5 years ago
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Posted On: January 19th 2022, 05:42 pm
My story part 3📕 (march 2021-june 2021)
(@julielacour‘s perspective)
Once we were chosen as a family for Haiku, we were just ecstatic. We actually thought that our chances of adopting were slim given that we had no experience with dogs, let alone with Shibas who are known to have a very special, stubborn character. However, the people that came to do the „homecheck“ were convinced that we would be a great fit and so we received the happy news end of march.
So we thought: amazing! With the help of the group and our contacts in China we would surely have the dogs in Europe within a few weeks (oh how naive we were..). We had two options: either transporting the dogs via cargo planes or searching for a „Flugpate“, a person that would add the dog to their ticket, meet the dogs at the departure airport, do the check-in and pick them up at baggage claim upon arrival.
Turns out, both of those options are far from ideal during a pandemic. Cargo prices have increased exponentially since the beginning of 2020 due to the lack of passenger planes flying overseas which used to carry a lot of cargo as well. So, the entire trade system basically relies on cargo companies. Long story short: the price for the transport of one (!!!!) dog was around 6000€ and thus completely unaffordable. This also partially explains the problem with option number 2, the Flugpate. Almost no passenger flights from Asia to Europe plus a very strict travel ban from the chinese government (special work visa needed) equals almost no chance of finding a Flugpate. Another problem (as if those weren‘t enough) was the space the airlines leave for animals on their flights. We found a few travellers that would take the dogs but when calling the airlines, they told us that there wasn‘t any space left. So it basically went like this for two months: „we found a flugpate; but there was no space on the plane. We found a place on a plane; but we can‘t find anyone who is on that flight“. We were exhausted from our hopes being crushed over and over again and at some point we really thought it was just not in our power to make it happen. But we had already fallen so hard for this dog so kept trying and trying.
(@julielacour‘s perspective)
Once we were chosen as a family for Haiku, we were just ecstatic. We actually thought that our chances of adopting were slim given that we had no experience with dogs, let alone with Shibas who are known to have a very special, stubborn character. However, the people that came to do the „homecheck“ were convinced that we would be a great fit and so we received the happy news end of march.
So we thought: amazing! With the help of the group and our contacts in China we would surely have the dogs in Europe within a few weeks (oh how naive we were..). We had two options: either transporting the dogs via cargo planes or searching for a „Flugpate“, a person that would add the dog to their ticket, meet the dogs at the departure airport, do the check-in and pick them up at baggage claim upon arrival.
Turns out, both of those options are far from ideal during a pandemic. Cargo prices have increased exponentially since the beginning of 2020 due to the lack of passenger planes flying overseas which used to carry a lot of cargo as well. So, the entire trade system basically relies on cargo companies. Long story short: the price for the transport of one (!!!!) dog was around 6000€ and thus completely unaffordable. This also partially explains the problem with option number 2, the Flugpate. Almost no passenger flights from Asia to Europe plus a very strict travel ban from the chinese government (special work visa needed) equals almost no chance of finding a Flugpate. Another problem (as if those weren‘t enough) was the space the airlines leave for animals on their flights. We found a few travellers that would take the dogs but when calling the airlines, they told us that there wasn‘t any space left. So it basically went like this for two months: „we found a flugpate; but there was no space on the plane. We found a place on a plane; but we can‘t find anyone who is on that flight“. We were exhausted from our hopes being crushed over and over again and at some point we really thought it was just not in our power to make it happen. But we had already fallen so hard for this dog so kept trying and trying.
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