Last week I concluded my story about how we moved to Australia. If you read the whole series you will know from part six, taking the dog, that we brought our dog, Baggy, out to Australia with us.
This is Baggy……
Baggy went to Australia almost a month before we did. But what that meant was we could pick him up just four days after we had arrived. This is the e-mail that I sent to family and friends back in England after we had picked him up. It is a true story, this really did happen. The title to my email was…..
Sad news about Baggy
Sorry we haven’t emailed any of you yet, but we have only just got a connection and we have had to try to deal with what happened when we got Baggy. We had only been here about 4 days when we went to pick him up. He had been flown in from Sydney into Brisbane, so we went to the cargo pick up point to get him. We handed over the paperwork and proofs and the bloke said we should go round to the gates outside and he would fetch Baggy and bring him to us.
So we did and we found ourselves one side of a wire fence staring at a warehouse door, waiting for Baggy to appear. Then, after a couple of minutes, out he came, being pushed in a crate by the bloke who dealt with us.
Karen and Elizabeth were so excited to see him, they were shouting out stuff, so that he knew we had come to get him. But he really wasn’t responding. As he got closer we noticed he was shaking. His coat looked dirty and he was not responding to us at all. He actually looked to be in a terrible state. He had gone from being a cool laid back dog to a physical wreck in just one month of quarantine.
Beth was confused and Karen pretty much broke down. Now, as Baggy was delivered to us, Karen was shaking too and she kneeled down at the cage and tried to touch him through the holes. “Oh my God what have they done to you!” she cried, she was a broken woman at this stage, I saw a broken woman.
Until I said – “Karen, it’s not our dog. Just stay calm, it’s not our dog”.
Then I looked at the bloke, he looked at the ticket attached to the crate and said – oh, sorry. Then he went back and got Baggy. He was fine when he came out.
What are the chances of that eh? They had a Labrador the same build, size and weight as our dog, but about three years older. He looked a bit past it, but looking back, I can understand why he wasn’t getting too excited about meeting us or being called Baggy.
So they brought the wrong dog out by mistake. But I’m glad they did, it was priceless! I wish I’d videoed it.
For a full chronological list and brief description of all the posts in this series about how I moved to Australia, please visit my page How to Move to Australia.
Related posts:
- Moving to Australia – Part Six
- Tribute to Baggy: Top Chocolate Lab
- Moving to Australia – Part Seven
- Taking the Dog to Australia.
- Moving to Australia and Moving Back to England Again.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello i have moved to australia and would love more then anything to havem my dog gunner here with me i miss him very very much it is sd that i can be here with him i know he is sad the friends he is staying with say he is always looking out the window when he heres a bike go by he remembers me coming home on my bike does nyone know how much it would cost to send him here from the U.S i dont even know were to start plaese if you have info HELP thank you so much
Hi
Hey, that’s really sad. I know how we would have felt had we left our dog behind, I don’t think my wife would have made it. It was very expensive for us, around £3000, but worth every penny.
I’m not sure what it would cost to bring your dog over from the USA, but as with most things, I would bet it works out cheaper than it did for us bringing our dog from England.
I guess the first thing you’ll need to do is telephone and find out the cost of flying your dog out to Australia, that is going to be the most expensive item. For us that was £1800 of the bill. Next your dog will need to go through a series of exams and tests with a vet and probably get tagged electronically. He needs a clean bill of health to get in.
When he gets here, he’ll need to enter quarantine for a period of time. For our dog, it was four weeks but it may be more for you if you come from an area where rabies is a possibility. I’m not sure about the USA, but I know Canada have slightly stricter rules imposed on their dogs coming in because of this.
My wife knows far more about it than I do, as she arranged our dog’s move. So if I were you I would check with a USA vet about the costs of those tests and check the flight costs (look for dog exporters in the USA) and then if you still want to go ahead and need more help, come back here and ask. But in truth, the vet should be able to guide you through everything.
Cheers
Bob
As a future transplant to Australia, I really enjoyed your posts. However, this one where you finally get to pick up your dog….I almost cried. There were tears welling in my eyes thinking about you and your family, whom I’ve never met, yet can imagine the fear and sadness. So GLAD that your dog was just fine. Hope all continues to be well!
Yes, there was fear and sadness alright, but coupled with relief and laughter all in one. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, it was one of those moments that make life so alive.
And I now have tears of laughter just telling the story, to anyone who’ll listen. Thanks Jen, hope your transplant goes well
Just wanted to let you know that your article nearly gave me a heart attack! LOL. We are planning a move from the US to Sydney later this year with our 16 week old black lab (he will be 9 months when we move). So, when I got to the part of the article where the dog was a wreck I was really worried about the effect that the move would have on our darling dog. Thank God it had a happy ending!
Just a question though – did you see any changes in your dog after the quarantine?
Hi Teresa
Sorry for giving you such a scare. Glad you didn’t have a heart attack.
Funnily enough, I think we did notice a difference in him. He sulked for about two days and then he seemed to take on a new lease of life. A fresh spring in his step. Almost as though he’d been in prison for a month and been released, and was happy to be free again.
But then again, I suppose you or I would feel great after spending a month locked up, just to be able to walk free in the garden again….
Check out the banner, top right on this page and every page for Dog Walks. It’s my wife’s business, she looks after dogs in quarantine here in Australia, she will help your Lab through it all.
Cheers
Bob