The morning was a bit of a mad dash. We got up at 4 to pack up the last of our belongings, get the pets together and deposit the remaining borrowed stuff at Mom's house. We realized at around 5 that not everything would fit in the trusty Forester. Mark did a run down to Mom's with the futons, bedding, trash, etc. I tried to get our stuff to fit in the carry-ons and tried not to let the cat out of the house. Like the car, I realized that not everything would fit. Good thing we kept a few extra shipping boxes. Oh...and did I mention that it was raining. (sigh)
Well, we got pets, people and baggage in the car, picked up Michael and made it to SFO.
The United folks were great.
Bandit was fine in the crate until another dog (crated) arrived an was parked next to him in the over-sized luggage line. They unanimously decided that they needed to chat...in a loud, barky, doggy way. I don't think we were the most popular travelers of the day.
Then we were taken downstairs to the inspection area where I had to take the pets out of their crates for the crates to be inspected. Guess I could be harboring some mainland fruit or those mini alcohol bottles in there. Neither pet escaped (all this was done in an area open to baggage claim area and the sliding doors leading to the outside) and the crates were deemed safe and travel-worthy. Bandit even got to keep his stuffed bunny.
From there the pets were whisked away, adding to my increasing anxiety. ....where would they go, the flight was still over an hour off, would they be forgotten on the tarmac, how could I be sure the pets made it on to the right plane, would people be nice to them, would they need water.....and the list of nervous thoughts went on.
After we checked in without incident (Mark had been curious if the one-way tickets would flag us as "special" and requiring additional searching) we had less than an hours wait for the flight. We found a spot to park ourselves where we could see the baggage loading for our flight. Much to my joy and surprise...I saw a tugger and dolly pull up with two pet crates and unload them on the tarmac by our plane. While I lambasted myself for not putting some bright, identifying mark on the non-descript crates I was pretty sure that there weren't many other combinations of one big crate, one small crate going on this particular plane. I was pretty sure that some reasonable, logical person could deduct that these were, in fact, my pets. As they started to call for passenger boarding I saw them load the crates onto a conveyor that took them into the belly of the plane. Yay! Well...at least someone's pets made it on board. Hope they were mine.
As we sat, waiting for everyone to board I decided to be the fretful pet mommy that I know I am and planned to ask the flight attendant if my pets were on board. The reasonable part of me got me to hold off until everyone had boarded. No point in pissing of the few people who could tell me if Bandit and Oscar made it on. Even before everyone was on the plane (and before I had spoken a word about it) and angel from heaven....okay, she was just a really nice flight attendant...came and told me that Bandit and Oscar were on board safety and gave me two of the tickets that I had filled out and put on the crates. I am pleased to report, that that was the only time I cried the whole, stressful day.
The flight from SFO to Honolulu was uneventful.
Once in Honolulu we had to find the Animal Quarantine office. If all paperwork had been received, accepted and processed (along with payment, of course) we could take the pets with us on the next leg of the journey.
Finding the quarantine office proved to be a bit of an undertaking. Perhaps the officials want to make sure that you
really want you pet before allowing you to bring it into the state. Based on pedometer readings we walked about a mile in the airport. It took about half an hour to find the office…and this is with prior research on written testimonials, a map, and inquiring with many airport staff (most of whom had no idea where the quarantine office was). Once we found the office things went smoothly. Bandit and Oscar seemed okay. Hot, irritated, but okay.
The leg from Honolulu to Hilo is kind of like a bus. You get on with open seating. They take off when they thing everyone is on board (early in our case) and 45 minutes later you land in Hilo’s small airport.
Picking up the rental…an SUV that didn’t fit the dog crate but still burned gas like a Hummer…and making the drive to Volcano went well. Showing up at our new house was great. Such a rewarding end to a long day.
Photo: Waiting at Hilo airport while Mark gets rental car. Bandit is seen in crate. Oscar is in orange carry-on.
