PanningForGold

Because I am not an American citizen my wife and I get to travel to the City of Brotherly love (Philadelphia) to deal with INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services). The positive side of this is I get to stay in the USA legally and even better we have some pretty interesting stories from these adventures that may end up in these pages.

However this story has little to do with INS and everything to do with travelling with a dog, Sequoia to be exact.

On our last trip to Philly we wound up at the Sofital hotel. The Sofital advertises that you can bring two pets of any size with no additional fee. I wanted to bring an elephant but we don’t have one, more importantly my wife said I couldn’t.

We were greeted by a doorman clad in a top hat and tails which normally would mean we were at the wrong hotel. Inside, the Sofital sported marble floors and countertops, mahogany walls, mood lighting from long chandeliers and really comfortable looking deep cushioned chairs. We were in jeans and T-shirts draggin’ our wheelies behind us with a 55 pound husky pulling at her leash. Talk about feeling out-of-place, I was expecting motel 6.

Just as my senses were taking everything in Sequoia let out one of her famous husky howls. Think Call of the Wild, her haunches went down, shoulders came up, muzzle all stretched forward and her nose high in the air. she was definitely channeling her inner wolf, I’m sure the wolves of Yellowstone heard her call. As expected every eye in the place turned towards us. When Sequoia howls she wants is demanding attention. If people don’t come running over to pet her and tell her how beautiful she is she just keeps on howling, which is exactly what she did, and attention is what she got.

Despite all the people coming over to pay proper homage to Sequoia, asking us questions and making the usual remarks, can I pet her? is she a wolf? oooh look one of the snow dogs, was she in the movie Eight Below? I had a pugh once…we managed to make it to the front desk where Sequoia promptly placed her paws on the marble countertop demanding more attention and perhaps a few treats. While I was dying of embarrassment the desk clerks were giving Sequoia cookies for simply being so cute.