Following weeks of blood tests   and paperwork, Santa Claws has been approved for a trip home this Christmas season and will be allowed to re-enter Japan in January without quarantine.

As Japan is rabies free, there are some hoops to jump through to import animals but if you read the instructions, it’s really not that bad.  A well traveled little dog, the gremlin’s first trip abroad wasn’t very well chronicled as it involved a flurry of paperwork followed immediately by six months of hard time at his grandparents house.  I say hard time because he gave my mother’s couch a hard time as he dug a hole in it.

He’s a vengeful little beast sometimes.

Regardless, my good friends at the animal quarantine unit in Narita airport have cleared the gremlin for departure and have agreed to welcome him back two weeks later.   This is all good and well though which leaves me only with one concern: Will the gremlin behave for 10 hours in a bag under a seat?

Now, it’s arguable that he will as he’s done so once before and being a seasoned travel veteran (having flown the new york to seattle route a few times) he’s used to it.  That said, it’s been a year and a half since he’s had a long trip in the bag and I’m a little worried as he’s begun chewing holes through said bag. He also has begun to figure out how zippers work and how he can escape from them.

Thus, I need to apologize in advance to those passengers flying from Tokyo to Seattle in a few weeks.  Should chaos break loose and a small dog suddenly appear at your feet or in your lap begging (or um…just eating it without asking first) for the mediocre airline food you are being served just offer him a bite of chicken and give a shout to the blonde woman crawling under the seats cursing at him.

Afterall, how could you refuse this face?