| What are we doing with the pets? |
We own a dog and a cat. We've had the cat, Taffy, for a long time and he's quite old now. The dog, Spike, on the other hand hasn't been with us for very long. So, when we move to the US, what are we going to do with the pets? Well, the cat is relatively easy, as he's too old to cope with a move, and is quite attached to my father. He'll be staying in our current house, which dad will be renting from me.
The dog, Spike is harder. The kids are now quite attached to him, having been initially scared of him (we got him as a puppy, and the kids didn't like that puppy phase too much). He's now a year old or so. On the other hand, he didn't like the flight from Sydney to Canberra when we acquired him, so a 14 hour flight to the US is too much for him. If we don't like the US and want to come home really, soon then he would also end up in quarantine, a four hour drive away from us, for a very long time (around three months I believe).
Worse than that, we're probably going to end up in an apartment in the US, and that would mean that he wouldn't have a yard to play in...
In the end we ended up deciding that it was better if Spike staying in the US. we contacted the breeder and had a chat, and found a lady in Sydney who has been looking for a Labradoodle for a while. After her visiting us and meeting the dog, and us interviewing her, we decided to just give her Spike. It felt really wrong to even discuss money.
Spike now has a dog's dream job -- he's a mascot for a Sydney school, and plays with the kids at before and after school care (which are urn by his new owner). he also gets to go for long walks every day, and play on the beach, which something we were somewhat lax about.
That's what the trip to Sydney that I blogged about earlier was about. Spike was dropped off, and then we went to my father in law's house for the night. The boys got skateboards in return for being strong about the whole thing. They still ask after Spike a little, but I think that they understand that we're going on a bit of an adventure and that Spike is best off where he is.
That's why I was at Freshwater breach for that surfing competition that day as well... That beach is about a five minute walk from Spike's new home.
I honestly think we've done the right thing, but it's still sad when I think about it.
Tags for this post: travel usa california mountainview relocation dog puppy sydney canberra home
Related posts: Travel details so far; In Sydney!; Two more weeks to go; In Sydney for the day; A further update on Robyn's health; RIP Robyn Boland; Working from home; In Canberra; Sounds like Andrew's cat is allergic to something in it's food; Dell e310 upgrade; Weekend update; Mont 24 hour race; Most novel traffic jam cause goes to... Canberra!; Bigger improvements; So, what on earth was I doing up at 4:30 am anyways?; Puppy excitement; Planes at 600 meters!; Sydney next week; Getting ready to leave Sydney; Working from home today; Robyn's Health
posted at: 17:31 | path: /travel/usa/california/mountainview/relocation | permanent link to this entry
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