Last night, we started the evening by preparing Bradley for his trip back to Tallahassee. We decided to ship him back home instead of having him be our hostage in the back of the truck on our road trip home. Simple enough, right? hmmm...
After loading his huge crate into our snowy truck bed, but not before trying to shove it in the back seat where it would be safe and warm, we piled in the front seat and headed to the airport. We were told by the lady who booked his flight just to go to the airport like normal and that his health certificate was good for thirty days from issue. (Now we know not to trust anyone on the other end of a 1800 number.) So, unsuspecting victims of the events about to unfold, we gave Bradley his doggy tranquilizer and made our way to the counter of Continental airlines, sister line to Delta, the airline Bradley was traveling. We were told he must be dropped off at the cargo area and were given awful directions. We got back outside into the cold and took Bradley back out of his crate, and we were off to cargo. When we found the building, it was locked and empty. After several minutes of standing around and banging on the door, we headed back to the airport. When Dan got inside, he found that there was actually a Delta counter and they gave him a new set of equally awful directions to a building that we found out didn't even exist.
After an hour of wandering around the cargo area and many phone calls later, we were transferred to someone who had a clue. We pulled into the correct and open cargo area and put a now stoned Bradley back into his crate. The workers were unpleasant and blamed us for being late and threatened not to take him. They finally agreed to take him and we handed over his health certificate. Well, apparently, this silly piece of paper must be signed within 10 days, not 30 like we were previously told. And they refused to take stoned Bradley! Of course, at this point I was hysterical, and all these people could say was, "Now you know where we are so you won't be late next time." ARRRGGGHHH! What a fiasco.
Bradley has another appointment with the vet today to get a new health certificate and another tranquilizer. We will try this again tonight, hopefully without any event.