Caroline and Chris and their Fantastic Flying Pups!

My father was in the Air Force while I was growing up, so we would move from place to place every three years or so. We had pets my entire life as well, so they would move along with us. They might have been some of the most globetrotting, jet-setting pets ever.

I vaguely recall any of the details of our moves until we moved to, and then from, Germany. That was the last tour of duty my father had, and ended right as I graduated high school. For that last flight back to the States, I remember we visited the vet to get a sedative for our dog, Sasha. We were supposed to give her the sedative in the airport, just before boarding the plane. It was a liquid sedative in a syringe, and when we went to give it to her, she stuck her tongue up and blocked the whole stream, spraying it on us and the floor.

Needless to say, she was not sedate for the trip back to the States. We could hear her down in the luggage area, barking her head off the whole trip. As a teenager, I found that hilarious, but in retrospect I can't help but think she was probably not super happy for that eight hour flight.

It honestly surprises me when people ask if Caroline and I are taking our two dogs, Rigsbee and Calli, with us when we move to Hawaii. I get where they're coming from, a little: We are privileged enough to have the money to fly two large dogs with us almost five thousand miles, and I recognize that not everyone has that privilege. However, I don't think either of us would have considered even moving if we couldn't take either of the dogs with us. They are family, no bones about it. (See what I did there?)

Caroline has been working hard on a lot of the administrative business of this move, and part of that has been arranging travel for Rigsbee and Calli. Earlier this year, they underwent all the tests needed to be approved to come into Hawaii, and that was an effort and a half. You see, Hawaii doesn't have any incidents of rabies, and because it's an island, they can control that. Each animal that comes into Hawaii has to have a bunch of tests done to make sure they're healthy and do not carry any communicable diseases, especially rabies, or face several months in quarantine upon arrival.

Those of you who know Calli know she would not do so well in quarantine.

Anyway, Caroline took the dogs through the process of getting tested at our local vet, submitted to Hawaii for approval, and now the dogs are on an official list on an official Hawaii website approved for entry. "Aloha, puppies!" from the perspective of the state. ("Aloha, Chris and Caroline"...not so much. We will have to do a two week quarantine when we arrive.)

In addition to the testing process and being approved to enter the state, Caroline has also been doing the research on the best way to get them to Hawaii. We are both pretty apprehensive about just leaving them in the luggage area of our plane when we fly out there, both from a health and safety perspective and a stress and comfort perspective. Some airlines have had some pretty bad reports of the way they treat animals, and even in the best situation our two dogs loaded up like luggage and barking their heads off in steerage sounds like a bad experience for them.

So, Caroline found a company called "Island Pet Movers". Their whole business is moving pets to islands like Hawaii and Guam, and they handle the whole thing. I'm already impressed with them. The forms they sent us to prepare for the trip are thorough, and clearly have the care of the dogs in mind. When we drop the dogs off with them, the company will take the dogs (in dog crates) into the main cabin of a freight flight over to Hawaii, and will be sitting with them and the other pets on their way to the island. There's a human around the entire time, supervising the treatment of the animals, dealing with the entry paperwork and making sure they are cared for.

I recognize this is again the privilege of having the extra money to spend, but I cannot think of a better way to bring the dogs with us, aside from, I don't know, hiring a boat and sailing over there. To be honest, it is not that much more than regular tickets for Rigsbee and Calli, though perhaps my threshold for "expensive" has been irrevocably damaged by the costs of repairing our house and, especially, the foundation.

So, the travel plans as they stand now are to drive to the west coast, to save another plane trip for both ourselves and the dogs, and then fly from there. Once we close on the sale of our house, we will load up our one remaining car (mine has been donated) and travel to Colorado where my parents and Caroline's sister and brother-in-law live. In Denver, we will leave our car, and pick up two dog crates we're having shipped to my parents' house. We'll say goodbye to my parents and Lillie and Patrick, and rent an SUV (because, big dog crates) and drive across the Rockies to Los Angeles. We will meet with the Island Pet Movers in LA and load up the pups before getting on a plane ourselves and heading out across the Pacific.

Aloha, Hawaii!

I can't help picturing it as flying off into the sunset. The direction is right, after all. Maybe I should get a cowboy hat and a guitar.

Or learn how to yodel.

Or something…

I can’t really think of a more fitting way to leave the mainland, though, than a trip across it. Seeing the countryside as we travel from North Carolina to California, and then across the ocean to Hawaii has a nice poetic ring to it, ending one era and beginning another with a road trip to see the country.

Fun fact: when we leave the car in Denver, we won't have any keys anymore. What a weird thing, huh? I've had a key on my keychain for all of my adult life, but at that point, I will have a keychain with no keys. It's bizarre to think about.