This rollercoaster ride sucks, it's a lot more downs than ups and how come it's so straight???

   Ugg....this week wiped me out. Even the one giant piece of good news I got was peppered with bad news for someone I love dearly. It seemed United broke down and relented from the massive public outcry after their announcement of fee increases associated with a new policy that would prevent them from shipping pets as excess baggage, and now use a 3rd party cargo carrier. But just as many were getting ready to breath a sigh of relief, I was still holding my ever doubtful breath. I was still formulating plans.
   In other words, I was still being me.

   First the United thing, because so many of my friends and family have been genuinely concerned, supportive and helpful with this matter. A Houston newspaper ran an article, on Wednesday, that started the "rumor" that fees would be waived if the pets were being flown due to military PCS move and the family were "on orders". The article went on to say the discount would apply only to military service members and the change in policy came largely due to the online petition they'd seen, which had over 2,400 signatures.
   2,400 signatures!! You guys helped make that happen. My itty, bitty blog had a small part in spreading the word about THAT petition!!  Thank you, everyone who took the time to sign that petition. Social media made that happen! Awesome job! Definitely a high point of the week. 
   
     My small ray of hope came in the fine print on the left side of the article I linked above.

More Information

Flying Fido

Military families seeking exemptions from a new, higher price for transporting pets as cargo on United Airlines should call 800-575-3335 or 832-235-1541.All passengers still will be allowed to bring pets under a certain size aboard in carriers for a fee of $125. They will count as a carry-on item.

   

   IF, and at this point, its a big IF, we can make this happen our financial worries are over! As soon as we get our travel date (oh yeah, the other good news/up side: Mac finally submitted his travel packet! So now we're waiting to hear when we leave! FINALLY, I can't begin...well I could but that's another rant for a different blog, to tell you how hard it was to get this damned paperwork submitted. One person, in one office, 5 days a week but he's got other places to be. Meanwhile Mac's on midnights going in on days off or after working all night waiting....it was the world's loneliest game of tag for almost 2 weeks. Seriously, you'd have thought Mac gave this guy the clap after a one night stand the way he was dodging Mac's calls...unintentionally dodging his calls, sometimes it just couldn't be helped. Allegedly.) I can call United (or whatever airline we're ticketed on) and verify that we can carry on the cats. If we can, well then step 2 is to get a vet to look Arwen over and *hopefully* prescribe a mild sedative for her, so she'll be quiet in the cabin. Cause let's face it $250 is shit tons better than $3k, no matter how you look at it, even if you add a little for the cost to buy (cute) carriers. Plus they'd be with us! All we'd have to do is rearrange our carry-ons, so we can make sure we have Nixon's stuff to keep him occupied, our MUST have's at all times shit, and the cats.   

   Now the final up and down. One of my BFF's is also a military wife/former military herself. Her family is moving the same time mine is. It's so odd but awesome that we'll be close to each other again! Well, turns out, we might be a whole lot closer then we thought. Looks like her husband will be getting deployed weeks/months after arriving at the new base. She's going to look for a place between my family and our other mutual best friend, providing herself and 2 young kids a built in and understanding, supportive family structure while her husband is gone. So, sucks he's leaving again but (selfish) SCORE for us on major time together after so many years apart! 

   So mostly straight line this week, no real solid news but lots of speculations with possible relief. A couple of my bigger stress topics have addressed, but others remain. 

   Nixon and I went to the dentist on Wednesday. He got a good check up! He's got great spacing, lots of room and no build up issues. I just needed a cleaning, which I got done yesterday. So we're both set to go. Also, because I wasn't odd enough: I had 3 wisdom teeth pulled in 2010. Only 3 because, that's all that had grown in or even showed on xray. In other words, I only had 3 wisdom teeth...ever! Well, fast forward to about a month and a half after those were pulled and it felt like I had a new tooth growing in! But it was coming in where I'd just been told there was NO tooth to be seen. Mentioned it to the dentist, he says he doesn't see anything. So Wednesday, xrays check-up ask about the tooth/pain from after the wisdom teeth were pulled. Yep, you betcha...that tooth that was never seen before is now suddenly there!! From what the dentist I saw said, it's possible that after the 3 teeth were pulled it released room for the tooth to finally develop and erupt from the jawbone and come through the gums. Redonk, right?!?!

Fuck you, United!! I'll see you in hell, with my cats by my side!! Pets are family too! Not money making tools....

Not many people know this, but United Airlines seems to HATE military family members. Now, hear me out, before lighting the torches and burning my house down, okay? I'm not saying United is hating on kids or mothers or anything like that. No, this is far worse potentially leading to the abandonment, death and/or abuse of hundreds if not thousands of helpless military family members all because of United's newest money making plot! 


Who are these helpless family members and how can YOU help them? Sadly, you may not be able to, not in time. They are the beloved family pets of military family members stationed overseas. And United has just decided to announce that they will universally, across the board, transport all animals as cargo effective March 3, 2012. That means, any pet traveling with a military family ON orders, will be charged as cargo, ride a separate flight, and there will be no option to keep your animals in the cabin with you any more. It also means, what once would have cost around $275 to fly a small dog will now roughly be $1450 for the same small dog. Or in my family's case, domestic cat....times 2! 


It'd be simple to say "Well just fly another airline". Simple a solution that sounds, it's not one for a military family. See, we don't CHOOSE our flights. We don't CHOOSE our airlines. We don't even CHOOSE our travel dates/times/locations in most cases, those are all decided by unit travel  department personnel. United and Continental have the government contract with the military, meaning we have to fly them no matter what kind of bullshit, money raping, ass-backwards scheming plots and fees they suddenly introduce. Because we have no choice. 


Now, if you feel like wasting a couple hours of your life, that you can't get back, feel free to meander around the United facebok page. You'll see recent posts of outrage about this after the military paper ran an article about it. Keep going deeper though and you'll see older posts accusing military families of "expecting a free ride". I, myself, after reading at least 5 such posts and responses finally responded (and much to my amazement did not drop one F-bomb!) I'd like to share my response to those people with my readers, because I think it really was my best words to explain why this is such a big deal to ANY military family:

The part that's really pissing off military families is this: not only is United jacking the price up, switching pets to cargo on this PetSafe program, but they're doing with relatively NO notice. What people seem to not realize (or not care) is when a military family leaves one station and moves to another, they have to re-establish themselves all over again: new cell phone service/apartment and deposit, rental car more than likely, possible hotel stay...all of this comes out of pocket in most cases. So to be told less than a month before leaving Okinawa that your family pet will now HAVE to fly cargo and be a new expense, ANY expense, is not something most families budget for! 
So no, it's not the military families expecting a handout. But some damned compassion and forewarning would be nice! My husband and I leave Okinawa in May, with our son and 2 cats. To be honest, this new United procedure with pets gives me anxiety attacks because it's not like we can make money appear out of nowhere!


So before accusing the military of wanting a free ride, try to think of the expenses that ANY person incurs when moving to a new city/location and then try thinking about doing that every 3-6 years because you signed a contract to do so! Yes, a contract was signed, but that doesn't mean companies like United should be allowed to exploit the fact that service members have no option but to use them (we don't book our flights, they're booked for us) and they can make these decisions because, well hell, what can we do, right?!?!? After all, the service members are the ones who signed the contract and the spouses?? Well, they married the service member for those great benefits!

   So now, a personal note. Mac and I are about to be faced with somehow coming up with over $3000 to bring home our cats. Try to get a loan, sure. And if that fails? Leaving them is not an option. Somewhere, deep in the darkest part of my mind, I see myself taking my baby girl to the vet and asking to have Arwen put to sleep, not because she's old but because the devil you know is better than the one you don't. I'd much prefer to bring my baby girl's ashes home with me than leave her here and hope someone takes good care of her. Because in my 3 years here, I've seen too many animals left behind by owners to let that happen to Arwen. It's heartbreaking to think of ending her life because we couldn't afford to put her on a flight home with us, but I'll be damned if I ever have to worry about the "what happened". So say all you want, about how cruel and evil I am to even be pondering this, but I promise you....I will let every United Airline employee I see (if in fact it does come to this drastic measure) know that my baby girl's death is on their hands, as I carry her ashes with me on our flight home! You find me a CEO of United, I blow some of her ashes in his or her fucking face! NO family should have to take loans out to get their pets home! I shouldn't have to even be thinking about KILLING, yes there I said it MURDERING my baby girl, because of some corporate fucking policy that said "Hey I know, let's really fuck over the military! Because you know Congress hasn't done a good enough job already!"