He's Here! He's Here!

I picked up my new dog, Bruce, from upstate NY this past weekend.  I told you guys about him earlier this year.  I wasn't 100% sure that he would come live with me.  I was wavering back and forth.  After spending the last 19 years taking care of dogs and a cat, I wasn't sure I wanted to put myself through potentially losing another pet.  Two weeks ago my daughter called, a little frantic, because she was moving into a new place and couldn't take Bruce with her.  I secured a flight and headed to NY on Saturday.  It was touch and go as to whether we would get him on the plane.  Three hours before my flight home, we realized we needed his rabies certificate, which was lost in all the moving my daughter had done.  So we both started calling local vets to see if we could get him a shot and still make my flight.  Oh, did I mention the airport was an hour away from where she lived?  It took us calling five vets before we found one that said yes.  We pulled off a miracle and he had a shot within 15 mins of us making the call.  Thank goodness for small towns!  I would never have pulled that off in Atlanta.  We make it to the airport in plenty of time and I'm breathing a sigh of relief.  That is until it's almost time to board the plane, and one of the workers comes over to say his dog carrier is probably too big to fit under the seat.  I told him it was smaller than the guidelines posted on the Airtran website.  He promptly got out his measuring tape and verified it met the guidelines.  They let us on the plane first to make sure there weren't any issues.  THE CARRIER DID NOT FIT!  So my options were buy one of their smaller carriers for $50, or buy a seat in business class for $69.  Turns out the carrier wasn't going to fit in business class, either.  Since Airtran doesn't have pressurized cargo areas, he couldn't be checked as luggage.  Who knew?  Other airlines do ship animals as cargo. I asked them why should I be penalized, since I followed their guidelines.  I convinced the guy to let me borrow their carrier and I would turn it in on the other side.  He was kind enough to agree.  The smaller carrier was very small.  We tried to put him in through the top.  Big mistake.  He was hanging out.  The guy left me to work it out.  Took me awhile to figure out that I could get him in if I opened it from the front.  By this time the stewardess, who knew the situation, was threatening to kick me off the plane if I didn't immediately get him in the carrier.  Not sure what her problem was.  It's not like I was holding up the plane.  People were still boarding.  It was craziness.  But it all worked out in the end.  Bruce is here and he is such a joy already.  He and my BF are already good friends and it was very important that they get along.

He's a 13 lb, 7 yr old, Shih-Tzu, with a ton of personality.

He got a new bed once we arrived.  He's sleeping with the only toy he brought from NY.  My BF bought him a couple more toys once we got here.  

He has made himself right at home.

This is my step-daughter Carmen and her daughter, Carmen.  I hadn't seen my daughter in 15 years.  It was a wonderful reunion!  She turned 27 on Sunday.

Little Carmen is the happiest two year old I have ever met.  She went to bed laughing and she woke up laughing.  She loves Dora and Barney.  Hard to believe Barney is still going strong.  Barney was all the rage 20 years ago when I was with my, then two year old, niece.  Spending time with Carmen will help me with the two year olds in Morristown.