Consternation

con·ster·na·tion/ˌkänstərˈnāSHən/

Noun:

Feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected

3 weeks away now. What WHAT? We've been knocking things off the to-do list pretty quickly these days. Cars are sold, house is rented, visas are approved, plane tickets are booked, temporary accommodation in Brisbane has been arranged. There are a few items outstanding on our list... Permanent accommodation in Brisbane is one of them, as well as a car (although we are working on that). We also need to pick up some convertors in order to run our kitchen appliances and other small electrical items. I still need to send in my nursing registration and get the ball rolling on that.

So, obviously I'm turning into an emotional basket case again. Grrrrreat. I was doing okay up until now, but now that we have a confirmed departure date (not "sometime in June or July") and it's only 3 weeks away, it's causing a wee bit of consternation.

A big source of this consternation? The dog.

If you know us, you probably know Jasper. Our fur baby. We had a hell of a time deciding what to do about him. Is it fair to put him on such a long flight if it's only for two years? What if it ends up being longer than two years? Are we being responsible dog owners if we leave him? Or if we bring him for that matter? Will he eat something poisonous and die? This was pretty representative of our thought process...

It always seemed as though anytime we talked about our options to leave him behind he would turn on the sad puppy dog eyes a la Puss in Boots.

Sad face...

See! The resemblance is actually quite uncanny I think...

Plus we were wrestling with the fact that we signed on to take care of this funny little creature for ~14 years, and we've only had him for 2 years. We couldn't fathom leaving him for 2 more years. The other thing is how do you ask someone else to look after him for 2 years and then just expect them to give him back at the end. That's not exactly fair either. And I want to give big kudos to Alan's sister who was willing to look after him for us. Thanks K!

Of course, now that we've decided to bring him, anytime I look at him I see this...

Money! (Google images even found me a dog that looks like Jasper)

It is not cheap to take a pet to Australia. That's all I will say about that. So hopefully he doesn't eat something poisonous or get attacked by a snake upon arriving in Oz. Because if I'm an emotional basket case now, I can't imagine what I'll be like then!

Jasper gets to stay in Calgary for what is predicted to be a lovely, hot summer and then he can fly down for his 1 month stay in a 5 star pet resort in Sydney, with private accommodation and it's all-inclusive! Oh who am I kidding... He heads for his month in quarantine before joining us in Brisbane at the end of November. Just in time for their hot, humid summer... Poor guy!

Photo courtesy of As I See It Photography

3 more weeks!