Not Dead!

Man oh man! It's been a bit of a whirl wind since we got back to the States, but now that I finally had a chance to relax, I can bust out a lovely blog for you folks. Don't you feel special?

Ok, so we managed to finish up cleaning the house in Belgium and did our final walk through. 

Luckily, we got our 1,900 euro deposit back (thank gawd!) and proceeded to migrate over to our temporary apartment till it was time to catch our flight out of Amsterdam. The final few days were bitter sweet..not going to lie. We absolutely love Belgium, the travel opportunities and everything else that's awesome about Europe, but, we're ready to move on with our lives and get settled into our new home. 

If you're a frequent reader of my blog, or actually know me, you know that we have a small horde of dogs. By small, I mean five...and it's definitely interesting when it comes to transporting them, that's for sure. I had to do a "system check" on all the crates to make sure they were all up to snuff when it came to airline requirements. Luckily, all of my prepping paid off because the check-in crew for KLM were stoked that I had everything re-enforced, paperwork in hand, and anything & everything else you can think of that's required to ship a pet internationally. 

Of course, the dogs needed to get their beauty sleep before the big journey, so they made it a point to pretty much push us out of our own bed...

On our last day, Eric and I went on one last Belgian date day and went over to my favorite cafe to grab some awesome tomato soup with a side of cappachino. It was a little depressing, to be honest. I went there so often that the staff knew me, it's always mellow so you can sit & people watch...and their coffee was ALWAYS awesome. Hopefully we'll find a place like that in New Mexico..so that seems to be something to add to our "treasure hunt" in terms of things to find. 

The day had finally arrived for us to leave...it was pretty sad, although, we didn't really have much time to dwell on it en-route to the airport. Once we rolled our six pieces of luggage and five carriers full of dogs, we were immediately directed over to a special ticketing area that takes care of...uhhh...individuals like ourselves, lol. After an hour of checking in, getting the dogs all situated and grabbing a quick lunch, it was time to board the plane and head off to beautiful California! The flight actually went pretty fast, at least to me...it didn't feel like an eleven hour flight, lol. I suppose taking naps and watching all the various "The Real Housewives of blah blah blah" killed time for me. I'm just relieved that we were able to get a straight shot flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco without having to deal with a ton of layovers. Oh, and KLM, if you happen to see this..I love you and your airline ROCKS!

We got to unwind for a few days before Eric had to head out and take care of business in terms of the home we're in the midst of buying. Yes, I stayed here in California while he and John jetted off to brave New Mexico. As of today, we're officially the owners of a home! I'm so excited! Eric went through all the paperwork earlier this week and signed off on everything, including my part of the paperwork with a handy dandy POA...he was displeased with the amount of writing he was required to do in order to officially get the  house. Oh well..he got the keys today and that's all that matters! lol

All the while, we're enjoying our time at Casa de Vandegrift. Izzy and the other furballs have taken quite a liking to my suite and it's awesome bed. You'd think they had been roughing it their whole life or something by the way they burrow into the bed ...

I've been plugging around, meeting up with friends and hanging out with family since my time here is limited. I have about a month left till I need to head on out to New Mexico...well, I'm guessing a month, but it all depends on when my vehicle shows up. Once Big Blue arrives, it's time for me to mosey on out of here so I can start decorating my new house :) I'm sure Eric will be relieved once I'm outta here so I'll stop haunting the Le Creuset place in addition to the various antique places around here...lol. 

I ended up getting a killer deal on a cast iron skillet, oval skillet, 2.5 qt container and a pie bird (all from Le Creuset) for 30% off in addition to another 40%...can you blame me for jumping on that sort of deal??

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to start posting some more blogs as I run around California and throughout the trip to New Mexico for you guys. It's interesting trying to work on my iPad, then my Eee PC since my old faithful laptop isn't functioning at the moment...le sigh. 

Toodles!

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Jet Settin' Piper

The last time I flew overseas was back in 2009..and that's when I was returning from watching my cousin graduate from high school. Keep in mind, I had moved to Belgium two and a half months earlier, so I had just gone through the whole process of moving my entire life from California to Europe. When we moved, we had four dogs moving with us: Cali the Boxer, Izzy and Cole the Dachshunds and Macie the Dachshund / Beagle mix. Luckily, we were able to take all of 'em over there since Cali was considered "check in" baggage while the other three were allowed to be carry on. Might I add, we flew with Delta Airlines (which is in partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines) and they even gave us a fat discount on all the dogs since we were military. Here's my post about what I dealt with in terms of Cole and the whole process of having a dog as carry on.

Now, I have Piper. So, I get to do this process all over again when it comes to bringing her back to Belgium with me. With the way my flight is scheduled, I'd be flying from Monterey to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Heathrow (London), then Heathrow to Brussels. All of those flights were booked through British Airways, but apparently the flight from Monterey to Los Angeles is through their partnership with American Airlines. Shouldn't be a problem, right? Welllll it is. The little puddle jumper flight won't allow me to take Piper as carry on, and they don't have a cargo area that'd allow her to go in as checked baggage. So, I asked if I could skip checking in at Monterey and just go straight to Los Angeles (which is about a six hour drive from here) to get my connecting flights there in which I was told "NO". If I don't check in at Monterey, all of my other flights will be cancelled. Fabulous. I'm rather miffed considering this particular *snag* is really irritating (and expensive) because it basically boils down to: going from an American Airlines flight to British Airways doesn't work in terms of transporting a dog, even as carry on. So, British Airways..and American Airlines, you lost a customer. For life. It's great to know I spent $1k on my flight and you can't accommodate a 10lb dog for a 40 minute flight in order for me to reach my other connections. Seriously, you're fabulous. Keep up the great work.

After doing some research, numerous customer service calls to various airlines and talking to my father, it's been decided that I'll be flying on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He actually flew with them back in 2010 when he visited us and raved about how amazing their in flight service was. I ended up talking to their customer service line (they were SO nice!) and found out that there's room for Piper to be checked in since she wouldn't be able to fit under a passenger seat to be considered carry on. Even though I'd rather have her in the cabin with me, I'm just happy there's room .So, that's all taken care of, new tickets are taken care of and I'll be taking a straight shot from San Francisco to Amsterdam. In the long run, this is better anyway since that flight will only be ten and a half hours verses the original seventeen and a half hours I was gonna deal with between Monterey/Los Angeles/Heathrow. 

Now comes the fun part of getting Piper all set up for her flight. Since I've done this whole song and dance before, I know what I gotta do. She has to have a "Puppy Passport" (mainly a health certificate ) that's valid between 2-8 days before flight, all her shot records available, her hard shell carrier has to meet airline regulation..blah blah blah. Luckily, I know what I'm doing, lol. Even though she's a little 10lb dog, her height is what killed the notion of her being carry on since she's the actual height limit, not including the additional height of the soft carrier. After everything is all said and done, the soft carrier would've been 28 centimeters and the limit is 20 centimeters. Airline regulations state that the animal in the carrier should have enough room to fully stand up, turn around easily and is able to sit down comfortably under a passenger seat. If I crammed her in a small carrier (according to the weight specifications), then she would've been denied access cause it wouldn't have been comfortable for her..especially for ten and a half hours!

Luckily, I'm really familiar with an awesome Vet place in town called Romie Lane Pet Hospital .

My family has used them for YEARS (grandma, mom, me, etc), so it's not a shocker that I took Piper there to get a file started. She's only been there a few times, but the staff seems to really like her alot..mainly because she's really well behaved. Plus..no one can resist her little beard, lol. After doing a lil bit of research, I found the official forms that I'll need to take with me when I fly into the Netherlands as well as when I bring her over to Belgium. Just to play it safe, I'm getting a health certificate done for both countries because I REALLY don't want to deal with any little snafu's since I'm landing in one country and driving into another. Ahhhh the joys of traveling. 

I went over to PetSmart and picked up a hard shell case (the same type we used for our Boxer) since I knew that particular style was airline approved. You CANNOT use a hard shell carrier that has the snap sides! It has to be assembled with stainless steel screws (to connect the top and bottom of the kennel) and heavy duty zip ties. So, this is the one I got for her:

There's a company that I HIGHLY recommend when it comes to prepping a carrier for a flight ...I actually used 'em when we transported the other dogs during the move and they were FANTASTIC! It's called "Dry Fur" and they actually sell a variety of  "Pet Airline Kits"  ...mines the Small / Medium kit which includes:

• 1 Set Spill Proof CLEAR Kennel Food & Water Cups (Size Small Holds 1.25 Cups)
• 1 FULL Set of REFLECTIVE Live Animal Stickers/feeding instructions (5 Labels)
• 1 Set of Solid Metal Kennel Securing Nuts & Bolts  (8 each)
• 1 Set Cable Ties for securing snap latch & dial-latch
• 1 set of Hand Releasable Cable ties for securing door
• 1 Temporary Pet ID Tag
• 1 Laminated Kennel Tag for Pet’s & Owner’s Name
• 1 PET Airline Check-List & do it yourself instructions
• 1 CLEAR Document Storage Zip Pouch
• 1 CLEAR Reinforced Dry Food Storage Zip Bag

Here's how it looks when it shows up: All the contents that are listed are in the plastic baggy..I ordered the extra set of metal pieces in pink because I wanted to re-enforce the extra screws. 

It actually includes a "checklist' that you can follow to help finish prepping everything you'll need to do prior to the flight:

Here's how Pipers carrier looks once I switched out all the plastic screws for the metal ones, in addition to slapping all the stickers on...it's VERY solid and secure now! That's for sure! :

So at this point, I'm pretty much waiting for my final vet visit where they'll check her over one more time, then sign off on all the health certificates so she's clear for take off. Then the day before we head out, she has one last grooming appointment so she'll be all pretty since her scruffyness (wire hair) tends to get outta control fairly fast . 

Gee. Can you tell I'm a sucker for furry things or what? Piper is quite possibly the most expensive shelter puppy I've ever encountered, lol. Oh well, that's what I get for being an animal lover!

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