Trials and Tribulations in Picking Up Eva the Diva - aka The Long Day!

Uniquekitty and Plasticat, along with Uniquekitty's husband, left Camden NY around 8AM on Saturday, May 23, to drive to Kingston to adopt Eva. It is about a 3 hour drive, depending on the border crossing, and we wanted to make sure we had lots of time to spend with PK and Seanya after the paperwork at the Kingston Humane Society was done. The trip was quite uneventful, the border crossing took about 20 minutes, and we headed straight to teh H.S. We had been told by the H.S., by phone, that everything was ready, all we had to do was sign the papers. When we arrived at the H.S., it was very busy, and we had to wait, but we weren't worried - soon Eva would be going home with us!!

When the young lady at the H.S. had time for us, we told her we were there to sign the papers to adopt Eva. She handed UK adoption forms and said that they had to be filled out first. UK said "I already filled these out, and we have already been approved. We drove here from NY because we were told everything was ok, and we could pick her up today." The lady looked and looked for the papers, but could not find them. Finally they were found in PK's file, in the fosters' files.

At this point, a man took over, and he said we could not take her home til she had been put into the adoption cages! UK said that the foster parent knew we were coming, and we had been told we could pick Eva up at PK's apartment when the papers were signed. He said he would have to call PK and clear it with her. When UK told him that she had PK's phone number right there, if he needed it - he got a little upset, saying that no one was supposed to give out the foster's home phone numbers! UK said that PK had given her the number, and showed him the email printout. He seemed relieved, and called PK, who verified that she knew we were coming to pick Eva up.

Now the man gets the papers ready, and looks at Eva's vet record - and realizes that she does not have a microchip!! She cannot go to her new home without one. So he calls PK back, asks if we can come pick Eva up and bring her to the H.S. for her microchip, then everything will be good. SO....off we go to PK's apartment, pick up a slightly confused Eva (who ARE these people anyway, I'll bet she was thinking!). We ger back to the H.S., she gets her micrchip, and we are ready to go, right?

Not quite!!!!!!! Now he realizes that she needs a rabies shot to get across the border!!! Fortunately, for us, there is a clinic that opens at 1PM (it is now about 12:40) and we should be able to get her a rabies shot if we explain the situation to them. SO, we drive to the clinic (thank GOD for the GPS!!!), explain it to them, and they squeeze her in at 1:30. The vet, a WONDERFUL man, explains that if she had been a little younger, she would not have needed a rabies shot, and lucky for us, she is just old enough to have one. He gives her the shot, gives her a quick exam, and fills out a report for her to use to cross the border. They even take her picture and put it on her report!! Now she is finally officially ready to cross the border. WE are starving.

We go back to PK's apartment. We leave Eva there with the other kitties and Sean, and the rest of us walk to get subs and donuts for lunch. We sit and relax, eat lunch, pet the kitties, and talk. Cory attacks Plasticat's shoe, nad Eva falls asleep sitting up, on the back of the sofa. Angel, Trick, and Loki get some attention too. Finally we say we should go - its 3 hours back, and we expect to be held up crossing the border back into the US with a kitten. PK takes us to a pet store to buy food for Eva, since the food she is used to is not available in the US. We say goodbye to PK in the pet store, and set teh GPS to take us home. The traffic is light, and hopefully the border crossing won't take too long, since there are only two cars ahead of us in line.

Would you believe, after all that - the guard DID NOT EVEN LOOK AT EVA"S PAPERS??!!! He looked in the crate, said "oh, what a cute kitten", and let us through!!!!!
But, you can bet that if we hadn't got everything ready ahead of time - they would have checked very carefully, and not let us through!

Eva was very good all the way home, she slept or just looked at Plasticat most of the time. She got a little restless about half hour from home, then just went back to sleep. She settled right in, in Plasticat's bedroom, ate, drank, played...like she belonged there!!