I almost forgot to add this post about the dogs. The dogs were our first babies and while Josh and I disagree a little bit on this and I don't think he wants to leave them in the US, he's more flexible about the possibility than I am. They are our family and like the say in Lilo & Stitch "Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind". I agree 100%. If we make this move, Jake & Sailor come too and by no means do I expect it to be easy to have 2 dogs in the city. But I didn't sign up to be their "mom" to just say when the going gets tough, let's have someone else take them. So I'll take this one (along with everything else) and find a way to get them to Spain and keep them happy.
I know that part of the reason we took the townhome was the ease with the dogs. Right now we let them out the slider and they do their thing in the yard and they come back. No muss, no fuss. In Spain we were anticipating having to actually walk them outside to do their business. Sounds even more like fun if you are on the 8th floor and need to wait for a miniscule elevator, doesn't it? BTW, these elevators are like 1/2 the size of the ones in the US -it's crowded with 2 people!! Good luck trying an adult, 2 kids and 2 dogs! Anyways, this place is on the first floor with a huge patio area - perfect for the dogs and the kids!!
So once again I digress, a bad habit of mine I know. Well, so we knew that we had to go thru some vet things and get sign offs from the USDA to have them transported to Spain. What we didn't know was the cost associated with doing all of this. Last Monday I had a call from our relocation people who for the most part seem to have their shit together. Bob is super nice and I liked him right off the bat. He asked me some questions about the dogs, age, size, breed, etc. Anyways, late that day he sends me this email - it's a quote to have the dogs shipped to Spain. It's $5000 per dog. No, I didn't accidentally put in too many zeros. It's five THOUSAND. Yes, I almost cried too. Wouldn't you? This just didn't seem realistic - too many people fly with their pets for it to be this cost prohibitive. So how do I respond? I put a post on Facebook - of course! Thankfully my new friend Paul who lives in Switzerland and knows lots of ex-pats emailed a friend of his who said she brought her dog to Switzerland from Canada and paid about the same but that it's for a FULL SERVICE rather than just the flight. These people take care of last minute vaccinations, forms, crates, pick up and drop off, etc. Whew!!! Of course a full day went by of me having a heart attack before I found out this info. In the meantime Josh found out we can fly them Continental for around $1500 each - still expensive but significantly less, wouldn't you agree? We're still trying to figure out which way we are going to go because of the timing of the vaccinations and forms and appointments and we got a few more quotes, one of which was closer to $4500 for both dogs, so about $1500 more than Continental but covers all those other items which would help. Only then she added in that it could cost up to $1500 per dog for the entry fee into Spain. If only there was some clear way to know the exact costs in doing this it would be so much easier! So when I get back home this week, my latest addition to my to do list is to find out exactly how much it will cost, what is involved as far as forms and appointments and when I need to do them.
Right now what I know is that the dogs need to be microchipped...check!! We have those already. Are they compatible with Spain's? Yup, checked that too after an hour on the Home Again website. Ok, one item down. They need to be up to date on their regular vaccinations - ok, we're due for physicals Dec 1 - need to move that closer to mid Nov as they need to be done no less than 4 weeks before flight and that's cutting it close. Check... appt set. Now the timing issuue - I need to figure out when to make the appt with the USDA vet and they need forms completed no more than 10-15 days before our flight. Not having our flight booked, I'm at a bit of an impasse here. But it's all on my list... my ever growing, super long list. Did I mention I still work??? And still plan to work? I'll just give up my sleep...sleep is for wimps anyways ;)
Do yourself a favor, before you move abroad, talk to me... I can tell you every snafu you will run into, trust me...
Got to get ready for dinner and will try to add Day 3 later...
Julie
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