her blanket, and plenty of space in the carrier.  Her carrier rode up the ramp to the luggage area, and sometimes I watched from my window seat on the plane.

One trip back from Tampa to Cincinnati did give us some worries about her safety.  Tampa wasn't the most convenient airport for us—Sarasota was—but Tampa offered non-stop service, and we didn't want to take a chance that she wouldn't get transferred to a second plane in a plane change in Atlanta.  All seemed fine as we checked Annie in, and we watched her ride the conveyer behind the check-in desks into the baggage handling area.  We flew home comfortably knowing Annie was in an air conditioned and pressurized baggage compartment, probably right below our seats.

But when we got to Cincinnati it took much longer than usual for her carrier to appear on the carrousel.  When we finally saw the carrier, we were relieved, but I noticed another baggage tag had been added to the original one.  It seemed she had made the trip to Cincinnati on a different plane from the one we were on.  We never heard why the switch, but since it all ended well, there was no harm done.

I never had any fears she could be lost, as the carrier was well marked with her name and ours.  It also carried a Delta Frequent Flyers' Club tag, which is supposed to get you a little better service on Delta.  Also Annie was never without her collar which had identification tags.  I think that time might have been before microchips.

Many people have mentioned the danger to dogs flying as luggage.  We've all seen the trains of baggage carts baking in the sun on an airport apron.  I'm told live animals get priority treatment by the baggage handlers to avoid overheating them in the summer.  Some airlines serving southern cities will not accept animals in carriers during the summer.

These days we live in one place all the time.  It suits us to be home-bodies, and our dogs are quiet, stay-at-home types.  And it's a good thing too, because these days the airline industry is so huge, impersonal, and computerized that I'm not sure I want to transport the canine members of my family as baggage.

Les Inglis

The Booster Center

Davis Hawn is an interesting guy.  I first met him via email when he was trying to arrange a trip to Cuba—he'd done some Internet surfing and found the TAP website.  Well, getting to Cuba isn't all that tough, even in view of the US legal restrictions on travel, but Davis had an odd twist on his trip plans—he wanted to take his dog Booster to Cuba with him.

Booster is a service dog, well trained to help Davis with his PTSD.  As a service dog, Booster is with Davis 24-7.  Davis found Booster when he was a stray puppy cowering in the cab when he claimed his pick-up truck from an impound lot.  It was a lucky break for both of them.

Well, we corresponded about his trip and I connected him with Nora at Aniplant.  Her contacts were invaluable to him, and she helped him get a documentary about service dogs filmed and produced in Cuba.  Davis is a very publicity minded person about service dogs, and the documentary was a natural step in his desire to promote the use of service dogs.

Davis adopted a Cuban stray dog he found on Havana's main shopping street, Obispo Street.  He named the dog Fidelity. Nora found Fidelity a foster home for several weeks and got him the veterinary care needed to put him in top certified condition for his eventual trip to the US.  It took some arranging to get Fidelity to the US.  With the help of a couple of fine Canadian-based organizations dedicated to rehoming Caribbean dogs to Canada, Fidelity first flew to Toronto from Varadero.  There he met Davis who flew him to Chicago and eventually to New Orleans near Davis' home.

Booster, being a service dog, needed no such elaborate arrangements.  He didn't even need a travel carrier or to be placed in the baggage compartment for his return from Cuba.  Service dogs, under US law, can travel in the passenger cabin with their owners.  With both of his dogs back home, Davis concentrated on getting his Master's Degree from Bergin University in the San Francisco area. Bergin educates dog trainers, offering a full scholastic program for that purpose.  I was privileged to provide a review of Davis' Master's Degree Thesis.

Now Davis is using his Cuban contacts to start something called The Booster Center in Cuba.  It will be a service dog training organization to help the disabled in Cuba.  Davis has provided scholarships for two Cuban students to prepare themselves at Bergin U. to operate The Booster Center.  Those students, Miguel and Beatriz, are currently in California enrolled in Bergin for that training.  It took two years to make all the arrangements for the students' trips to the US, but after countless emails, they are here and immersed in their studies.

A carefully selected, fully trained service dog is a very valuable animal.  He or she becomes the central object in the life of a person who really needs help with the daily problems of living.  They sense problems and perform tasks like opening doors and provide emotional support and companionship.  If Cuba can develop the Booster Center according to Davis' plans, it will be improving the situations of many people, making their lives more productive and less difficult.

Davis clearly has a knack for building on the age old symbiotic relationship between humans and dogs.

Les Inglis

Climbing in Cuba

For most of us city dwellers, tall buildings are no big deal.  They abound in cities, and in the normal course of events we never see their stairways.  We use elevators as a matter of course.  Now I've heard of people who voluntarily take to the stairs for several flights to get their exercise, and I can see that would be  a pretty good workout, but it's not for me.  I'll take the elevator every time.

The summer I was 18, it was different.  I took a train to Washington DC for a little sightseeing.  When I got to the Washington Monument, there was a long line of tourists queued up to ride the elevators to the pinnacle, the highest point in the city.  The wait was about two hours.  In those days my energy was only exceeded by my impatience, and I discovered I could bypass the line and use the stairs to get to the top.  I started off two steps at a time.

Well, 555 feet (about the equivalent of a fifty story building) is lots of climbing, and after a few floors I settled down to a more sedate pace, but I eventually reached the top without having to stop to catch my breath.  But that was then and this is now when I couldn't hope to show such endurance.

On my first trip to Cuba I saw how the other half lives.  Havana has its share of tall buildings with the tallest at 37 floors.  Most of the tall ones run about 10 to 15 stories.  In a Communist country, the real estate belongs to the state, and so it is in Cuba.  Along with owning the buildings, the state is responsible for their elevators which in Cuba are under-maintained.  This means that in Cuba at any given time many buildings have non-working elevators as they wait for scant service or repair parts or sometimes complete replacements.

Talk about inconvenience!  To live or work on the eighth floor when the elevator doesn't work can be a big pain in the neck.  Aniplant's headquarters in 2005 and 2006 was an eighth floor apartment in a building with a broken elevator.  It had been that way for a long time, so on my second trip four of us took to the stairs.  I was fifteen or more years older than most of the others, but I kept up with them, and at the top, I was no more worn out than the others.  That experience put helping Aniplant get a new ground floor home at the top of our priorities.

Nora, Aniplant's President, lives in one of the better tall buildings in Havana near the top of the hill in Vedado.  She's on the 10th floor with a great view of the city and the sea and the building (1950's era) has two elevators with spotty service records.  More than once I've encountered elevators that didn't work and had to climb 10 floors with packages of supplies and donations of medicines.  On one trip, the lift was out and Nora told me the building was getting new replacement elevators.  Sure enough at the next trip the new elevators gleamed, free of graffiti and ready to lift silently one and all along with their luggage.

Thanks to broken elevators I've also climbed flights of stairs at Radio Progresso, Cuba's main radio station, more than one office building, and even a few times at my hotel which, at 11 floors was once (in the 1920's) Cuba's tallest building.

When you're visiting Havana you become aware there are fewer obese people in Cuba than there are here at home.  I always thought that was because of high food prices and low food supplies.

Maybe so, but for many it might also be caused by the extra exercise one gets when forced to by-pass broken elevators.

Les Inglis

Onyx Touches Our Lives

Onyx (is that a great dog's name or what?) is a black lab mix with a shiny coat and sincere eyes that seem to say, "Adopt me, and I'll love you with all my heart every minute of every day for the rest of my life."  And at less than two years of age, Onyx has a lot of love to offer.  His story follows an all too familiar pattern.

Onyx's people were a Miami area family with a 7 month-old baby.  Like lots of short haired dogs, Onyx sheds a bit, and the baby manages to pick up some dog hairs on its clothes.  First they tried leaving the dog in the yard all the time, but then they decided to get someone else to adopt the dog.  In my house no one would notice a few dog hairs, in spite of Charlene's regular, frequent, and energetic cleaning sessions.

Diana became aware of Onyx's plight and surely didn't want him to go to Miami- Dade Animal Control, a practically certain death sentence.  She told her boyfriend, Fernando, another animal lover, and he began a search for a better future for Onyx.

As it happens, Fernando is a nephew of Dulce, a close Cuban-American friend of mine.  Through her I had come to know Fernando who helps us ship boxes of vet medicines to Aniplant in Havana.  Fernando puts lots of effort into those shipments, and he has become an important link in our chain of people who help Cuban animals.  He emailed me about Onyx to see if we could help spread the word.

Charlene carefully reviews Internet postings of dogs needing rescue in the Miami area.  She closely watches a group called My Animals Rock, posted by a retired lawyer named Kathy who has placed hundreds of animals in recent years (including three with our family).  I suggested to Charlene she pass Onyx's information on to Kathy for wider publicity.  Charlene agreed but wasn't too optimistic, pointing out he's large (65 pounds) and black (a disadvantage for dogs needing homes).  My feeling was that Onyx had lots going for him. Like he was neutered, had all his shots, and is good with cats, dogs, children, and babies.  And, Fernando was willing to transport Onyx to any new home in Florida

I think Kathy was a little skeptical too, but she went right ahead and posted his availability after asking for a better photo.  Imagine all of our surprise when within two days of posting, we heard that Onyx had been adopted, moved, and settled into a new home in Palmetto Bay. Florida.  Fernando had done the transport, and he provided a video file with his email that showed Onyx doing laps in his new family's swimming pool.  Like all labs, Onyx loves the water.

There are thousands of stories with sad endings about homeless dogs, but there are also thousands of stories that end with, "happily ever after."  Onyx is well on his way to a happy life with his new big-hearted human companions.

Those persnickety people who were afraid to have dog hair on their baby's clothes don't know the years of joy and love they and their children will be missing.

Les Inglis