Not Today

Today I am not as excited about moving to England as other days. Today was a very dreaded, sad step in the moving process. Today I had to say “Good-bye” to one of my babies for possibly the next four years: my sweet Sheltie, Luna.

 

This is not the first animal we have had to give up over this move, either. We had a Boxer, my husband’s baby, which we had to find a new home for as well. And then we had a cat, my first pet cat, that went to another home too. This has been especially hard on the kids. They just did not want to give up their furry friends!

You see, for some incredibly stupid (and assuredly ridiculous) reason, the military will not pay to ship our pet with us overseas. I don’t know what the reason is. I can only assume it is because the military does not see family pets as “essential” to their “mission.” Whatever the reason, it's not good enough. And I say it is stupid and ridiculous because, although they will not pay to ship my sweet dog, they will pay loads to ship our furniture (also, not “essential” to their “mission.”)

If given the choice, I would choose to have them pay to ship my pet over my furniture in a heartbeat. They actually have full sets of furniture (beds, living room furniture, etc.) that we could “rent” for free while we are there.  If they offer such a service, why oh why would they pay to ship our furniture when they could use that money to pay for the shipping of family pets??

She is staying in a good home while we are gone, to be sure, and we have known for some time that we cannot afford the plane ticket+British customs fees to take her with us. It was going to cost roughly $1600 to fly her to England (and almost double that for the Boxer!). Plus we would have had to drive her to another airport because animals have to fly on direct flights. There are no direct flights out of our small Southern state. And she would have had to fly alone because the airline the military is flying us on does not fly animals to the UK. Period.

 But I did not know I would be saying “Good-bye” so soon.

This weekend, we went to visit my grandparents once more before the move. We brought Luna with us and they really wanted to keep her for us while we are gone. Although I know this means she will be in good hands, I was not prepared to give her up this early before the move. I wanted to hang on to her for as long as possible. But as my grandparents live out-of-state and not being able to make another trip before we leave, we had no choice but to leave her with them during this visit.



Last-minute Playtime

After having to sell our house, and giving up three pets, moving to England isn't looking so exciting right now. Today, I am finding it hard to appreciate or see the opportunity in going. Today, I just want my Luna home.