“Hello, is this Mrs. Styles?  You the one with the dog flying to Mexico?”  As you may know from the first part of this Saga, I JUST woke from a blessed few hours of much needed sleep, when the phone rang.  I’m not sure I understand what is happening until the caller, who I soon learn is named John and who knows he is delivering some pretty difficult information for me to process, begins to carefully explain that “because this is THE busiest travel day of the year, and passenger luggage always takes priority, sometimes cargo has to be bumped to make room for extra passenger bags…especially at this time of year, with people bringing gifts and paying for extra baggage…” based on this lead-in, I am not surprised when the next sentence is, “Your dog was bumped, along with 50 other scheduled cargo pieces.” Not surprised but still incredulous… Once again I’m learning about something that was never at any point presented as a possibility, and of course I continue to be blind-sided as so much of what we are doing we have never had the occasion to do before!   Our learning curve on this journey is still pretty-much vertical.  Poor John at AC Cargo is very patient with me as I sputter through my exhausted protestations about this situation because there is SUCH a ripple-effect associated with this unavoidable decision to keep her from boarding that flight and I am dreading what’s required to re-organize this plan to get our dear family pet to our new home in a new country… and months of effort and thought and planning are now for nought… and I can’t believe I stayed up for 28 hours straight and dragged poor Jayne and my Mom into this… we’re at square one again paddling like crazy to solve the problem of the customs agents that are booked in Mexico waiting to receive an animal that will not be arriving on this day, and who knows when we’ll be able to get her there now… so, Aaron and I, with the time sensitivity of this situation weighing so heavily, have abandoned trying to problem solve via text and are actually calling each other back and forth, with a call every-so-often to John to let him know what’s going on and MANY emails back and forth to the customs representatives – calling MX is still a great mystery to me and seems to be hit-and-miss – when I am (rarely) successful in getting through, we have such a struggle to communicate, I believe that less is lost in translation if what you need to say is in writing, in an email.    At first, John suggests that AC cargo MAY be able to get Rosie onto the same-day flight at 8 p.m. and my job is to be sure that there would be someone at Mexican Customs end to receive her at 12:15 a.m. when the flight is scheduled to arrive… eventually we determine that no customs agents work on the weekend and technically a flight arriving at 12:15 is no longer on Friday, but now officially Saturday and we get the official word that there will be no one there to process her.

We discover through a frustrated customs agent’s email in MX that they don’t have the paperwork required and that I MUST send to them three days prior to Rosie’s arrival the appropriate International Health Certificate (IHC herein) along with full payment, but if we get it done by 12:00 pm MX time then they can “probably” still accept her… let me just say at this point, that it is actually less expensive to send a human child to Mexico than an 80 lb canine… there I said it… it is a point of contention in this process, but she is so important to our family and to allowing everyone to transition well. Caleigh has recently done some reading about stress reduction and has commended us on our decision to include Rosie and Butterscotch in our moving plans! 🙂  Anyhow, the completion of the IHC is something that I have been meticulously pursuing, hauling my animals around for various check-ups and needles and ID chips and spending more money to collect more “official” signatures to prove they are healthy and disease-free… Immediately I email these docs to Mexico, and to the best of my knowledge, I have provided everything required to get our beasts into the country.  I feel like it’s another check I put on my long list, and that feels great.

Aaron has to deal with payment at his end, as he is already in Mexico working.  You would think that wiring money, by definition would be a speedy option for getting money right away…well, think again.  He tried to have the money to pay for the dog at this end wired from our account in Canada as at that point he did not have his residency card and could not open an account without it, or an address and an address also cannot be acquired without that magical card.  He was told that it would take 5 business days to complete the transaction.  Now it was his turn to feel incredulous about this process and to protest… in the end, he had to ask his new colleague to help us out with a loan from his Mexican account to pay to have the dog received.  We hardly know this guy and are now quite literally indebted to him for his generosity and understanding of the situation.  Aaron has to get back to work and I have to figure out how to retrieve our Rosie from the airport, so we decide that we will try to organize another flight later – nothing can really be done til Monday now at this point, anyway.  And Aaron will be home Saturday:)

John says that I need to collect her at some point today.  I know that I won’t be able to get there til later in the day as I have the movers there and have to stay until they are finished to sign-off on the packing list and have to figure out logistics for the kids who are at school enjoying their last day at Hillsdale – holiday parties and a dance – can’t pull them early from that and not sure I can take them anyway as I wonder where her gigantic crate will fit into the little car… I decide to call John and ask if they will store her crate until we can get her on another flight, as I’m assuming it will be fairly soon.  “No problem – just make sure you’re here by 10 p.m. to talk to Dave who will know what the plan is, as the other shift will be in by then and they won’t know what is happening.”  Okay.  This is doable.  Kids will go to Nana’s and  I will ask Lauren if she will drive down with me – it’s a good chance to catch-up and will be nice to have the company.   She agrees 🙂 and I am to pick her up around 7:00 p.m. to head to the city.  It’s now mid-afternoon and Nana and I are at Dunn’s getting tech-support from Garry with our iPads and Aaron calls in a panic – the customs agent in Mexico will not accept the paperwork I’ve provided for the animals (IHC) and proof of rabies vaccinations.  Apparently it’s the WRONG International Health Certificate.   WHAT????  I email the MX customs lady and with all the courtesy I can muster at this point, I tell her that she asked me to obtain an IHC for my animals, which I did through the CFIA in Canada, which is my only option here for obtaining this certificate and if she wants me to fill out something different, could she kindly send me EXACTLY what she wants.  I was not impressed, because now I have to re-book for the vet to sign off that the animals are healthy and all of this paperwork must once again be completed within 10 days of the animal’s departure.  And at no point in the few months we’ve been organizing this did they say that MX requires a very specific IHC form (which is a bit of a joke, by the way.  The Canadian IHC is much more detailed, but clearly standards and requirements differ between the countries).   I made it clear to her that the only direction she gave me was to obtain an IHC form through my vet.  My vet referred me to the CFIA where the forms are issued in Canada.  So now I am making Saturday morning vet appointments for the animals to get this new Mexican IHC form filled out.  Aaaahhh!!! Thankfully we already had plans to have dinner with The Dunn’s and Sandra makes a yummy meal with JB (Just Because) Cake and Garry’s homemade icing – the grown-ups have a lovely visit and the kids have a nice play and we’re on our way.  And I can’t believe that it is possible to pack anything else into this day, but it just keeps on going…

Our drive down to Toronto was pretty uneventful and I knew exactly where I was going this time so was smooth sailing.  The AC Cargo agent who helped me was very kind and made a note on our file about our dog getting bumped and suggested that we try for the 21st or 22nd, and because of our sad story, we might have more luck getting her on the plane.  He said he can’t guarantee that she’ll make the flight, but we could try as he predicted it might be a little less busy on those days.  We collect Rosie who is pretty happy to see us.  We take her outside for a pee before we start home again, and the wind is biting!!  Definitely feels like winter is coming.  She sits so quietly in the backseat, undoubtedly exhausted from her day of unfamiliar people and sounds and routine.  Once again a fairly smooth drive back and then just before Innisfil Beach Road exit, it starts to snow and we start to slow down and soon after we are completely stopped.   Police, Fire, Ambulance and tow trucks begin to speed up the shoulder past us.  I turn on the radio to try to figure out what is happening and indeed we learn that the 400 northbound is closed at Innifil Beach Road, but don’t hear why.  We are sitting in the snow in this 400 highway parking lot at 11:00-ish at night and the coffee we grabbed on our way to Toronto earlier has made it’s way through and I need to pee!!   I actually cannot believe the timing… par for the course today though.   We have no way of knowing for how much longer we’ll be sitting there and assume the worst as one emergency vehicle after another continue to fly by us on the shoulder.  Starting to get panicky and at a loss for a solution and somehow dreading the inevitable ditch dip I’m going to have to take with an entire highway full of audience… Lauren has a brilliant idea – take the dog for a walk because SHE has to pee… that is the most normal reason to be traipsing in the ditch at the side of the 400 at 11:00 at night in the snow… so after “be careful crossing the shoulder” and assurances that she can drive standard and she won’t leave me there :), she gets into the driver’s seat and I slip around to the side that Rosie is on,  clip on her leash and we slide across the shoulder (it’s very slippery) and down into the ditch.  It is one big charade that I’m attempting here, making this little trip seem like it’s all about the dog’s needs… very tricky to find a spot to squat in the snow with barely there vegetation to hide behind.  I honestly cannot believe that this is happening.  The wind is freezing and the snow is falling thickly and my dog is pulling on her leash, a little freaked out by the circumstance and she’s not crazy about the dark anyway.  I’m trying to hurry because I have no idea when the traffic will start moving again and I’m fighting with all my winter outerwear.  People are starting to get out of their cars (stupid!!!) to slip and slide up the road to try to figure out what’s going on.  I’m wanting to disappear.  I get the job done and praise Rosie for getting her job done, which she didn’t actually do, but we put on a good show of it!:)  Made it back to the car, switched back seats and had another in a series of good laughs about the absurdity of all of this!:)   Thank goodness Lauren was there!  We didn’t move for another hour, so really didn’t have to rush, and discovered that it was black ice that had caused the closure.  Heading back to Hillsdale that night was awful – that snow belt region on the 400 extension was just dumping buckets of snow – Mother Nature wanted me to have just one more white-knuckle drive before I can escape to year-round summer…I really could see very little through the thick, driving snow.  Prayed for a set of tail-lights ahead of me to follow… I was so relieved when I pulled into my driveway finally just before 1:00 a.m.

Let’s just remember that these past two “Rosie Saga” posts detail the events of JUST ONE DAY.

After unsuccessfully securing Rosie a flight over the Christmas season, she is enjoying these limbo days with Jayne who is loving and caring for her.  We plan to bring her “home” to us by third-week January, when Aaron is in Canada and cargo won’t have to compete with Christmas gift baggage.