Away We Go!

Well the day had finally arrived, we were up at 4:30 a.m. and getting ready to head to Toronto Pearson airport to check in for our 8:30 one-way flight. Jebo's next stop; Panama City, PA

It had been a crazy last few days in Toronto, with all of our document collection, and so much re-packing; we had to condense our lives into two suitcases each plus a dog crate, Jebo was going to fly as checked baggage. His life had already been radically changed since we left our mountain life in BC, and he knew something big was going on and never strayed too far from us over the last few days.

We had to head to the airport in two vehicles due to all of our luggage and the size of Jebo's crate. It was drizzling and cool as we hit the road, very quiet on the roads of Toronto which is something pretty rare at any time.

Well the first mix-up of the day occurred before we even got to the airport, we forgot to get his travel bowls out of the freezer. It is mandatory that the dog has water available to him at check in and in freezing it you ensure it won't spill, you just have to remember to get the bowls out of the freezer before leaving the house. On this day we forgot, one car turned back and one carried on to begin the check in process with Air Canada.

We were early enough that the line-ups for check in had not started for the day. I got in and had two bags checked in before Linda, her two bags along with Jebo and his crate arrived at YYZ. In just a few minutes we were back in front of a special assistance agent getting Jebo all checked in. He was so good through all of this, up so early, in a different land, in a huge airport starting to fill with people and of course, even at that hour his "celebrity" status was such that everyone who saw him wanted to pet him. He just rolled with it, never barked or gave attitude, he is such a good traveler and a good boy.

Well the check in process for Jebo was relatively simple, in spite of all the precautions and criteria we were told we would have to satisfy to fly the dog as checked baggage. (IATA approved crate, maximum total weight 90 lbs., maximum veterinary's "fit to fly" report clearly visible, water bowls attached and full) The agent who looked like he needed a "family sized" cup of coffee just looked over and said "nice dog" and started the paperwork. A few minutes and $280 later, he was printing the stickers to apply to the crate for Jebo's trip.

Wait a minute, who is Grace Dunlevy? Although, he had Linda's passport, he had checked Linda in as a different passenger named Grace and attached Jebo as Grace's checked baggage. Wow, somebody get this man a coffee please. I was just imagining Grace arriving in Panama and being asked to claim her luggage.

All of that got sorted out, new stickers printed and applied and off we went to "oversize baggage" check. It was time to erect the crate, get our big boy in there and watch him go through on his own special trip to the tarmac and ultimately the belly of the plane.

This had all taken considerable amount of time but we were able to get a bit of breakfast and then boarded our plane, honestly, it broke our hearts to look out and see our boy in the rain,

our big friendly piece of luggage that we loved, our hearts broke. We could only imagine what he was thinking, was he crying, was he howling, did he trust us enough to know this was going to be okay?

He was loaded in and we settled in for the 5+hr flight to Panama City, the flight brings some beautiful scenes of the oceans below

This flight, one we had done many times just seemed especially long. Our thoughts were constantly with Jebo, he must be so scared, along, the noise, the cold, every bit of turbulence must have been terrifying for him, our BC farm dog entering a new world, he probably would have given anything to go home and walk again up the Okanagan mountains.

Well we did arrive, and as we had things in order we were quick to get through customs and get into the baggage area. We had expected Jebo to be in there already as it seemed he was one of the last pieces to get on the plane, however he wasn't there. We waited, got all of our luggage, got a couple of "muchchachos" to help us with our luggage and waited for something big to come through the over-sized belt

It seemed an eternity but soon he came through. We got him out of the crate and he was just fine, there was surprisingly no crying; he didn't really seem in much distress at all. we were so happy for him, so proud of our brave boy.

Well it was off to animal services / MINSA to present our entry documents for Jebo, pay our fees and discuss the self administered quarantine. Again, everyone in special services wanted to meet him

We had time to get him out for a quick pee on the grass at PTY airport and then into our drivers car for the 2 hr trip to Coronado.

It was so good to arrive, so good to show Jebo his new home. We couldn't wait for the start of our next day and his first trip down to the ocean