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Ok ok, I skipped the last few days of Darwin's quarantine. We did go every day we could, except once, on the 4th of July we had house hunting appointments and all the appointments happened during visiting hours. I can tell you that the remaining days were more of the same, show up at 4, let Darwin out to a run shortly after for 15 minutes, go back to her room and cool off in the a/c, petting and massaging, then another trip outside around 545 (technically you are only allowed one outside time in the run, but if it was slow they were nice enough to let us go out - which was most days - so Darwin could get one more potty break before we left).
Fast forward to Friday July 6. Release date.
Release time at quarantine is between 10am-12pm and our pet movers handled all of that. They told us they'd come by our house around 11 with Darwin. So at 1030 we left work and headed to our place. As we got off the bus and were walking to the house we saw a van parked out in front and Darwin being walked around! (sorry, no pictures, they were early and I wasn't ready for them.)
After handing over their payment and getting all of her things (paperwork, bedding) we took her up to our temporary room to get her situated.
checking out the bathroom and kitchen...
getting comfy...
really making herself at home...
We headed back to work once we saw she would be okay. And now that she's out our real adventures begin.
I've got lots to update leading up the move, but since I'm already behind, let's just start with the our first days in Singapore.
I landed in Singapore on Monday June 25. I was the first of our family to leave Seattle (2am flight Sunday the 24th).
Darwin landed in Singapore Tuesday June 26 and went straight to quarantine. Darwin was the last to leave Seattle (7pm flight Sunday the 24th).
Jason landed in Singapore on Thursday June 28. He left Seattle 12 hours after I did (2pm Sunday the 24th).
How did Darwin get to the airport you may be wondering. Well, Jason dropped Darwin off at her brother's house around 10am, and from what I've heard, for the first time ever she resisted staying there. She actually slipped her martingale collar backing up, but didn't go anywhere. Jason managed to collar her again and he and Kristie got her in the house (or back yard). I think she finally realized something was up. Kristie was so nice to take Darwin and get her to the airport for us at 4 to get checked in and meet the pet mover with her crate (sorry in all the goings on no one actually got a picture of Darwin in her giant crate). Darwin took a British Air flight from Seattle to London then had an 8 hour layover in London where the BA people moved her to their kennels and she got to eat a little and stretch her legs. BA then loaded her back in her kennel and took her back to the airport for her last flight from London to Singapore. Our pet mover in Singapore (Pet Embassy*) met Darwin at the airport and transported her to the quarantine station and got her all settled in. They emailed me after they dropped her off to update me on everything.
She got to quarantine on Tuesday, but their visiting hours are only from 4-6pm so I couldn't visit her that day.
Wednesday at 330 I left work, hopped in a cab and made my way up north to the quarantine. When I first showed up at her room she was laying around and just looked up at me through the window. It took a few seconds for her to get up and start barking. At quarantine you can take your dog out for 15 minutes in one of their enclosed runs. Since I got there right at 4 we were able to quickly get out into a run and Darwin could stretch her legs.
{you didn't abandon meeeeeeeee!!!!}
{so hot!}
{water. water. must. drink. water.}
Darwin was never a overly slobbery Dane, but since we've been here, MAN the slobber! So gross!
When it was time to leave I made sure to just be very calm about it and say a quick see you later and walk out. As I walked out I got a peak at Darwin's crate.
holy gigantic!
While I was there I met a lady who's dog was there for 30 days! I can't imagine. As I posted pictures to instagram, another lady commented on a picture saying her little dog is there for 119 days! 119 days! 4 months! Out of control! I don't think I'd be able to do that to Darwin if that was the requirement.
*If you are ever moving to Singapore (and maybe even out of) and need a pet mover (I highly recommend using a pet mover) I would definitely recommend Pet Embassy. They were super easy to work with, super helpful and were in constant contact if I had any questions.
I was trying to decide when the best time would be to break the big news I had mentioned briefly in an earlier post. And then I realized I don't think there is a "best" time, so why not share it now. Also a lot of the things we'll be doing in the next few months will be because of the big news.
Right before we went on our last trip to Hawaii, Jason and I found out (we work at the same firm) that our company is making a few strategic changes and one of them would be that our office would be closing. But we were both offered positions in our Singapore office. It was a lot of news to take, I'm still in a bit of shock over it and it's been over a month that we've found out. It's a lot to process, and my biggest concern is Darwin. We're still doing a lot of research trying to figure out the best way to get her there and what we need to do leading up to this big move. I was concerned about the quarantine period in Singapore, but thankfully we can do a few things in advance to hopefully reduce her time from 30 days to 10 days.
I've contacted a few bloggers who've made international moves, like Wild Dingo and of course Honey and Hsin-Yi, and Julie was able to put me in contact with Homer who's made the move to Singapore. I also came across Singapooch while doing some Google searching. They've all been great at answering my initial questions (I'm sure I'll have more once we get further along) and have made me feel more at ease about moving Dar.
I started to contact a pet mover locally and we made our first trip a couple weeks ago to the vet to get her vaccinations and bloodwork started.
After hanging out in the waiting area for a little while we got her in the back, weighed her (13.95lbs! tub!) and got into a room. We were there for an international travel consultation and our great vet tech, Caitlin, had already done a bunch of research on what they needed to do to make this as easy for us as possible.
After a short consultation they got a European microchip implanted (the microchip she had didn't qualify for Singapore), took some blood to do a titer test, and they also did an abscess test of a lump I had found on her (lump came back as just a benign cyst and not cancerous). We decided she could stand to lose at least 10lbs (on the vet's scale of 1 to 5 with 3 being ideal weight, Darwin was at about a 3.5, so she's not obese, but it wouldn't hurt to lose a little).
After the vet we drove down south an hour to Buckley, WA to the pet transporter to get her measured accurately for her kennel (they'll have to custom make it). Jason and I had measured her at home, but after talking to another pet mover we thought it'd be safer to have the expert do it to make sure her crate was exactly the right size. Good thing I took her down there too, because he measured her to be at 3 inches taller than we had done at home (we hadn't measured her with her head fully extended to its highest point).
Slowly we are getting things figured out, and it shouldn't be a surprise to you if we have a lot of moving update posts in the future. We've also realized that since we are moving so far away that we'd like to do a lot of things (our annual tulip and beer road trip for one) before we go. So be prepared to see a lot of things... or not a lot of things as we may be preparing for the move. Either way... big changes ahead!
