I spent a great deal of time this morning on the phone (Magic Jack is excellent) with a lovely man at Virgin Atlantic trying to figure out the best manner to ship Tal-y to the UK. Yesterday I spoke to the USDA as they have to be involved too, and got a bunch of info from them; the woman I talked to freaked me out a little as she informed me that the vet who drew Tal-ys blood for her rabies test had to be USDA accredited which apparently is not the same as being licensed, and if he wasn’t then we would have to start all over and wait another 6 months. I had no idea if our vet was accredited and it really sucks being 3 hours ahead of the West Coast as I had to sit and wait for them to open before I could get the answer. Turns out, thankfully, that he is accredited – step one sorted, only 300 more to go!
I had a list of about 20 questions for the Virgin Atlantic guy and he was really nice and answered them as best he could. It seems that this shipping thing isn’t going to be as complicated as it seems to be to me, Virgin basically takes care of everything once we get Tal-y to them, and will even check to make sure all our paperwork is in order. She will be in her crate for a long time, but the guy assured me that she will be well taken care of. She’ll be the last on and the first off the flight, and really the only difference between us flying and her flying is that she doesn’t get an in-flight movie. So, if that’s the case, why can I fly home for less than $700 and it’s going to cost us close to $2,000 to send Tal-y? I think it’s because there are so many people involved, Virgin, Defra, Animal Welcome Centre, Customs, the list goes on, and they all want paying. Whatever, Tal-y really wants to go and meet Rosie, and maybe teach her how to be a real dog with proper manners!
It’s supposed to snow here today, just in time for us to leave tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t be too much and we’ll be able to get the trailer out, as I don’t want to stay here any longer. I guess at least if it does snow it’ll be a little warmer than it is right now.

Mike: Oh well! Easy come, easy go!