Dahlia

Dahlia, Lillie, and Tulip at the dog park

Dahlia and Tulip only ended up staying with us for one night unfortunately. I wish they could have stayed for the full 6 days as originally scheduled because I’m certain Dahlia would have been fully integrated with Moon the cat by then. The contact they did have went very well. But due to Mother Nature, and the way the airline industry functions these days, Dahlia and Tulip’s visit was cut short.

Their person departed for her vacation at 4:30am last Thursday. She was headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico for an outdoor adventure. As her plane was descending into Salt Lake City, Utah the plane just ahead of hers slid off the runway. Her flight had to abort the landing attempt, circle around and take a second pass. Once her plane was on the ground the airport closed due to an ice storm.

After many hours of waiting two things became clear. First, they weren’t going to be able to get her on a flight to Santa Fe until late Saturday night. And second, there were no available hotel rooms in Salt Lake City. So Dahlia’s person made the painful choice to turn around and fly back home. She arrived back in Medford around midnight. Instead of a vacation she took an expensive 18-hour journey to nowhere. Her luggage on the other hand went on vacation to Santa Fe without her.

Having not flown since 1998 I can’t really imagine how frustrating it must be for anyone to go through all the indignities currently forced on airline passengers to not even make it to their destination.  But Dahlia’s person took it in stride. It was clear she was disappointed because she’d been looking forward to this trip for a long time, but she didn’t sulk about it. She loaded up the dogs and took them to the beach instead.

Dahlia and Tulip definitely approved of the change in plans.