Thank you! Nova is an absolute angel. She stole our hearts as soon as we saw her first picture, and seeing her grow out of the timid undernourished thing she was has been such a pleasure.

I follow the military dog rule. Whatever your own rank, the dog is always +1. So, Nova is Ulti for Life (a super secret pet only status by invite) already!

As much as we'd love to take her everywhere with us on our travels, I don't think it'd be good for her to do that all the time. She'll always go on journeys by car with us, but flying, alas, will have to be for the more special trips when we spend longer time with family far away. As amazingly well she travels by air, and how well AFKL teams handled her, it's still sadly going to be the exception rather than the rule. Maybe one day, AFKL will let us fly with a 16kg non-service dog on board!

That was exactly the goal. I really hope it helps others over the years.

We were honestly quite anxious about taking her with us, because most of what you hear are horror stories or instant judgments like “you’re a terrible person for putting an animal in the hold.” Of course, it’s not an easy decision, but after speaking with our vet, her rescue organization, and several trainers, it became clear that, for Nova, being with us was far better than being left behind for weeks with strangers (even if they are family).

I wanted to chronicle that while flying a pet in the hold isn’t something to take lightly, it can be done responsibly. There are a lot of caring people, both at the airlines and on the ground, who genuinely look after them. I’d have loved to share the sweet videos the staff showed us, where it was clear she was calm and treated gently, but they were of a sensitive nature and couldn’t be shared with us. They were only shown to reassure us that she was safe and well cared for.