Here you can read about the journey to Spain.

Return journey - Spain

Wednesday, 07 June 2006 

I woke up around 08.00 and prepared myself for the day. I checked out and went for a walk in the city. Vitoria is beautiful and green. I would like to see some more of that city. I was supposed to meet Silvia at10.30 at a café but she sent an MSN saying she was a bit delayed. At 11.00 we met for a Basque coffe and a sandwich (Silvia had a cake) and then we headed towards her car. And there, there was our little puppy in a cage!!! We were going to the vet, bur first Silvia needed to go to the bank - we went for a small "rally-race" through the city and Manuel threw up.

We came to the vet, and there they told me about the mistake they had done regarding the chip-id. (As you can read in previous articles) They told med Silvia had left the puppies at the clinique just so she could park the car, and when she came back, all the puppies were alrerady chipped. So that is why Manuel now had 2 stiches in the neck.

Silvia spent a lot of time talking on the phone, since the Finland-issue wasn't solved yet. Now plan C is to send one handler, one interpreter and Goshi's co-ownern enabling a solution, but nothing is confirmed. So no, Goushi was not driven by car to Germany last night...

At the kennel Silvia went to give Goushi a shampoo, while I spent my time in the garden with Akita-puppies, Shiba-puppies and Silvias father, as well as all his peacoks. ( I believe one of the Akitas had "helped" to reduce the amount of peackocks by two.) The darkest male puppy is still at the kennel, but will be exported to Brasil. One of the femal puppies are still there also. She was booked for Russia, but then also Kumi was going to Russian, and when the buyer of the puppy found out that, she did not want the puppy. Silvia wanted to make sure that I was satisfied with the puppy I had chosen, and I confirmed that yes, I was. (Indeed)

Phui.....it was hot, some 30-plus degrees Centigrades. When Goushi was shampooed, I got to meet him again, and this time also Kumi. Some of the puppies will have long-coat, and they are so cute! They will have a lower price, as they can not be show-dogs. Anyhow, they are gordeous and will look like miniature lions.

After that I had a real home-made Spanish Paella with Silvia and her parents, and a talkative parrot. Me and Silvia drove to the hotel LAKUA where we had a coffee and took care of all paper work, and payment. After that I took Manuel and drove towards Bilbao. I was sitting in the car, driving, and suddenly it hit me...I had a puppy in the car...my and Mikael's puppy! WE are dog-owners now!

I sent an SMS to Mikael that we "are on our way". When returning to the Bilbao airport I believe i spent fifteen minutes driving around just trying to find where to return the car! I was not the only one doing that...finally I asked two police-men hihi. I must admit I shot some pictures on the highway, even though I was driving...but at least I did not look into the camera, I looked on the road, and shot some pictures by chanse. I can be venturesome, I am fully aware of that...but I am not totally stupid though.

I prepared "my entree" to the check-in by putting Manuel in the bag and putting all the luggage inside the Atlas cage. We went to the loo, so that Manuel could have som water, and stretch his legs. I approached the lady at the check-in and kindly asked if I could re-book so that "my little" dog could come with me in the cabine as hand-luggage, since he "was soo much smaller than I had calculted".  (All the time trying to prevent Manuel from showing his big head) Well after some thinking...it was ok, but ofcourse I had to pay some extra money and some documents in three different colours should be filled in. Yet another 40 Euro was spent.

So now I could prepare the soft bag. I went to the loo again and put a pillow in the bag that is supposed to be used when you defrost you freezer, then a thick paper, and finally paper torn into small small pieces. By the way, I hade one more set of this, so that I could replace it in Madrid if needed.

I could just manage to fit in the bag on the floor. I had to sit with my legs around the bag, angled  backwards under the seat, with only the toes touching the floor. Manuel was totally cool all through the take-of, the flight, and the landing. The passenger next to me did not even notice there was a dog until we had landed in Madrid. Once again, time for the loo - water to Manuel, exchanging the "padding" in the bag. 

And then I heard my name in the loudspeaker. Of all the nice-coloured papers I had to sign in Bilbao, ofcourse I had not gotten the correct ones. So once again, I had to fill in papers in different colours. Then all was clear. Manuel slept his way through this flight too and I watched a crappy movie.
/Charlotte

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