pushing too far

Yesterday, I boarded a flight from Zurich to JFK airport. On this particular flight, a woman brought her small dog along in its carrier. The flight was not a quiet one. I never saw this dog, but it annoyed pretty much all the passengers, in that it was yapping for almost the entire flight. Being an animal trainer though, this sort of thing doesn’t annoy me as much as the other people on the flight. I began imagining that this particular dog was a puppy and that it really just wanted to be in someone’s lap instead of in a small carrier under the seat.

My imaginings were a lot sweeter than what the reality of the situation was. While in line for passport control, I finally got a look at the dog situation and it horrified me. In fact, it nearly brought me to tears. What started out as a little annoyance on a flight, turned into pushing an animal too far and being cruel.