All Dogs Go To...

Hawaii!

Well, maybe not all dogs but my dog is most definitely in Hawaii today!!! =D The first thing I did this morning was check his flight status and call the airport quarantine facility. When I checked his flight, a map popped up. He was here:

How awesome is that?! Thank you, Delta Airlines!

My BIL dropped Jasper off at the airport last night at 11:30 (my time, 5:30 a.m. NC time). My poor puppy had already had a 2 hour layover, switched planes and was halfway to me by the time I got up. *pouts* I felt like a bad doggie mommy for have slept through so much. I took some melatonin before I went to bed so I would actually sleep, though. I knew that if I didn't I'd be up all night. 

This morning, I basically got things ready for him to get here. I cleaned up the floors, filled his water bowl, cleaned out the car (Lord knows it needed it anyway), and stopped to get him some toys. =) I left here around 1:45. His flight was due in at 2:30 and the lady I spoke to at the airport said to wait 30-60 minutes before arriving. Since I'd been tracking his flight all day, I knew that it was early. Good thing I left as early as I did. His flight landed about 2 minutes after I left. =P 

On my way to get Jasper! {No, I was not driving. I would never do that...}

Getting to the stinkin' place was probably more difficult than it should have been. Especially when I had a map of where the place was located at the airport. In case you didn't know, HNL is stinkin' HUGE! Anyway. Attempt #1, I passed the place and had to make a U-turn. No biggie. Attempt #2, I didn't really want to park on the side of the road... I saw another entrance that might have had parking. Get to the "gate"... Uh, oops. There are a bunch of planes back there and you have to have ID to get back there. Woops. Rude Chick tells me I have to "reverse" out of there. Yeah, she said "reverse." Hawaii is so freakin' weird. A lot of people refer to "trash" as "rubbish." I don't get that either. Anyway...totally off topic.

I finally got there and just parked on the side of the road. I put enough quarters in the meter to give me an hour. Just in case. I walked into the room...which was about the size of my laundry room. Maybe a little bit bigger.

This is from where I was sitting. Probably about 10 more square feet to the right of this picture.

I signed in, gave the lady the necessary paperwork, filled out more paperwork and finally she said they'd bring him out in a minute. Sure that it was going to take more than just a minute, I sat down next to another military couple (Mr. Soldier was in ACUs - just so you know I wasn't making it up ;-)). There was another guy in there, just to the left of the picture. He was pacing... I think he might have been more nervous/excited than I was! Just as I was planning to upload that photo from my phone to Facebook, the lady came out with Jasper! =D I sort of felt bad for the other people, but I was too excited to feel really bad for them. Lol!

She had him on a roll cart and rolled him out to the car for me. Good thing, too. He's not heavy, but when you add the weight of the crate it's a little much for me. When I grabbed his crate, I leaned down and said, "Hey, buddy!!!" Oh. My. Word. This guy went nuts!! It was like he really realized that it was me and totally went crazy! I set him in the car and I could hear his tail hitting both sides of the crate. =)

I promise he was excited. This picture really doesn't show it. 

Unfortunately, it took me a bazillion years to get home. There was only a little traffic on the H1 - surprisingly - but the real traffic hit like 5 miles from home. I don't know what was going on, but they had an entire road blocked off. I had gone the back way home because I didn't want to drive straight through the little town that I live closest to. So much for my plan! But, we finally got home. =) I let Jasper out to go the bathroom right away. No way I was gonna let him pee all over the house! After he peed a river, I bent down to play with him a little bit. My entire face got licked. =) I don't think he was happy to see me or anything. 

I let him inside to sniff around a little bit and get his bearings straight. I gave him a treat and showed him his new toys. I think he was more interested in the bone that my SIl, Sarabeth, gave him though. As soon as I opened his crate to take off the travel bowls and to clean it out (yuck), he grabbed that bone and ran!

Just so you know how much he likes it, only the bottom knot is left. He's been home since about 1600 and it's now 2100. 

It's nice to have my puppy back. =) I think I forgot how entertaining he is. I'm not sure if he was attempting to hide his bone or what, but I caught him "digging" on the couch... He was pretty serious about it too. I was cracking up and he just kept on going until I said his name and asked him what in the world he was doing [as if he could answer]. =P After the sun went down, I was messing around on the computer at the desk and got up to find a hair tie. Well, apparently Jasper wanted to go too. But, he saw his reflection in the patio door...and proceeded to growl at it. LOL!!!! That one was really great. I actually got him staring at his reflection a few minutes ago. Silly puppy. Here are a few more pictures:

Not the best pic, but I kinda like it.

Sniffing around the house.

Playing with a new toy. He's been seriously hyper tonight! 

Either he really missed me, or he got a lot of sleep on the plane.

"Hi, Mom!"

My cuddly, clingy puppy is back! =D

Sleepy puppy. Finally worn out. =)

I know you can't tell, but I'm seriously excited about Jasper finally being here. I still can't believe it was such a looooong process though. Honestly, I think it's a little bit ridiculous all the crap we had to go through just to get him here. And Jasper was the one who had to have all the shots, blood work and tests done! I'm sure he'd complain if he could. I mean, I understand that it's an island and that if there were a rabies outbreak it would probably be bad. But, isn't the rabies vaccination enough?! I mean, just to have a recent one (like 90 days recent) would seem logical to me. But, 2 rabies vaccinations, original certificates, OIE-FAVN test, heartworm tests, yearly shots, health certificates, AND 120 days of quarantine?! Really?! I'm glad that they don't require you to do the quarantine on the island, though. That would have been over $1000. I was NOT ready to pay that. I think we shelled out enough money as it is. 

I would really love to take Jasper to the beach this weekend and take some pictures. Not all of the beaches around here are very pet-friendly so... I don't know. I guess we'll see. I'd love to see what he thinks of it. =) 

Hope everyone had a good Monday!