So much has changed in such a short period of time.
First, there were many complications with shipping our pets. You see, Queretaro is a small airport and United can not accommodate Sophie Poodle’s crate on the planes that fly in there. That meant that we had to have her and Jack the Cat shipped to Mexico City. So, we figured we should also fly to Mexico City in order to pick them up. The complication there is that customs isn’t open on Saturdays and, on days it is open, it closes at 1:00 p.m., so our beloved fur-babies have to fly during the week (Monday), spend the night in Houston and travel the following morning (Tuesday), to Mexico City.
In order to meet them, we changed our flight destination from Queretaro to Mexico City, but… wait for it… we get in too late to get our pets! Even if we could get them, we would still be facing a three-hour drive from Mexico City to Queretaro. After a long travel day, waiting to get through customs, picking up the rental car, etc., and so on, there just wasn’t any way to do this in one day, which meant another night in a hotel in Mexico City. Finding yet another hotel that would allow us to have pets was just one more headache I couldn’t deal with.
Of course, I changed our airline reservations to Mexico City at a cost of $400 in change fees before I was informed of all the additional hassle.
After speaking with the PetSafe people a dozen more times, one of the folks in Mexico City suggested they could transport the animals to Queretaro for us. Yes! Score!
But wait.
That meant I had to change our flights once more. Of course, United said they would have to charge us another $400 in change fees. Ok, I’m usually a rational person, but I lost it. I explained in a rather animated way what had transpired due to their own issues and what I had already gone through. Fortunately, the res agent took pity on me and waived the charges.
What does this mean?
Sophie and Jack leave Boise at noon on Monday 19/02/2018 and arrive in Mexico City at 12:30 the following day. The PetSafe people there will drive them to Queretaro. Cost of this little adventure: $2,000.
Lyn and I, Izzy and Mocha leave Boise and arrive in Queretaro on 20/02/2018 — the same day as Sophie and Jack — eliminating the three-hour drive and extra night in a hotel.
But that’s not all of the drama!
Along with all of the logistics was the need to take four animals to the vet for health certifications, rabies and other vaccinations, as well as endo and ecto parasitic treatments (worms and fleas). Poor Mocha, our Siamese, had a difficult night, foaming at the mouth and generally not feeling well. I was quite worried, but she was much better this morning. Cost: Another $1500, AFTER a $400 discount from the vet (thank you so much, Dr. Dawn Sessions) who happens to be a friend and bought half of our furniture!
Remember that all of this paperwork has to be sent to the PetSafe folks in Mexico, who have very rigid guidelines about how things are done. Needless to say, I screwed up. Yep, me. No one else.
However, I caught my mistake and had the vet’s office re-issue the health certifications with the correct information on them. Phew!
The final straw was with the Boise hotel where we will be staying for a few nights. Turns out, their new “policy” is to allow only two pets per room. That means we have to have TWO rooms. Geez. Ok. So that’s what we did. The cost of this move just keeps going up.
UPS International Ground
The last piece of the puzzle was to arrange a pick up with UPS to take the 29 boxes we have packed. Despite our best intentions, we still ended up with things that we just couldn’t part with. Oh well.
Getting those boxes shipped seemed, at first glance, to be a simple matter. That said, there were a number of complications, mostly due to the confusing information on the UPS website and the misinformation I kept getting when I called for clarification.
After being transferred at least five times, I finally got someone that understood what I needed. I kept him on the phone the entire time I was filling out the paperwork to be sure that I was doing it correctly. A trip to a friend’s house enabled me to print out the documents. UPS is scheduled to arrive tomorrow between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m.
Keep your fingers crossed!
So tired.
Lost in all of this chaos is that last night was Lyn’s birthday and today is Valentine’s Day. We did make it out to dinner last night, thanks to my wonderful friend and realtor, Roxana Heisler, who gave us a lovely gift card for The Tavern at Brown Crossing. We took Lyn’s mom. Drank lots of wine. Was nicer than I often want to be around her. Nuff said bout that!
Tomorrow, life changes for real. We leave our home of 16 years, move into a hotel for several days, and then begin our moving-to-Mexico adventure.
Next on the agenda? Jobs.
Stay tuned.
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