Daisy, the new addition to our family arrived on a flight from Seattle yesterday. It was a trying time for both of us. I arrived at Air Canada Cargo just after her flight landed to pick her up. I was told that she wouldn’t be off the plane for another 40 minutes, so I waited patiently. I went up again to see if she was in yet only to be told that they could only release her to the person on the waybill, Juliette.  After pleading and showing all of my id, I convinced the guy at the counter to release her to me. He handed me a sheaf of paperwork and sent me off to customs.

I got in my car, drove to another building at the airport, waited in line, was questioned by customs, got my forms stamped, went to wait in another line, paid the import duty, got back in the car and drove back to Air Canada. All the while, poor Daisy was in her crate in the cargo area, waiting after a stressful 4.5 hour flight.

Back at Air Canada, I was served by another agent. He informed me that they couldn’t release her to me. Once again, I begged and pleaded. He called his supervisor. He then called Juliette on her cell phone, no answer! Eventually, Juliette returned his call, paperwork was stamped, airport fees were paid and the agent headed back into the cargo area to get poor Daisy.

I took Daisy outside to the grass, opened her crate and waited. She nervously crept out and sniffed around. She was shaking like a leaf, but a few calm words and quite a few treats and she was wagging her tail and chasing me around.

She was bundled back into the crate, buckled into the seat beside me and we started the drive back home through rush hour traffic. She was so good on the way home. She just sat there licking my fingers until she fell asleep.

Back at home, we let her out into the yard to explore and to meet Juliette. She was cautious at first, but was soon bounding about and following us everywhere. Our first night went well. She was up a few times to go pee which she did quickly and was back to bed with barely a whimper.

This weekend, she is going to be thrown into the deep end. We are doing the 24 hour race at Albion, so she is going camping with us and will get to meet a bunch of new people. She has been really brave so far, so I think she will be fine. She can always retreat to her crate in our tent if she gets stressed.

Click on the pictures of her to see a larger version.