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and it took her some days to adjust to it.
    She went to the vet to get checked out and was fine. We got travel papers for her, and everyone who saw her was amazed by how tiny she was. And I hated it when anyone picked her up—I was afraid they’d drop her or she’d get hurt, she was just so small. (I stepped on her paw once myself and panicked over it, but she was fine.) She was definitely a happy addition to our world. And she was an incredible gift for me, someone to fuss over, take care of, and nurture, after so many years of so many kids and dogs.
    With a sigh of happiness, I settled into caring for her. And when the kids left on the Sunday night after Thanksgiving, it was a little less agonizing than usual. I had Minnie, and we were leaving for New York and Paris the next day. I packed more stuff than for a baby, for our two days in New York, and for her new life in Paris. Minnie had no idea what was in store for her, the day I put her in her black sweater and collar, and placed her gently in her carrying bag. Minnie was about to become a world traveler! And I felt like I was carrying precious cargo as I picked up her bag. And for once, other than worrying about if I had a book I liked or if I had enough workin my briefcase to keep me busy, or if the movies on the plane would be decent, I had Minnie to think about instead of myself. It was exactly what I had wanted when I set out to find her. And as we left on a red-eye flight that night, it felt like she had always been part of my life.

Minnie in her travel bag

Alessandro Calderano

FOUR

Minnie Goes to Paris
    In order to travel domestically and internationally with a dog, you have to have health papers showing her vaccinations and ID papers. She has to be under the weight limit (twenty pounds domestically and twelve pounds internationally) and be confined in a carrier to go in the cabin with you. You have to purchase a dog ticket for her, $125 domestically and $200 internationally. A dog over the weight limit can go in the cargo section in a crate, but there are risks involved, and some dogs don’t survive the trip. It’s too hot or too cold, depending on the time of year, or they’re just too traumatized by the experience. I have never been willing to take the risk of putting an animal in cargo. And of course we went through all the requirements of taking her in the cabin, since she is only two pounds.
    She had to be in a dog carrier for the flight. And you are not allowed to take the dog out of his or her travel bag. There are a huge variety of carriers in a multitude of shapes, styles, and sizes, depending on the size of the dog and the taste of the owner. Like all hand luggage, there are limits to how big it can be, just like the weight of the dog, but as long as the bag meets the cabin requirements, after that it’s a free-for-all. You can get carriers in every color, everything from camouflage to plaid to pink with rhinestones on it. The most important feature to me was that Minnie could see out of the bag. The dog carriers I had had in the distant past had netting on all four sides, so the dog could look around freely. I went shopping for something a little more fun and stylish and better suited to Minnie and her new wardrobe (the old bag I had was a fairly ugly black nylon), only to discover that netting on all four sides had gone out of style, I’m not sure why. I found only one with netting she could see through on three sides, and most of them had netting only on either end, like little windows, which seemed very dark and confining to me. Given the long hours she was going to spend in the bag, I didn’t want her to feel like she was in a shoe box. The bags I looked at seemed seriously claustrophobic to me.
    I even went to two famous French handbag and luggage shops, who were proud of their dog carriers, and althoughthey were very stylish, in some really jazzy colors (orange, red, royal blue), they were narrow, with a tiny little window at each end,