Part Two: The Adoption Begins!

The Adoption Begins!

Part Two

Each country has their own unique rules and regulations for allowing an animal to come into the country. Some countries require quarantines, some need blood tests and others, like the US and Canada, don’t require either. These two countries do require a current rabies vaccination within one month of the flight. 

Here is a breakdown of each of the requirements per the SoiDog website:

http://www.soidog.org/en/adoptions/adoption-information-by-region/

These are the requirements for the United States and Canada:

1. No blood test required.
2. Transport as "cargo" (non accompanied). Cost: $800 to $1300. With many airlines if the animal is taken as "accompanied baggage" the cost is considerably less. This does depend on the airline. A number of "flight volunteers" have helped by taking animals as accompanied baggage.
3. Flight Cage: Between $80 and $160 (provided by our supplier wholesale)
4. No quarantine period.

Once I knew that June was able to come out of the shelter and was available for adoption, I contacted a friend who I remembered had adopted a dog about a year ago from Thailand. I sent her an email, but apparently the email I had was an old one, and she did not respond for over a week. Once we made contact, I showed her the photo of June and told her I was interested in adopting her. I asked her if her friend, who helped with the adoption of her dog from Thailand, was still in Thailand. She said, “Yes!” She gave me Kate’s email and I contacted Kate directly. 

Soidog Foundation did not charge me any type of adoption fee and I was not charged for all the transportation of June from the NP shelter, to Bangkok and then down to their shelter in Phuket. I also was not charged for her spay surgery and I was not charged for all the health checks and vaccinations she received while in their care. I did add a donation in the money I sent to them along with the money for the transport and flight kennel. 

June with Reggie, the SoiDog shelter Manager

Kate said she was very happy to help with the adoption of June. Kate is very active in the rescue and adoption of dogs in Northern Thailand and she was very familiar with SoiDog. I gave her the email addresses of both John Dalley and Cindy at Soidog, the two people who were helping me coordinate June’s adoption. 

Another stroke of luck came my way. Kate said that she was having some friends from Southern California visit her at the beginning of February, and she said she would contact them to see if they would be willing to have June accompany them as their baggage on the flight home. The email I got back was that they were happy to! Whew! That saved me several hundred dollars since the cost of accompanied back was much less than her traveling alone, plus she would have somebody taking her from step to step. 

The plans were for me to meet them in Los Angeles on February 12 when they would be returning from Thailand. All plans were made, passports were checked, tickets were purchased and everything was confirmed. 

I expressed my discomfort in dealing with LAX, since I had never been to that airport, but only heard horror stories about it, and I have very little experience in dealing with any type of major airport. It is not my preferred type of travel. This was the response I got from Kate, a very seasoned international traveler:

“LAX will be okay......it is really only terrible when your have a departure flight, but I think it should be very straight forward when you are meeting June and her traveling companions.”

June in Bangkok, Thailand at a Meat Trade Protest