It's tricky trying to fit them in the boxes

I had mentioned that I stayed behind whilst my hubby came to HK in order to pack up our belongings and get everything finalized. Well, part of that was jumping through hoops to get our three pets here safely and with a minimal amount of trauma. In all actuality, we did not ship them via FedEx nor in boxes...just for the record.

I had to get an enormous amount of paperwork completed and I was worried sick that I would miss one tiny detail that would throw a wrench in the process of getting them there. I was terrified that just one mistake or oversight would land them in quarantine for three months.

Luckily, that didn't happen. We hired an export company and an import company that specialize in relocating pets and they helped us through it. It was still very complicated and difficult. Perhaps this is only true because I love my fuzzy kids as though they were my children. They are my children.

We did make a decision to minimize their flight time, so I rented a van and drove them to L.A. so that we could all fly direct to HK and they would only be crated for 14-18 hours as opposed to 28-30 hours (this would include layovers and pre-boarding time and check-in in HK, just so that no one thinks I am exaggerating). We made this decision to try to minimize the stress and I think it worked out okay.

The drive was nice and everyone did well during the drive. Francis did the best of all of them, he is a Road Kitty. The dogs were good, but nervous because they knew this was not a normal trip.

Once we arrived in LA and were preparing for the midnight flight, the exporter came to our hotel and crated all of them and made sure the paperwork was good and tried to reassure me that they would be okay. She is the best. I would use her again in a heartbeat and I recommend her to anyone that is in need of a pet exporter. She is based in L.A. and she is a true animal lover. We wouldn't have made it if it weren't for her help...okay, maybe that's not entirely true. I wouldn't have made it if it weren't for her help. Check her out at www.UniversalPetTravel.com

The fuzzy kids were brought directly to our flat once the veterinary inspection was complete, which only took about an hour. They were so very happy to see us and had to take care of some business pertty urgently as well. The dogs, Chini and Guinness, were fine immediately and just happy to be dropped off with their mom and dad...Francis took a little time to normalize, he was very anxious for a couple of weeks and seemingly unhappy. He has since relaxed and returned to his normal, laid-back self.

The picture above is from the journey from Missouri to Californ-i-a...We took the I70 route and encountered a little bad weather in Colorado, but we managed just fine.

Will post more pics from the drive as soon as get the download to function better!