Ok!!!!! So, where do I being??? And how many pages do I have to write??? If I can sum up in ONE word, U&Pet and especially Justin, is that he was TRULY, TRULY, TRULY our Angel sent from the heavens. I know that it MAY sound silly to say that, but take a look at the story below.
So, my Fiance Craig & I, decided that Craig needs a break, take a sabbatical for 6 months or more, and have decided that he moves with our THREE dogs to St. Croix, the US Virgin Islands. So, what FIRST comes to your thought when you are moving to an island???? Well... how in the heck do you transport your dogs??? First, how do you get them from your home to the airport and then from the airport to St. Croix.
Having NEVER flown any dogs before, we have NO IDEA how restrictive it is to transport your kids, from temperature restrictions, to breed restrictions, to crate size restrictions, immunizations, health certificates from vets, types of crates etc. OMG!!! We probably aged a year trying to figure out ALL of the details in 1 month. It was STRESSFUL to say the least!!!
So, as we got the airlines requirements all taken care of, we were SUDDENLY posed with the question "how are we going to get our dogs to the airport?" Mind you, we had 3 dogs. 2 were 70-80 lbs and another one that is 10 lbs. Well... it's not like we can call Uber and expect them to have space for a HUGE crate and 3 dogs, our luggage etc. Taking the old fashioned taxi is a big NO NO. So, we didn't know what to do and who to go to and there's were, 2 blocks away from where we live in Mt. Pleasant, at 11:30 PM at night, while walking our dogs, we see this parked van that said 'U&PET.' We were in AWE and wondered for a moment if what we were looking at was real. So, that same night, I go on their website and request their service. They responded immediately and booked a 5:00 AM pick up from our place.
Now... PLEASE keep in mind, that we went over the United Airlines regulations over 5 times to make sure that NOTHING goes wrong. So, we arrive to United Cargo at Dulles Airport, which by the way is 3 or 4 miles away from where Humans fly out of and when we get there, give our paper work to the lovely gentleman behind the counter, he looks at our BEAUTIFUL Elliot and decides to pick up the phone and call his supervisor. They decided to DECLINE our dog, YES!!!! You heard me write, DECLINE him because of his BREED, (a hound/staffordshire terrier mix that we rescued from the Washington Humane Society a few years back) and he says the following: "Your dog has the risk of being able to chew through the plastic crate!" Are you KIDDING me????!!!! I was furious and debilitated from NOT being able to do anything. The representative was SO impersonal that I felt like he treated our dog like an OBJECT!!!
I begged him and told me that he's our pet, he's super friendly, and that we have 2 other dogs in our car that will be coming on the plane with us in 1st class - we spent tons of UN-NECESSARY money to get everyone in to St. Croix together. He simply repeated that he could NOT accept our dog and that we needed a WOODEN or METAL crate. The crates that he is talking about, you would need to order WEEKS in advance. I begged the rep to work with us and asked him if we can buy a crate off of United Airlines. He simply said: "No, we don't have any." I was DESTROYED from the inside and was NOT about to leave Elliot alone. We were willing to NOT fly and lose our money to stay with our kids. ANNNNNNNND... this is where Justin, the ABSOLUTE angel stepped in...
Justin, took IMMEDIATE action, and had this GENIUS idea to run from Cargo to Cargo of different airliners and see if they have any. Please remember that our flight left IAD/Dulles at 8:23 AM, and now it's about 6:30 AM and we DON"T have a solution for Elliot. Literally, Justin RAN in 1 direction to the left and I ran in the OTHER direction to the right, both of us BEGGING other airlines if they can sell us a WOODEN or METAL crate - we would paid ANY amount of money for it. NOT ONLY that, as Justin was running, he was able to find on Craigslist a crate in Leesburg for sale and called the owner at 6:30 AM to see if we can pick it up. He was ABSOLUTELY without a SHADOW OF DOUBT, our angel who sprung into action and MADE SURE that our family does NOT get separated. The ironic part about ALL of this is that we were suppose to have ANOTHER person pick us up OTHER than Justin - but the universe sent him for THAT specific reason to save our family.
So, we were SO LUCKY and were able to find 1 airliner who HAD 1 wooden crate that came from South Africa (how crazy is that) and were able to sell it to us on the spot.
Needless to say, we made our flight, Elliot got home safely, with his brothers Bae & Aiden and TRULY TRULY TRULY, our family would have been separated if it wasn't for JUSTIN!!!! We love him and we consider him our friend!!!!
We love you Justin and PET & U!!!!!!
Toni Ghazi, Craig Hollinger, Bae, Elliot, Bae & Saba!!!! read more