Destination Jalisco, Mexico

    On board and seat belt fastened, ready for take off. I am keenly aware of every sound and hoping the animals are OK. Their ears must pop like ours do, I should have given them some chewing gum. :-)   The flight was uneventful, about 4 hours in the air. Landing was noisy. Bumps, grinds, bangs. I felt so sorry for the animals. We de-plane and go into customs, which was crowded. Apparently other foreign flights had landed too. Next step was baggage. I was hoping they would load them on the conveyor belt first, but no we had to wait. It was jammed with people, I've never seen it so crowded. We waited about 20 minutes for our luggage. No animals yet. People are now collecting their baggage and heading over to x-ray and inspection, except for us. Finally after about another 20 minutes here they come.  They looked great, I was so happy to see they did well.
  All righty, we have the animals, all the luggage, now we can go to inspection. The line is serpentine with people, so my friend says it would be easier for me to stay where I am and he will stand in line. After 30 minutes he's about 10 people behind the front of the line, so I join him.  We were in line, maybe another 10 minutes when a airport person says -- " You have animals? You need to go over there" Except he said it in Spanish. I am not proficient in the language yet so I'll depend on my friend from here on out, who speaks fluent Spanish. Off we go to the equivalent to the USDA for a vet inspection of the animals. Very nice man, really did a thorough job checking the animals. They also throw away all bedding and disinfect the crates. That probably took us 45 minutes. My friend's brother is waiting to drive us to our homes. We can see him from the vets office but can't get his attention to tell him we're almost done.
  Well, we are finally ready for the last step. Inspection. They x-ray everything then you go to a station that has a red light and a green light. Oh please, oh please, no red light tonight. Red light means they go through all your luggage. Green means your free to leave. Safe, neither of us got a red light. Free at last.
  The ride home takes about 2 hours. I walk the dog and tell the cats I'm sorry.  It's a beautiful cool night. Pitch black sky with stars so bright. We arrive in town around 1:30 AM, I'm dropped off first. I have to set up a litter box and feed & water everyone. We are all wasted. All four of us just fall into bed. Me and the three animals. A good ending to a very busy day.

 

 

   Next day is explore day for the cats. I'm staying at a friends empty house till the other one is ready. The cats LOVE the second floor. They've never had one before, so I made that their area. Food, litter. They can come and go but I have it blocked off from the dog.
  Well a BIG hurdle done, all went very well but there are two more critters left to get to Mexico, But that's another story.