We spent about a week in Buenos Aires before going here, and it was awesome. I really love the city, and it's such a change from both my town and this one - always bustling with life, people everywhere, music.... It's a nice change of pace. We hung out with some of his friends, and just walked around town, hanging out in the parks and so on. Then we took a 23 hour bus to Bariloche, and then another 2-hour bus here. A loooot of bus-riding! Thankfully it wasn't as horrible as I'd expected - the seats are huuge and tilt back really far, and you get pillows and blankets, and they give you food and even champagne! It was way better than going by aeroplane even if it took a lot longer xD
Town:
Sunrise over Pampas, around 5.30am - sadly I was on the wrong side and it's an awful picture xD
Our backyard with the neighbors horse
And my little guy, who's definitely not a little guy anymore! Was so amazingly awesome to see him again. I think he remembered me, or at least I hope so, haha
And speaking of Dex.... I know there's some of you out there who have flown with dogs or cats, or other animals. Do you think it's worth the hassle and the cost? The thing is that I am heading to Uni in the near future, and both Gon and I have sort of agreed that we'd be moving in together back in Sweden when that happens.
At first, we were thinking of just letting Dex stay back here and have Gon's dad look after him (since there's two other dogs here that are his friends as well), and not having him go through the possible stress and dangers that come with flying a dog such a distance. There are no direct flights either, so it's first a 13-hour flight from here to London/Madrid and then another 2/4 hours depending on which country you go through. That's a long time for a dog to be in a cage, and it just didn't feel fair to him.
However, as time passes, we've realized that we cannot go anywhere without him. He's been Gon's companion for the past 9 months when I wasn't here, and he was my companion for the 6 months I stayed here last time (and now too for that matter) while Gon is at work. He's a family member and a friend, and I'd hate to separate him from us for that amount of time that college takes up (4-5 years). We'd still be able to travel back to Argentina maybe once a year, but still.
So we're in a dilemma. And I honestly don't know what to do, because there are pros and cons with both things. I'm considering perhaps just taking a flight to London with him, and then stay at a friend's house there for a couple of days, and then do the remainder of the flight back to Sweden just to split the trip up a bit and eliminate the risks of him getting lost or something like that. But at the same time, maybe it's better to just do the whole trip once so he doesn't have to go through the stress of being handed over and all that stuff twice? Downside of this would be that I'd have to prepare him to fit the regulations of entry into England as well as Sweden, instead of just Sweden.
He loves riding in the car, and he always rides in the trunk, so he's sort of used to the whole "confined space and engine rumbling and stuff moving around"-thing, and he usually falls asleep, so I'm thinking that maybe the plane ride wouldn't be so bad after all. But then again, he's never been enclosed in an actual cage for any prolonged amount of time, so we'd have to work on that, and getting him used to the crate he would be flying in. The longest time he's been alone at home is like 3 hours, so we'd have to work on that too.
It's an expensive thing to do too - with all the vaccinations, licenses, passports, tickets, cages, and whatnot the bill will end up on about 50.000 sek/6700 usd/5500 eur, so that's an issue too, but hopefully we can save up the funds for that. To get him completely flight-ready would take about 6 months, just with vaccinations.
Then there are some issues once we're in Sweden. Here, he's used to running in and out as he pleases. He comes and goes, sort of like an outdoor cat, but a dog. Because that's how it works here, dogs aren't regarded as pets the same way as they are at home, and it's actually strange for us to even let him inside (not that I think that, but friends and family of Gon's). He runs off to play with his dog-friends on the other side of town, or to have a drink at the river, comes back, has some food, and goes off again. Most of the time he stays around me and Gon, though. But I'm thinking that maybe he'd freak out or something if he came to a place where he can't come and go as he likes? Dogs aren't allowed off leash most of the time back home. But then again, people have adopted street dogs for many years, and those dogs don't really seem to suffer from being inside and then taken out for regular walks and play time - but then again, I don't know. We'll also have a talk with the veterinarian to see what their takes on this might be.
So I need some advice. Those of you who have done it, how did it go? What did you do? Were your pets okay? Were you considering not bringing them wherever you were going?
Those of you who have pets, would you bring them if you moved across the world?
And even those of you who don't have pets, any input or advice?
(Also, I've been on this forum a very long time and still don't know how to place all the quotes in the same answer. Ha!)
I have been thinking about flying with a cat (importing an animal I think they call it), it seems a lot of the same restrictions and costs apply. I am not sure what we will do next year, but if N decides to come to Norway I don't want to leave our cat behind.