#5 : Dog Days

#5 : Dog Days - a Month-and-a-half in

Well, it's been a month-and-a-half and we are getting closer to feeling settled. I do think that the newness has worn off for the girls, which obviously has its good and bad. We keep promising travel and family adventures in Russia, like our recent trip to St Petersburg (see below), so hopefully that will keep them going. Oh, but did I mention that it snowed on October 1st!!

Catherine's Summer Palace - St Pete

The Church of the Spilt Blood - St Pete

It did help immensely when Bennett arrived. He was held up in the States for an extra two weeks (being spoiled by his dog walker, Michelle, and our sitter, Sophia) because of a missed vaccination deadline. Yes, we paid a pet relocation company an exorbitant amount of money to check on what Russia required, make sure it was all done in time, get his USDA paperwork, and purchase the best flight possible. Well, they missed a vaccination and so he had to travel separately.

Anyway, since many have asked about him, I'll share the story of his journey. First I will start off by saying that he is very frequent and very efficient with his "waste disposal." And when I asked this relocation company how we should prepare him for his trip, I am pretty sure they said he shouldn't eat or drink from the night before and throughout the journey. That made sense, I thought. I mean, he had a long trip ahead of him and it would at least minimize any mess.

He had to arrive to the SF airport 6 hours early. Then he had a flight to Frankfurt. At that junction Lufthansa's animal care center (the gold-standard airline of animal transport, taking care of zoo animals, hatching chicks, etc.) would take him for a walk and give him a bit of food. He would overnight there awaiting an afternoon flight to Moscow where someone would meet him to get him through customs, about a 4-6 hour process. Then he would be delivered to our doorstep.

Two weeks after we arrived, it was time for him to travel. That morning our dog walker sent some sweet good-bye photos and the following note:

"Here he comes.
Final morning snuggles in bed - check
Fed, exercised - check
Food, toys, wee wee pads in kennel - check
Woman has paperwork - check"

So, you can imagine what caught my eye. Oh my god, he was given food?!?!?! That morning???!!! But the relocation company said they would give all instructions to Michelle about his pre-travel preparations. I remember asking them a couple of weeks before we left to remind me what was needed so that I could pass them along, and they said they would be in contact with her!! Oh my God, oh my God! I could barely sleep that night.

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We call Germany the day (he had about an 18 hour layover) and they report back that he had a lot to say, had been fed and walked and actually was lounging in a horse's stable - he had plenty of space. Apparently it was pretty obvious that he did not want to be in his kennel anymore.

For his next leg to Moscow, it took 6 hours to get through customs, after which we finally receive the call that he is on his way to us. The girls could not wait!

So, Andrew greets the drivers on the street, they ask him what to do with the extremely large kennel which may not even fit through the door (he tells them to bring it up, which of course, after paying $300 for it, we assume we are keeping), and Bennett barks his way through a very belated reunion. He is obviously stressed and just cannot contain all of his complaints and sharing his story and worries. 

As we are hugging him, I notice he looks dirty - well, the horse stable maybe. But then Andrew, while signing papers for the driver, tells the girls, "he might have poop on him." I flash back to the note from Michelle and look in his kennel - oh yeh, there is poop everywhere!!! It's dried, it's on the walls, the pee pee pads, and as I look more closely at the dog I've been trying to calm down with hugs and pets, it's all over him!

After bathing him, we return downstairs, coming quickly to the realization that the kennel really stinks... I mean really, no surprise, but it has permeated the entire apartment by this point. But without an outdoor hose, how do you clean out a large kennel? At first we think, let's just put it in the one room we never use and deal with it tomorrow. It's 10:30 at night, what is really doable right now. But the doorways are too small and to fit it in we would have to turn it on its side, risking poop spilling out of the side gates.

By this time the girls are yelling about how badly it stinks and we say, screw it, we are taking it to the area behind our apartment (remember, we don't have any large disposal system near our apartment). We carry the thing outside, passing our door men who have just seen it enter, and notice a dumpster across the street. Excellent! We throw the kennel on top and don't look back...

...until the following morning, when the dumpster is gone, but the kennel remains... on the street... not even on the sidewalk... blocking parking. (Exhibit A.)

Exhibit A - abandoned dog kennel

So now, keep in mind, it rained almost every day in September. I will say that this kennel was getting washed out quite well. And our doormen, who noticed it themselves and knew the culprits, told us not to worry, someone would take it. Well, each day as I would leave the building and it was still there, I was feeling more and more guilty. Not only was it obnoxious to leave it there but it was blocking prime parking on a very busy street. But we couldn't risk being caught as the people who left the poop-ridden kennel on the street in this well-to-do neighborhood.

By the time I couldn't stand the guilt anymore, it was gone! I think 3 full days of rain had washed it out enough that someone didn't notice the inside contents. Oh thank God, I thought.

Anyway, with the kennel out of the way, Bennett and I have covered much ground in the city. He seems quite at home, not emotionally damaged by the trip, and only wishes that he could play more with other dogs. Large dogs here are considered by many to be unpredictable so, while all he wants to do is socialize, people are often pulling their dogs away from him - even when they themselves have a large-breed dog. In any case, it's great to have him here.