A Confession

I have a huge confession:  I am not in Korea.  Not yet anyway.  My trip was delayed for a month, and Brennan has traveled ahead.  I have to admit that it’s a bit depressing because the expected week apart from my husband has been extended into a torturous 5 weeks.  So I sit here in my sad self-imposed lonely exile refusing to tell everyone that I’m still around in order to avoid the difficulty of a second round of goodbyes.  I’ve already been through the tough part, and certainly don’t want to do it all again.  I cry far too easily. Despite the difficulty of it all, I’m starting to crawl out of my hole in the spare bedroom of friends’ houses to rejoin society for the next 3 weeks until I try to restart my life all over again.

In order to explain why all of this has happened, I’ll have to back up about to where the story begins.  But first, let me introduce the main characters.

Jack

(In a thick Scottish accent) I am a cranky yet loving old man of the mixed Border Collie and Australian Shepherd type.  My master’s Lady always says that if I was a human, I would be a sedentary old Scotsman with a pipe and a dry sense of humor.

Lilly                                                                         

I am the Queen of the household.  Actually, I’m only the Princess, since Mom’s actually the Queen.  She’s the only one who I’ll actually listen to around here.  When not hunting bugs, I prance around in my pink sweater demanding attention.  It’s a fabulous life!

Jack and Lilly were preparing for their big trip across the world to their new home in Korea.  For them, this entails much more than a passport.  This preparation process is months long and includes bringing vaccinations up to date, obtaining months worth of veterinary medicines in advance, and finally, a physical examination within 10 days of departure that ends in a international health certificate that must be processed and approved by the USDA.  If this is not done, Jack and Lilly will not be allowed to enter Korea.  If this is completed, but the vaccinations have been given within 30 days from departure, they will be quarantined upon arrival for one month before being released to Mom (Me) and Pop (Hottie) Wallace.

Soooo…..the dogs seemed to take all of the big changes in stride, and barely even reacted when we moved all of the furniture out of the house, living instead with a single blow up mattress and two travel animal crates for a week.  It wasn’t until we entered a new veterinary office for the final health examination that the reality of major change hit home for Lilly.  She began shaking uncontrollably and sidled up to her mother for assurance and comfort.  Poor thing. 

The dogs passed their exam with flying colors based upon their transferred health records, and all seemed to be going well until I went back to their original vet to pick up their original rabies certificates.  Suddenly, it all fell apart.

[Duh, duh, duh, duh –  *soundtrack for sudden moment of crisis.*]

Apparently Jack’s one of the vet techs has messed Jack’s records and he was actually overdue for a vaccination by almost two years and wouldn’t be approved for transport by the USDA.  Worse: our plane departed in 5 days.

The result?  I’m still here.  With the dogs. We had to get Jack re-vaccinated and reschedule  all of our travel plans for 30 days from then.

THE END.