Shelia – the LA-dog!
Did I cause all this trouble?
Yeey! Shelia, our chocolate brown Labrador has arrived! Last Friday was a happy day. We finally got to see her again after weeks and weeks apart! Well, we have to say, not everything was in the happy category! Definitively not the-pick-the-dog-up-at-the-airport-part, but the part where she saw Trond, and the part where she saw me and Norah was truly a happy part 
Trond took some time off from work to go pick Shelia up at the airport. He called a taxi, and was really excited to finally be together with our Labrador (and so was I).. So it was a bit disappointing that it took approx. four hours to get her home! I was expecting it to take some time, but I was surly not expecting it to take almost four hours! And Trond was not stuck in traffic – if he was it wouldn’t be that of a big deal, since we live pretty close to LAX, but it was bureaucracy and bad attitudes. Not from us, to make that clear 
When Trond came home and told me about his experiences I was so glad it wasn’t me and Norah who had to go pick Shelia up, as the original plan was. First of all the taxi driver had some difficulty finding the place where you can pick up animals. Secondly, Trond had to walk a big distance between customs and Lufthansa (the company flying our dog over), and he had to walk this distance back and forward. Very nice. Especially since it was next to the freeway. Well, when he finally reached the customs he didn’t meet the most service-minded people in the world. (Uhm, having a bad day at work or something, or maybe everyday is a bad day?)… Of course they had to argue! The first thing they pointed out was that we were missing a stamp on Shelia’s paper – even though the people representing Lufthansa said that they had everything confirmed orally. After a couple of phone calls and discussion everything with Shelia was ok, BUT now Trond was the one to be question marked. They didn’t belive it was his picture in the passport, and he had to show another identification.. I guess he thought he was pretty safe showing his driver’s license, but then they question marked that identification as well. They even asked if he had lost some weight.. I said to Trond afterwards; maybe it was an attempt to flatter you – to make everything ok 
Another thing that happened during this mess was that when Trond showed his passport a couple of dollars fell out… Not unnoticed by the customs, and he was accused for bribing… Somehow he came home with Shelia, so he must have done something right!
I guess you understand why I’m glad it wasn’t me who picked up Shelia.. Especially since I would have to bring Norah along..
What a day! Luckily all of this is HISTORY! Even though I was glad it wasn’t me who had to go through all that trouble, it was not particularly fun to be home knowing Trond went through all that!