Wrabitt Woes

Gallatea and I set off on a wonderful trip to Chile on Thursday. We left the house around 5:00 am and while getting checked in, they decided to put me on an earlier flight to Panama so I would have more time to change plans before heading to Chile. All was uneventful, we made it through security without having to pull him out of the cage, although they had asked me to, after I had tried to NO avail, they simply used a hand wand to check his cage. We settled into the first flight with a whole row to ourselves which gave me plenty of room to check on him during our flight. He did GREAT, however he DEFINITLY was very leary!!

I took this picture during our lay over when he slept most of the time.

Getting on our 6 hour flight to Chile was fine with no issues, this time we also had a whole row of 3 seats to ourselves. He rested and ate, while I relaxed, slept a bit, and watched a couple of the in flight movies. It was very relaxing, until...

I got to customs in Chile. First off I must say, I did not just make this decision lightly to take an animal to another country. I had called the Chilean consolate in Costa Rica, had him examined by a vet, had gotten his health certificate certified by the Costa Rican governmenet, and even visited the Chilean embasy there in Costa Rica to get his certificate for entry into Chile. However... As soon as entering the customs area, I was told that he could not enter the country. I was just stunned!! Exhausted, stunned, trying to understand these people who speak with a TOTALLY different accent and EXTREMELY FAST, and explaining everything in Spanish. They wouldn´t budge!!! OH, did I mention all 3 of the customs agents were WOMEN!! Crying just wouldn´t have worked!!

SO, I asked what my options were. They said I could have it killed... (Yeah, right? Why would I have gone though all of that trouble to kill him?! Plus what in the world would I have told my daughter?) ... OR I could leave it with Copa Airlines. (What is Copa Airlines going to do with a rabbit for 9 days straight?)

Well, there was a WONDERFUL lady from Copa who was SOOO understanding. Free of charge, she arranged to send the rabbit back to Costa Rica the next day to have Doug pick up at the airport. SO, I said goodbye to the flying rabbit and proceeded to ABWE headquarters to call my husband to inform him of his new plans for Friday. Now the pick up, was even more interesting, or so I am told. I´m hoping Doug will blog about that soon!!!

I just praise God that Gallatea made it ¨home¨ ok and now is safely hopping around our yard in Costa Rica. However, now we need to find him a permanent home in Costa Rica. Any takers???

Other than that interesting challenge that now I can laugh at, I am having a great time. I got some groceries yesterday and I will be seeing some houses and at least one doctor next week. I´m enjoying being here, but look forward to when my family can be here too!