The Big Move- Part 2: Moving to Ireland

I’ll get the sad part out of the way first. Clifford my beloved Weimeraner passed away 12 days after we moved to Missouri. He spent his final days on the farm with all the people and things he loved best.  When his time came, I was fortunate enough to be friends with a brilliant caring vet who came to the house, sat with us both and made sure I was ready for him to go. Lydia had known Clifford nearly as long as she knew me, and so I am forever grateful she could be there for both of us. If every pet and owner is given the same compassion that Lydia showed when she came out she really is the best vet in the world, not just in my eyes. When I asked Curtis and Sarah if I could bury him on their property in the back they graciously said I could bury him in their front yard where I’d know where he was. We planted a pear tree over him as a marker and so that my little fruity dog would one day bear real fruit. Now Curtis and Sarah have a tree named Clifford in their front yard. This was the saddest part about our whole journey, losing my best friend of 12 years, but it was better he passed then rather than have to endure the long journey over to Ireland. Here are some pictures of Clifford in all his fruitiness.

 

 

 

My best friend, and the best dog I've owned- 2007

Enough sadness! Now to the nitty gritty of moving to another country, with 2 dogs no less. Marble and Gypsy needed to be microchipped with EU friendly chips, up to date on all their vaccinations (Rabies especially because Ireland is a Rabies free country!), and wormed 48 hours prior to arrival in the country. Oh, and we had a ton of paperwork that needed to go with them that was handled by our vet (THANK YOU AUTUMN DAVIS of Horton!). Matt also had to go visit the USDA State Vet and have them check all the paperwork over before we could load the dogs up. All was going very well until Marble tried to commit suicide. Three days before we were to leave, she broke into our bedroom, dug through a packed suitcase, and ingested nearly a half a bottle of anti-inflammatory meds that were meant for Gypsy. Gypsy had managed to strain her ACL while frolicking with Curtis and Sarah’s border collies while we were staying with them before the move. The vet recommended medicating her until we’ve moved and then maybe surgery if it was a full tear, so we already had one dog down and now Marble ate enough doggy Tylenol to knock down an elephant! So I did what all good dog owners would do, I induced vomiting. Since we had no idea who else may have gotten into the medication I did the same for the 2 border collies and Gypsy. So here I was 3 days before leaving with a pack of dogs vomiting their guts out before my very eyes. Luckily after a gross but thorough examination of everyone’s half-digested stomach contents I ascertained that Marble was the only one dumb enough to gobble down medications.  Since these meds are similar to Tylenol I knew there was a big risk for liver and kidney damage which meant off to the vet we go! When we got there I explained all the regurgitation I induced in our now very sad looking Fox Hound (But they were MEAT flavored and I was HUNGRY her little eyes seemed to say) that I was pretty sure I cleared everything out of her system but wanted a professional opinion.

 

Mmmmm... Meat flavored medicine!

 On a side note, this is the same hound that ate nearly 10 lbs of dog food when she broke into the kibble Tupperware 3 days ago. The vet suggested she get activated charcoal just in case and we readily agreed. In addition to the charcoal we also opted for them to keep her overnight so she could get fluids and be monitored all night. 12 hours and $600 later a happy hound trotted out of the vet hospital. The vet informed us that when she put the bowl with activated charcoal and a little bit of canned food mixed in in front of Marble she told to the vet students that most dogs wouldn’t eat it because it was yucky. By the time she turned around, all of it was gone and Marble had licked the bowl clean. That’s my hound dog! The next compliment came when she told us that Marble was not only the perfect patient (she freezes as soon as you touch her), but she acted as therapy dog for the students that night. What I haven’t told you about this hound is she is ridiculously calm and sweet.  So when the students would get stressed or sad about a patient the attending would ask them to go sit with Marble for a bit. Marble would snuggle into them, wag her tail and look at them as if her whole world revolved around them, which can make anyone feel better. Even though I wasn’t pleased with the bill or why she had to go to the Vet Hospital, I was glad other people got to experience her sweetness and love.

Will you PLEASE come snuggle with me? I'm lonely!

On the big day we had to follow a fairly strict schedule because we were driving to Chicago from Columbia Missouri with our suitcases and dog crates, and dogs. 

 Matt had rented a Suburban so that we could leave it at the airport and because it was big enough to fit all our crap. Chicago is just over 6 hours away so to get there by 4 pm we were leaving Columbia by 7 am to ensure we had enough time with stops for gassing up and food.  No problems on the drive, and once we got to the airport a guy in a van came by and took the dogs with their crates from us and promised we could pick them up in 10 hours from Dublin Airport. It was all quick and easy but FAR from cheap. For as much as we paid to get the dogs over I hope they were drinking champagne and eating caviar the whole trip! It cost more to ship the dogs over than it did to ship us over! Big shout out to Enterprise at Chicago O’Hare Airport for not only helping us unload the suburban, but also helping with the dogs and then personally driving us to the terminal. Best service EVER, and just what I needed after handing my dogs off to a stranger. I’m a bit attached to my animals if you haven’t gotten that vibe yet.

            Our flight took off at 7:35pm CST and would arrive in Dublin around 9 am Ireland time. Normally this is a long flight but we try to sleep the whole way over. Sadly something was messed up with the lighting system on our flight so the lights were on the.whole.trip. over. Weeee! For sleep deprivation! I rock the zombie look like a champ!

Looooooonnnnnggggg flight

Once we arrived we picked up our car, loaded all of the suitcases into the 9 passenger van we rented (actually Matt rented an SUV first but forgot that everything shrinks on the way to Ireland, so the SUV was about the size of a smaller cross over. Dogs and kennels would NOT have fit! Luckily they had a spare 9 passenger van) and off we went to find the kennel where the dogs were offloaded.  This is where we ran into our first act of kindness. After getting lost, all the while Matt was re-learning how to drive a manual which was making me more and more sea sick, we pulled over and asked a cab driver how to get where we were going. How did we find said cabbie? Well the GPS led us down a strange dirt road and into the woods where 2 cabbies were having an exchange. At first I thought we were interrupting nefarious activities, but Matt still thought we should ask just in case they could help.  At first, the cabbie tried to describe the way and then said, “Follow me.”  And we were off, following a complete stranger in hopes of finding our dogs. Sadly the cab driver wasn’t sure where it was either so we drove up and down a couple of streets. Eventually he slowed and pointed out his window indicating where the kennel was. Instead of getting out and asking for money or any sort of payment for driving around he just waved and drove off! I wish I could have at least said thank you because it was so nice of him! This is what Ireland is like and exemplifies why we moved here.

            One of the most asked questions I get once people find out we brought our dogs over, is “how long were they in quarantine?” About an hour, because that is how long it took us to get our stuff, the car and make it to the kennel to spring them. No quarantine needed! The biggest thing was making sure we had all our paperwork in order, signed off by the correct officials/vets, and that the dogs were healthy. We are very fortunate they don’t test for mental aptitude or else our dogs would have had a much harder time getting in. 

Marble the Fox hound and Gypsy the Boxer

Marble is crafty when it comes to procuring food, but freezes when she knows she’s been caught. Her big brown hound eyes swell to the size of saucers and she plays dumb. Gypsy on the other hand is not the brightest penny in the cash register no matter what the reward might be. She just bounces around happy to have air to breath and people to call her own. This is the dog that has repeatedly run into walls because she stopped paying attention while she was walking. No, she doesn’t have vision problems because it’s only when she gets distracted. But she loves everyone and Matt likes her so she’s ours until the bitter end.

               After picking the dogs up we re-packed the car to fit their crates and them into the van and off we went to Cork. 

              Ok, so to re-cap, we woke up drove 6 hours to Chicago, boarded an airplane that flew nearly 8 hours with the lights on the whole time and then drove another 3 hours  once we landed. Yes, that's nearly 17 hours of traveling in one day with just as much driving as flying.
             The next few days were filled with trying to figure out what stores sell what, finding out what I can get here (pretty much so everything) and what I can't (not much), and waiting for my 32 boxes to show up. So now you know the story of how we got here and I can start sharing our adventures to various spots around Ireland and what happens when your husband goes out of town and you get hit by a truck.