In May, after finally getting Craig's orders, I went straight to TMO to book our flight to Ramstein on the military rotator (the plane that transports troops out of Baltimore to overseas locations). This is where I encountered our first problem. Since we received Craig's orders so late there was no pet availability on the rotator during June. After hours of searching the web and a few tearful phone calls to Craig, I discovered that Delta Dash not only ships dogs during the summer but also had a military discount. Jackpot! Once once we figured out how the dogs would get to Germany, we had to determine when they would go. My family let the dogs stay with them while the movers came in May, and offered to keep them until the end of June so we could get settled in Germany first before the dogs arrived. Since we were not in the States when it was time to get the dog's final vet check up and paperwork completed, my mom and sister stepped up and pulled everything together. Once everything was pulled together, Tim and Paula took the dogs to Delta Dash at Atlanta airport on Friday, June 24th so they could begin their journey to Frankfurt, Germany! A journey that lasted 18 hrs for the poor dogs!
The night before we were going to pick up Molly and Bailey, a friend of ours shared her experience with picking up her cat from Frankfurt. She described the process as a nightmare, and we learned the next morning that she was right. One valuable piece of information she gave us was to check the flights because her cat's flight was delayed. So first thing Saturday morning, we got up at 5:30 to check the flight since the dogs were scheduled to arrive at 7:30am. Sure enough, the dog's flight was delayed. The dogs finally landed in Frankfurt at 9:00 am, and then we had to wait for almost 2 hours for them to get the dogs paperwork, the beginning of the nightmare. Once we received the paperwork and paid for it (of course), we were sent to the other side of the airport to begin the scavenger hunt that would lead us to our dogs. The vet at the airport reviewed our paperwork, cleared the dogs, and the required a fee per dog for her services. After we paid the vet fee, we were sent to the customs building which was a half mile away and we couldn't drive...we had to walk.... in the rain. At the customs building, we got a stamp on the paper work and were sent back to the "dog lounge" where the dogs were being kept. At the dog lounge, we paid a boarding fee for the 4 hours the dogs were waiting for us while we finished our scavenger hunt! When the dogs were finally brought out, we were broke. Kidding! At first the dogs couldn't see us but could hear our voices and started whining and clawing at their cages' door. When they finally saw us it was like they had just won the jackpot! I have never seen them so happy before! We loaded them up in the car and they both past out the entire way back to Ramstein, which is highly unusual for both. They are usually bouncing off the walls in the car! They must not have slept at all during their journey over here!
Once we got back to our TLF, we walked the dogs around base and on some of the trails. Germany must smell different because their noses' were glued to the ground during the entire walk. We just found out that we will be changing hotels tomorrow and going to a dog friendly TLF so we don't have to kennel the dogs anymore. Thank goodness!
We are so excited the dogs are here and are looking forward to taking the dogs on hikes, to the parks, in stores and cafes with us! We hope they enjoy Germany as much as we have so far!
tschüss,
Craig & Jenna
I'll post more pictures of the dogs soon.
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