Day 6

On Thursday morning, Scott had to go into the office to pick up his passport so we could clear our two cats (George and Nolan) through customs. As Anne was getting out of the shower downstairs (we can’t shower upstairs until they are certain it is no longer leaking into the kitchen) and was walking bare naked through the entry hall, the doorbell rang. It was the gardener coming to mow the lawn, but he needed a key to the gate (Anne deduced this fact only after a dialogue of hand signals and grunting). While now wrapped in only a robe, she began to scour the house for the key. At this moment, one of the management office people arrived with two men to fix a leak in the skylight (apparently we didn’t get the memo because we had no idea this was a problem). Feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and remember … naked, Anne fired off an e-mail to Scott:

“The gardener needs the keys to the front gate…please call and let me know where I can find them. By the way, all HELL is breaking loose here…come home soon.

Love,
Your dear, sweet, kind, forgiving wife”

Little did we know this was only the beginning to a very, very long day.

We set out for the airport at 11:00am with Mr. Chen and Thomas (our landlord’s son-in-law who has been a blessing because he speaks very good English and is going above and beyond the call of duty to help us get settled in China). Unfortunately before getting to the Cargo terminal, we were involved in a minor car accident. Our car and a passing van bumped into each other traveling at a slow speed – causing minor damage to both vehicles and no injuries. While waiting for the police, Scott decided to inspect both cars. Our car had a few scratches, but the other driver was claiming we had caused a 2 foot by 6 inch black scratch on the side of his car. Scott, cool as ever, decided to tell the other driver that he felt like he was lying, and communicated this by shaking his head no and giving the guy the international hand signal for loco by twirling his finger over his ear.

After arriving at the airport we were able to claim the paperwork from the airline and were then supposed to clear the cats through customs. We walked a couple blocks to the building next door (we'll call it Building X for clarification purposes) and after talking to at least 6 different security guards we were told to walk to Building 3 in the cargo terminal next door. Since obviously there were multiple buildings in this terminal, you can envision a very large area, and since the security guards wouldn’t allow vehicles in, we had to walk. So as we tried to make our way over to Building 3 we were faced with a series of obstacles. The best way to describe it, is a scene straight out of “Frogger” (the popular 1980’s Atari video game) - Juliet, Anne, Scott, and Thomas trying to get across lanes of speeding semis, delivery trucks, and forklifts to get to Building 3. Unfortunately after arriving at Building 3, we were instructed to go to Building 2 - so after sauntering there in the 95 degree heat, we were told to go to Building 1. However, Building 1 still didn't contain the treasure we were hoping for and so, we were instructed to return to Building X.

We were told by an innocent bystander in Building X that the only way to clear the cats through customs was to hire an agent – it just so happens that he knew of someone – and it was only 3 blocks away. We hired an agent for a semi-reasonable price and fortunately, we were able to convince him that we needed to see the cats. So we walked back to the Cargo Terminal and came upon a VERY hot warehouse where the cats were at the top of a 20 level-high rack. As the auto forklift retrieved them Anne began to sob loudly and all 40 workers crowded around. As they slowly turned the cages around to face us, our agent announced “They’re Alive”. At this point, we had 40 people hovered over us as we investigated their well-being from several feet away.

We then went back to the agent’s office to complete some paperwork that would allow them to clear customs and get to quarantine. We left the airport at about 4pm and figured our day was almost done. However, due to a paperwork error by United Airlines upon original shipment of the cats, we were on the phone until 9pm trying to sort out the issues. It now appears the cats are in quarantine and will be delivered home next Thursday or Friday.

The moral of the story...when moving internationally, suck it up and pay the $5K to have a carrier handle your pets.