This is a wonderful article. You should try to read something from the
Wall Street Journal. every day, especially if it's in the "offbeat" column.
Stranded in Transit, These Travelers Howl, Hiss and WhinnyPage One, April 20, 2010
Volcano Maroons Dogs, Geckos, Horses; One Owner's Odyssey to Rescue His Pooch
By Paul Sonne
Rain and fog swept into the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. Paul Robinson, an architecture professor, fired up his blue Fiat Uno and set out on a rescue mission across the Austrian Alps and on to Germany.
The goal of the nine-hour trip: to retrieve his dog, Pen, from the aftermath of Iceland's volcanic ash cloud. Since Thursday, the volcano has paralyzed flights not just for people, but also for their cargo-class pets, many of which were traveling without their owners. Among the stranded menagerie are horses, snakes, geckos and turtles.
....
It has been a harrowing few days for animal road warriors. On long-haul journeys, dogs and other pets sometimes travel on different flights from their owners—allowing the pets to be exercised on layovers while owners prepare for their arrival. That's why some pet owners wound up detached from their companions.
"I've been in business 33 years, and I've not seen anything like this before," said Dr. Walter Woolf, a veterinarian who runs Tampa, Fla.-based Air Animal Inc., which planned Pen's trip. On Monday he said he had a dog named Trilly and a cat named Bertie delayed in the U.K. on their way to the U.S., as well as two dogs, named Figment and Prince, waiting patiently in a Belgian kennel to get from Brussels to Newark.
In Frankfurt on Monday, the airport's Animal Lounge had about 20 dogs and a few cats, according to a spokesman for Lufthansa Cargo AG, which operates the facility.
"We have one turtle, a gecko and a couple of snakes," he said, noting that the gecko and turtle were not particularly demanding on the staff. Most have been there since Thursday, he said.
Frankfurt also wound up with two horses heading for New York City on its hands. "We transported them to the countryside so they could roam around," the Lufthansa spokesman said. "They will fly once we have clearance."
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Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne at wsj dot com
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