all committed to 30 days at a private remote treatment facility
a bit distracted all day waiting for news about gromit. i was keeping an eye on the nz air website for updates on his flight from auckland to wellington. at 1200 after he had been on the ground for 30 minutes i couldn’t wait any longer and called shado-lans to ask when gromit would be arrive at quarantine. turns out my call was forwarded to one of the owner’s cell phones who said that she had already picked up gromit and was on the way to their facility. hats off to them for being at the airport for gromit’s arrival. that saved almost 90 minutes off gromit’s time in the shipping crate. i packed up my things and asked (more like told) my boss if i could head out and was on my way.
about 2 hours later i arrived at quarantine, signed in, donned my paper booties (a rule for all visitors – don’t know why) and was taken back to gromit’s new home. all the residents are kept in solitary confinement individual accommodations with two rooms. one interior room with tiled floor, table, 2 chairs, radio, heater & dog bed. there is a sliding door that connects to the second room that is has one one wall that would be open to the outside save for a floor to ceiling chain link fence. there is another dog bed outside along with his food and water. when i arrived gromit was sitting at his fence looking outside. he had the look of “where in the world am i and what has happened?” from his perspective he was enjoying his road trip with jackie and the old people (her parents) and then all of a sudden he is locked in a box, bounced around, driven, flown, in darkness and in light, in loudness and in quiet, and finally released into this strange place all by himself. when i walked in he barked and then when he recognized me bounced around with uncontrolled happiness for several minutes.
it was great to make him happy and for me to see him after almost 10 weeks.
we played for quite a while and then he flopped down in exhaustion. one tired dog.
i stayed from about an hour and then headed back to wellington. i made the mistake of looking back as i was getting in my car and there he was watching me from his cell porch. mental image burned into my brain to weigh on me for the drive home.
