Here I am again! Sorry for the delay ...
On Sunday morning, we all got up at 5:30am & got ready to leave. Crystal informed me one more time that she & Laura would not be assisting me in any way after arriving at the airport. Got it!
We left the hotel & Laura drove us out to Scooby one last time. The staff had left the 2 puppies & the galga that GRIN was adopting out (Adventura) in a pen together for the evening & they were slow to get up to greet us! :)
Everyone got walked & I grabbed a few more towels for the puppies from the towel room. It turned out that I could use one of the GRIN crates as a crate was being sent to the airport with Elena from a different rescue. I got to leave the Scooby crate at the rescue for future use.
We all got in the mini van & left for the Madrid airport. Crystal had decided to feed the dogs a little something before we left & I got puked on 4 times on the ride there ... oh well ... a small price to pay to get them out & on the plane. :)
When we arrived at the airport, the 3 of us put together the crates outside the airport & put them up on the carts to be rolled around. I got the puppies ready to go in their crate & stacked my luggage on top. Elena arrived with the 3 other dogs & all were secured & rolled into the airport & the Delta counter.
GRIN has secured some fantastic ladies at the airport who help with the process. They are very organized & know their jobs. We were checked in very effeciently & there was no problem. I made sure to tell them that I was seperate from the GRIN dogs & paid for the puppies crate to ship (about $100). The first part was done & I could not have been more relieved.
I walked to the gate & was once again fortunate enough to get into business/first class. Again, thank you to my buddy pass supplier. Wow! One of the flight attendants came to ask me about the puppies. She was a Scooby/GRIN supporter.
I tried to get as much sleep as possible on the flight as I knew it was going to be a very long & trying day ... there is a six hour difference in our times ... so when my flight left Madrid at 11am ... that was 5am our time here in Indiana.
We arrived in Atlanta an hour early at 2:30pm ... it had been an 8.5 hour flight. I headed straight for immigration & passed through quickly ... had to get down to the baggage claim to collect everything including the puppies to pass through customs.
I got my luggage & headed over to where the dogs would be delivered ... a woman from the airport was there with some large carts & she agreed to give me 2 of those & I had snatched a smaller one for the puppies. Soon enough, they all arrived & I lined them all up. Between the woman & myself, we got all the galgos loaded on carts still in their crates & I had made the same arrangement with my puppies & luggage as I had in Madrid. Still no sign of Crystal & I was beginning to get worried. I ran over to the carousel & got her luggage for her ... so there we were all ready to roll through customs. Evidently, Crystal has a hard time of it getting through immigration because she is Canadian. At any rate, if it weren't for the dogs being there I would have gone on by myself, but I would never put an animal's welfare over my own so I waited it out.
Eventually, Crytal joined us & we made our way through customs which included a stop at the Agriculture counter. After this, we all went into a large room to check the luggage on ... either up to the ground level to leave or onto the next flight. Crystal was on to Knoxville & the 4 dogs for GRIN were staying here in Atlanta to be picked up by the Plaskett's. This is the same couple who dropped Toro off to me last year & they are GRIN board members.
So, the 4 dogs were sent up to ground level to leave the airport & I stayed there to be with the puppies before my next flight which was not until 9:10pm. I actually was not sure that we would get on this time ... it was going to be close & I looked into renting a car. After a lot of research that Doug helped me with ... I decided to roll the dice on getting the flight.
I had 6 hours to kill before the flight & could not stand the idea of checking the puppies in to sit in a warehouse type of area for all that time. Even though I was not allowed to remove them from the crate, I stayed with them & my luggage in the check in area until 7:30pm ... during our wait the airport had nearly shut down due to bad weather & tornados. Needless to say, upon reopening, it was turning into a mad house & I was getting very tired & cranky.
I passed through security & made it to my gate to find out that the flight was now pushed back to 9:40pm ... ok .. no worries ... still no seat for me, but a chance ...
I decided to get something to eat ... came back & talked with Doug again ... at 9pm they finally gave me a seat! yeah! We were going to get on! This was very exciting, but we were not out of the woods yet because the flight kept getting pushed back & we finally were boarding at 11pm!
When I got down the ramp, I refused to enter the plane until I knew the puppies were loaded ... they said "What puppies?" .. I nearly lost it! A few minutes later they arrived with my precious cargo & they were loaded ... 2 more hours till we were home! I called Doug to tell him to be at the South Bend airport around 12:30am.
I slept on the flight because I was exhausted & when we finally got on the ground, I was ready to lose it. It had been a very emotionally draining day & I really needed the satisfaction of retrieving those puppies!
Doug & I got my luggage & waited for them at the Delta counter. The woman there knew me & got the puppies for me as soon as she could.
They were fine!!!! Not even an accident .. such good puppies!
They rode home on my lap & we all got to bed as soon as we could!!! Everything turned out fine & I could not be happier for them! They are going to find wonderful families & live a fantastic life!
On Sunday morning, we all got up at 5:30am & got ready to leave. Crystal informed me one more time that she & Laura would not be assisting me in any way after arriving at the airport. Got it!
We left the hotel & Laura drove us out to Scooby one last time. The staff had left the 2 puppies & the galga that GRIN was adopting out (Adventura) in a pen together for the evening & they were slow to get up to greet us! :)
Everyone got walked & I grabbed a few more towels for the puppies from the towel room. It turned out that I could use one of the GRIN crates as a crate was being sent to the airport with Elena from a different rescue. I got to leave the Scooby crate at the rescue for future use.
We all got in the mini van & left for the Madrid airport. Crystal had decided to feed the dogs a little something before we left & I got puked on 4 times on the ride there ... oh well ... a small price to pay to get them out & on the plane. :)
When we arrived at the airport, the 3 of us put together the crates outside the airport & put them up on the carts to be rolled around. I got the puppies ready to go in their crate & stacked my luggage on top. Elena arrived with the 3 other dogs & all were secured & rolled into the airport & the Delta counter.
GRIN has secured some fantastic ladies at the airport who help with the process. They are very organized & know their jobs. We were checked in very effeciently & there was no problem. I made sure to tell them that I was seperate from the GRIN dogs & paid for the puppies crate to ship (about $100). The first part was done & I could not have been more relieved.
I walked to the gate & was once again fortunate enough to get into business/first class. Again, thank you to my buddy pass supplier. Wow! One of the flight attendants came to ask me about the puppies. She was a Scooby/GRIN supporter.
I tried to get as much sleep as possible on the flight as I knew it was going to be a very long & trying day ... there is a six hour difference in our times ... so when my flight left Madrid at 11am ... that was 5am our time here in Indiana.
We arrived in Atlanta an hour early at 2:30pm ... it had been an 8.5 hour flight. I headed straight for immigration & passed through quickly ... had to get down to the baggage claim to collect everything including the puppies to pass through customs.
I got my luggage & headed over to where the dogs would be delivered ... a woman from the airport was there with some large carts & she agreed to give me 2 of those & I had snatched a smaller one for the puppies. Soon enough, they all arrived & I lined them all up. Between the woman & myself, we got all the galgos loaded on carts still in their crates & I had made the same arrangement with my puppies & luggage as I had in Madrid. Still no sign of Crystal & I was beginning to get worried. I ran over to the carousel & got her luggage for her ... so there we were all ready to roll through customs. Evidently, Crystal has a hard time of it getting through immigration because she is Canadian. At any rate, if it weren't for the dogs being there I would have gone on by myself, but I would never put an animal's welfare over my own so I waited it out.
Eventually, Crytal joined us & we made our way through customs which included a stop at the Agriculture counter. After this, we all went into a large room to check the luggage on ... either up to the ground level to leave or onto the next flight. Crystal was on to Knoxville & the 4 dogs for GRIN were staying here in Atlanta to be picked up by the Plaskett's. This is the same couple who dropped Toro off to me last year & they are GRIN board members.
So, the 4 dogs were sent up to ground level to leave the airport & I stayed there to be with the puppies before my next flight which was not until 9:10pm. I actually was not sure that we would get on this time ... it was going to be close & I looked into renting a car. After a lot of research that Doug helped me with ... I decided to roll the dice on getting the flight.
I had 6 hours to kill before the flight & could not stand the idea of checking the puppies in to sit in a warehouse type of area for all that time. Even though I was not allowed to remove them from the crate, I stayed with them & my luggage in the check in area until 7:30pm ... during our wait the airport had nearly shut down due to bad weather & tornados. Needless to say, upon reopening, it was turning into a mad house & I was getting very tired & cranky.
I passed through security & made it to my gate to find out that the flight was now pushed back to 9:40pm ... ok .. no worries ... still no seat for me, but a chance ...
I decided to get something to eat ... came back & talked with Doug again ... at 9pm they finally gave me a seat! yeah! We were going to get on! This was very exciting, but we were not out of the woods yet because the flight kept getting pushed back & we finally were boarding at 11pm!
When I got down the ramp, I refused to enter the plane until I knew the puppies were loaded ... they said "What puppies?" .. I nearly lost it! A few minutes later they arrived with my precious cargo & they were loaded ... 2 more hours till we were home! I called Doug to tell him to be at the South Bend airport around 12:30am.
I slept on the flight because I was exhausted & when we finally got on the ground, I was ready to lose it. It had been a very emotionally draining day & I really needed the satisfaction of retrieving those puppies!
Doug & I got my luggage & waited for them at the Delta counter. The woman there knew me & got the puppies for me as soon as she could.
They were fine!!!! Not even an accident .. such good puppies!
They rode home on my lap & we all got to bed as soon as we could!!! Everything turned out fine & I could not be happier for them! They are going to find wonderful families & live a fantastic life!
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