Our family was in the process of relocating from Southern California to the Costa Blanca area of Spain and the biggest concern was the transportation and well-being of our 60 lb Husky.
I put in endless hours on phone calls, online and talking to a couple of local people who did pet transport in Los Angeles. But in the hopes of saving money on what was already an expensive relocation, we decided to try to do it mostly on our own with some advice and local transportation assistance.
The airlines that would even consider international transport for a dog in an extra large crate were very limited and by default, it seemed American Airlines was one of the few carriers who would book us. But every time I spoke to someone in customer service, we seemed to get different information. I lost many nights of sleep as the reality of this undertaking seemed close to impossible without professional help.
So after considerably more research, we decided to go with Animal Land Pet Movers as they were highly recommended. From the moment I first contacted them, I knew this was the right decision. The process and costs, as outlined on our first phone call, were clear and accurate. Sunni, the first person we spoke with was highly professional and experienced. It was such a relief to be able to rely on Pet Movers to help us get through this process.
We were assigned our own dedicated “Personal Move Counselor” and I can’t recommend her highly enough. Melissa was available to answer any and all questions or get further information for us as needed. There were a few things that went wrong - including a very surprising “first” - which involved Federal Express making an error on the return of paperwork from the USDA. We would have been sunk if we were dealing with this on our own. Melissa was on the phone with the USDA while I was on the phone with Fedex up against a very tight time deadline. But having Melissa’s expertise in contacting the USDA, we were able to get the paperwork delivered where it was supposed to go.
It seems inevitable that in such a long and complex process, something will always go wrong. But thankfully, Melissa and company were incredibly competent and experienced, and did everything necessary to make sure our much loved dog ended up in Spain with us! It took over 6 hours for our dog to clear customs in Madrid but thankfully the local rep who was taking care of this for us, knew all the ropes and kept us apprised all during the process. And when she delivered our girl to us, we couldn’t thank her enough.
I honestly hope we never have to do this again, but if for some unforeseen reason we did, we wouldn’t consider going to anyone else. Thank you to all!!
Sharon
June 2020
