The journey begins!

Preparation Day – Wednesday – 09/28/2011

Well, here we go, today is the day we are off to Panama to start our new life.  We need to get Reese to Air Cargo by 3:30pm for our 6:30pm flight.  Her crate is stickered, blanket is in tow, and she is ready to go.  Dropping her off at the Air Cargo section of Tampa International was a very easy task, we put Reese into her crate and I went inside to complete the Air-bill for shipping her to Panama.  Cost $403.00 (the price is based on weight and distance).

Once Reese was safely with the folks at Air Cargo, we went back to get our bags.  2 Checked bags each under 50lbs and we each had a carry-on and a personal item to take on the plane.  We flew with Continental United as they have the best PetSafe program in the industry that I could see based on my research.

6:30pm flight takes off for Houston as we needed to stop in Houston as that is the only place Continental flies pets out of the country.  Continental has a full vet/shelter in the Houston Airport, although we could not see Reese, we were able to call the Shelter to make sure she was doing OK.  Once we did that we located our bags at baggage claim and went to our hotel for the night. (Now you might be wondering why we stayed the night? Well 2 reasons, first the next flight out after we landed was not enough time in between to get Reese off one plane and onto another, the airline needs a minimum of 3 hours. Secondly, when traveling with a pet to Panama it is advisable to arrive during normal business hours during the week as that is when then Ministry of Health Vet is working, otherwise your pet needs to stay in the airport quarantine without you until the next working day.

We called it a night at our hotel for one last stay in the US.