48 OCTOBER 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL STUDIO AYUTAKA DOGGEDLY Jean Monfort is an office management specialist in the U.S. Foreign Service. Her previous posts include Conakry, Guinea, and the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels. She currently works in the Regional Security Office in Hanoi, where she is joined by her husband, Liam, and one ungrateful dog, Kairi. This piece has been condensed from a longer tale. All names have been changed because technically the author’s journey isn’t finished. FEATURE Pet transport while in the Foreign Service is a daunting task. This semifictional account does not stray far from its absurdly exasperating reality. BY JEAN A. MONFORT It is possible—within the tangled threads of the airline tapestry—to transport a dog as checked baggage when on government orders. As a customer service professional, I whistled past the graveyards on Facebook with their horror stories and strode confidently into the airline abyss, guidelines printed and in hand. I would be different. It’s been a month of seeking confirmation, and my confidence is wavering. From one airline representative to the next, the advice is never the same. If it isn’t a rule not listed on the list of rules, it’s a glitch with the tickets—a ticket number connected to an empty reservation, making confirmation impossible. A creaking in someone’s arthritic knuckles suggesting that I couldn’t do what I was doing. When a rep found out my dog’s astrological sign (Scorpio), I had to agree to do a tarot reading on a day with only three visible clouds in the sky. Visible to whom? When I said she was a street dog, a Westminster judge materialized at my door to shake his monocle at me and demand I be more precise in identifying her. Pug-nose dogs are not allowed on planes, you see.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=