Taking our Dog to Beijing, China- Part II

For part I of this post, click here.

As you can see, Jupiter is back home and safe with us! He is healthy, happy and the same little doggy that we left a full month ago.

All along we were told it was a 30 day quarantine. We mapped it out on a calendar and decided that Sunday was his day to be released. Hubby decided to call on Friday to see if we could pick him up on Saturday instead. They informed him that Sunday was NOT his release day. It was not a 30 day count quarantine, it was a full month quarantine -from date to date. So that changed his release day to Tuesday. It was heart wrenching to be so close. We kept ourselves busy all weekend and found a pet store (by chance) and purchased the last few things for him. We got an indoor potty and some puppy pads. A week before I had headed out to a vet and purchased a dog carrier and a dog dish. I also had made a check up appointment and grooming appointment. Both of those had to be canceled with the change of dates.

On Monday hubby had to call again to allow them to prepare the paperwork. At that time they advised him to call back (ugh!) Tuesday morning at 10am to give an exact pick up time. Of course, hubby had an important meeting at that exact time. With all the red tape it is easy to forget he is actually here to work! We had a back up plan for me to call just in case 9:45 was too early.

Finally the day came and we were all as excited like it was Christmas morning! The kids headed off to school and I tried to stay busy. I heard from hubby after his meeting that he was headed to the airport to get Jupiter. He took a train but got there in a reasonable amount of time. He had to go to the airport just to get a piece of paper! Then he had to hop in a taxi and head to some-out-of-the-way place where Jupiter had been for the last month. When he got there they were all on their lunch!! Will this never end? While waiting he walked around and noticed there were rooms for people to be quarantined...can you even imagine?

Finally hubby and Jupiter were reunited! He said that Jupiter jumped right up onto him and he knew that all was well. They jumped in a taxi and headed home. I have not felt such pure joy in such a long time as when I got to give him a love. It was like seeing a baby...ok, I know! Weird!

We gave him a bath. So far, he is not using the indoor potty we bought for him. We are taking him down stairs to go potty and it is okay. Then at 4:30 I walked him out to the bus stop to meet up with D. E would not be getting home until later as she had softball practice. I think D had forgotten that Jupiter would be there to greet him as he got off the bus. I will never forget the look on his face as he saw him. It was the first time, since we've been in Beijing, that I saw utter happiness on D's face.

We have all had a sense of relief since he's been home with us. We all sleep a little sounder. We don't know how he was treated or what went through his mind, we never will know, but we do know that he is the same loving guy!

There will be a part III to this series. We still need to register him with the police and get him a check up at the vet. Getting to the vet will be interesting as we hear that only some taxis will allow dogs.~sidenote~ One more reason to be discriminated against by the taxi drivers! They sometimes don't stop because we are not Chinese. They sometimes don't stop because I have children. They sometimes will kick us out if they don't like where we are going.

For now, we are happy to be all together as a family again!