Relocating with Pets: The Final Chapter

When we last left this story, I was in need of corrected veterinary paperwork (regarding Han's microchip number) and we were near the finish line! All I had to do was get it sent off to the USDA APHIS office and hope it was returned before we leave.

The first part was easy, for once. I went to the vet when they opened, explained the situation, and asked for them to print the record with the corrected chip number and add a footnote signed by the vet. No vet was working that day, but when they pulled up his chart to print it, the microchip number, corrected, was now appearing on every page. I just had them print that out for me and called it a day. In fact, had I just asked them to send that corrected paperwork to the other vet before they filled out my USDA APHIS forms, this wouldn't have been an issue at all. Good to know.

I took the forms to the FedEx print-and-ship store but they weren't open yet. I bought a very disappointing coffee at Thomas Hammer and drank it while I waited, then went in with my paperwork when the doors opened.

The USDA website provided a very thorough and easy-to-understand checklist to help people ensure the packet is complete and there are no hiccups getting it turned around quickly. I appreciate that.

I had my name and contact info filled out. I had my date of departure and my destination country. I provided the vet's name and contact info. I included my rabies vaccination certificates, credit card payment form, and of course, the health certificates. All I needed was a return label from FedEx.

Please note the very explicit directions for purchasing a return envelope and label to provide the USDA:

Selection from the Pet Owner's Checklist for Shipping Health Certificates to USDA Endorsement Office

I showed this to the man at the FedEx counter and explained that I needed to ship the paperwork to the address I had neatly written on a sticky note, along with a return label with my name in both the To and From blocks. I pointed to it on the paper. First, I had to make a FedEx account, then he entered the addresses (mine as the sender and USDA, APHIS, VS, Veterinary Export Trade Services as the receiver). After I asked him to correct the spelling of both Veterinary and Export, we were good to go.

"I'm just going to swap the two addresses for the return label after I print this one."

"No, I can't have the USDA address appear at all on the return label. I need my own address to be both the To and From address."

He stared at me and I repeated myself.

"I'm not trying to be difficult, but the instructions are very specific about that and I had a friend who had to scramble to get the USDA a different return address label because they would not send her paperwork back when the label had their address as the sender."

I pointed to the paper again.

"I don't think the computer will let me do that."

After some struggle, he just printed my address twice as the receiver and cut the bar code off the bottom of the first label so he could apply it in the return address block. Whatever. It worked.

I watched the tracking number and was pleased to see my paperwork was quickly in the hands of the government with turn-around time to spare. Almost immediately though, I got a call from Donna, the receptionist at the vet's office. Apparently, Dr. Clark had filled in a nonsensical rabies vaccine type and the USDA couldn't tell which one of the three rabies vaccines manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim my dog had received on the side of the road (see Our Roadside Rabies Vaccine). Donna sorted this out for me (although I think she just Googled the vaccines they make and put in the one that made the most logical sense). I just sat and waited. She called me back and said it was done. She had a copy of the corrected certificate if I wanted it. I went out and bought them a thank-you plant and delivered it when I picked up the paperwork.

I'm grateful for those who go above and beyond for strangers, and I miss my houseplants.

The paperwork for both animals, USDA APHIS seals affixed, were now in my possession.

Zac brought a drill home from work and modified the crate to have ventilation on the back, and it looks pretty professional.

Zac added holes in the back of the crate to provide ventilation on  all four sides.

We were also concerned about the wire grating. IATA regulations stated that the holes couldn't be larger than 1" x 1" and ours were 1" x 2". Zac and I went to Ace Hardware and bought some wire mesh in a roll and some Gorilla tape. we cut a few pieces to cover the existing grates, wire-tied them to the original grating, and then taped over the wire ties and rough edges so they wouldn't be sharp.

Wire mesh over the original grating

Finally! A compliant(?) crate!

Getting it to Seattle was rough. Zac and I went to pick up the rental van hoping they had something that would fit our family of five, a cat, a dog, a giant dog crate, and all of our luggage. They offered us some small Volkswagen SUV where the trunk space was taken up by third-row seating, so we asked for the van instead. They offered us a Yukon, but it wasn't the XL, so we sat and waited forever to get the van. It was so worth it. That Chrysler Pacifica was huge, and we were able to get the crate nested in there (fairly) easily.

Marabel on the car ride to Seattle.

Happy Han Solo traveling to Seattle.

I had found us a hotel (Hilton Motif) near the Seattle passport agency (so Zac could walk there) that allowed pets, and we checked in with no issues. We set up a litter box in the bathroom, laid a blanket down for the dog, and they were both really well-behaved. The biggest problem was getting Han to go to the bathroom since he will only do it on grass and there is virtually no grass in downtown Seattle. I found a small park under the freeway about 6 blocks away from us and for the whole trip, we just had to keep walking him there to do his business.

On Thursday morning, we got up and drove to return the rental car. The staff was really nice and provided two big carts for us so we could move the giant kennel and all our luggage to the shuttle. The shuttle folks were nice, too, and helped us get everything loaded and semi-secured for the trip to the airport.

When they dropped us off on the curb, we found some more carts and got everything balanced again. The crate was absurdly large and people just kept cutting us off and then glaring at us like we were the bad guys because we almost ran over their kid or something. It was an ordeal, but we made it through.

Our trek through SEA-TAC.

We were pretty early for our flight because the guidelines indicated we should be there at least three hours ahead of our flight to check in an animal. I went to the AirFrance check-in and they were really helpful. They gave me zip ties for the corners of the door (so it didn't pop open during transport somehow) and gave us a waiting area. Even though they want you to be super early with the animal, they actually couldn't check him in until a couple hours before take-off.

It was fine though. Zac assembled the crate while I got our luggage checked in, then we got some breakfast and found a quiet place near the crate to eat and hang out. Marabel was such a trooper and just hung out in her little carrying case the whole time.

When it came time to part with Han, the ticket agent walked us over to an inspection area and another person briefly checked out the interior of the crate before giving us an all-clear sign.

Massive dog crate, assembled, with attached water funnel, attached food bowls, "live animal" stickers, potty pad, blanket, and shirts that smell like us.

Han went willingly into his crate and didn't seem to freak out or bark wildly or anything as he was taken away for his flight of 9 hours and 40 minutes. As the rest of us boarded the plane, the gate agent let me know the dog was on board (although I did have to ask - I think they were supposed to find me). We thought of him often and hoped he wasn't too scared.

Marabel was quiet and didn't ask too many questions. She rubbed her head against the mesh of her bag once in a while and I petted her through the mesh. When I boarded, I had to shove her under the seat. That was actually pretty awkward because there wasn't a whole lot of clearance under the seat. I made sure the bag was within the acceptable dimensions when I bought it, but it still had to be squished down pretty severely to fit under the seat. To ease the squashing, I left the front half of the bag kind of sticking out under my feet and hoped the flight attendants wouldn't ask me to push her in further.

I checked on her from time to time, but she was perfect. I can't believe Zac didn't want to bring her.

At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, we would normally just go catch our connecting flight without leaving the terminal, but our family had to actually exit through passport control and go collect the dog at the baggage claim area for oversized luggage. I told the passport agent why we were exiting even though we still had to connect to Copenhagen. She didn't speak to me, scanned all of our passports, stamped visas in all of them, and handed them back to me. She barely looked up so I just thanked her and walked through with everyone.

We found the dog easily. He was happy to see us, of course. We put him on the leash, loaded his giant crate onto a cart, and walked outside to try to get him to go to the bathroom (there is no pet relief area at CDG). Again, he refused to go to the bathroom on concrete, so we just went back into the airport and found an out-of-the-way spot to give both animals some water. Han threw his up immediately all over the airport floor. Cool.

Why is this thing so huge and unwieldy?!

I sopped up the bile from the floor with the two shirts we had given Han for comfort and chucked them in the garbage. I would've used the potty pad, but it was wet and Han has clearly peed a little in the crate during the first leg of the journey. We tried to check him in again but found out we were in the wrong terminal. On our journey to find a potty area, we had ended up at the AirFrance counter for international flights, and since we were already in Europe, we needed to be at a different counter. We had to walk clear across the airport, but the gate agent had given us perfect directions so we found the counter easily.

Again, we were told we couldn't check in the dog until right before our flight, so we just sat on the floor and tried desperately to stay awake.

Staying out of the way, killing time.

I think the guy felt bad for us sitting on the floor, so he called us up about half an hour before I expected, and we were separated from the dog again.

Bye, Han!

When we got off the plane in Copenhagen, we got our baggage and collected Han (ugh, again with the carts...). Marabel was a little fussy by that point, but still very quiet and well-behaved. We tried to get them both to go to the bathroom outside the airport, but I'm sure by now you can guess how that went. Thankfully, our friend, Vibe, met us at the airport with her car to take the carrier, most of the luggage, and the animals (plus Khloe as a handler), so we just had to get a couple backpacks and four of us into a taxi.

Vibe asked how customs went with the dog and I kind of panicked. Nowhere during our journey had anyone asked us to fill out a customs form. Nowhere had a passport control agent asked us questions about what we were bringing into the country animal-wise. Is it because we went through passport control in France to go collect the dog? Is it because the border patrol agent didn't really listen to what I said? They didn't even ask me about our kids or anything. I literally cannot figure out what happened, but we didn't purposefully do anything to skip out on declaring our animals, so I hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass later.

I have an appointment tomorrow, Monday, to talk to our relocation consultant about registering the dog with the Danish authorities, which I think is just done online after my CPR number is activated, so I don't see a problem there.

Both animals are settling into our new home and our journey with them is complete.

Zac says we can't even discuss moving back to the U.S. unless both animals die. I 100% agree. I'm sure glad they're here, but relocating animals internationally a second time is a hard pass.