Living the dream - Mike and Leo arrived in Venice!

What a day Monday was!!! We got loaded into the car around 12:30 and headed to Dulles. I had expected alot of traffic, but we had none, we made great time. A curbside porter helped get all the stuff loaded up, and while they were doing that I got to take Leo for a little walk. We found the last bit of grass he'd see until he arrived in Italy the next morning. Since I couldnt have gotten beyond security, I left them there at the check in desk, wishing them both a safe trip, and I got back into the car for the ride back to Baltimore.

I was a nervous wreck, mostly worried about the dog and how he would do on the plane. Mike called me after he got through security so he could update me on how things were going. All the dog's paperwork was fine, they had no problems other than they wouldn't let his water bottle through. And we had worked for a whole week getting the dogs used to drinking from this bottle!!! Mike had to throw it away cause the airline wouldn't allow the drinking bottle. Oh well, at least I known not to bring that when I fly with my dog next week.

Right before take off Mike called again to let me know they had informed him Leo had been loaded onto the plane. We were both relieved knowing he was on the same plane, now headed for Frankfurt. I think MIke's next call came around 2am, my time. He had landed in Frankfurt and was waiting on the connecting flight. An hour later he called back again to let me know that Leo had been boarded onto the flight for Venice, and he was about to get on the plane himself. So far so good! I wasn't getting any sleep, but at least I was getting updates.

The next call came from Venice. Mike had collected his luggage, but had not gotten Leo yet. This was at least a good sign, cause we had done this flight through Frankfurt before and the luggage never made it to Italy. Just as we were on the phone talking, Leo's crate was delivered to Mike in the baggage area. No need to worry anymore , at least not about the flight. They both were safe and sound. Leo was fine, and Lufthansa did a wonderful job of handling him.

But we weren't out of the woods yet. They still had to get to the apartment. The last thing we had heard was that Nicola's father was going to meet them at the airport. And somehow, miraculously, they all hooked up at the Venice airport. They met Mike with a car, drove to Piazzale Roma, and loaded Leo and all the luggage onto a cargo boat for the trip to the apartment.

After a whole night of phone calls, the last one I got was about 7:00 am my time, with an update from Mike after getting settled into the apartment. He said it was exactly as it looked in all the pictures we had been sent. Exactly! We thought at least the owners would remove pictures off the walls, but they were still there. It didn't matter, at this point we were both so relieved to actually have one of us in Venice, in our own apartment.

Ok. Now half of the team is on the ground in Venice. Now I can stop worrying.. at least for a few days until I put my dog Sam in his crate for his journey to Italy.

Living the dream- Sending Sam and Leo ( our dogs) to Italy

The move to Venice is about a month away, and I have been diligently ticking off items on the Extrication plan- well, let's face it, it's a giant To-Do List. One of the most pressing items left on the list is to work out how we will get our dogs Sam and Leopold shipped over. Everyone asks us if we will leave them here. NO WAY! These are our boys, no matter what herculean effort is necessary, they are making this move with us. But- I want the move to be as easy on them as possible. Sam is going on 12 yrs old-- he's the old man of the family. I need them to be handled with care and I need them to arrive safely.



Like almost every other item I've had to tackle, there has been a lot of information to plow through about how to transport animals, and subsequently a lot of decisions to make. Almost overwhelming. I've gotten through what appears to be the information gathering stage. I have one more phone call to Lufthansa to check out their policies. After that, I think we can make the decisions necessary.



First of all, we needed to learn the requirements for bringing the dogs into the country. The necessary documents have to be presented to the Italian consulate before we can take them. The dogs need to be micro chipped by our vet, and also the vet must complete a certification indicating the dogs are in good health and all inoculations are up to date.



Decisions about how to fly them over include a) fly them as excess baggage on the same flight we are on, b)fly them as unaccompanied cargo on a different flight, or c) obtain a transport service who will move the dogs from home to destination for us, and also handle the necessary paper work.



Obviously our preference would be to have them on the same flight with us. There's a huge level of comfort for us knowing that they will be with us the whole way. There's also a huge amount of nervousness about how they will do down in the cargo hold. We are learning that there are pet friendly airlines who will take care of things like walking them during flight layovers and making sure they are fed. Then there are other airlines who just make sure they are loaded onto the plane and that's it. Also, we are flying in January, and many airlines will not fly the dogs if the temperature outside is below 45 degrees. I can totally understand that. And that also creates a dilemma--- what if, on the day we have tickets for the temp drops below that? We can fly but the dogs have to be left behind. In the immortal words of Pietro Paprizzio (from my favorite Casanova movie)--- "Oh, Calamity!!"

When we have this one figured out ( soon !!), I'll post the results. And for sure I will post a picture of Sam and Leopold arriving in Venice. That will be a happy day for all of us!