The final days in Corvegas, City of 100 Lights

Ok, so I’m in charge of writing up the events of the last month or so. Pretty straight-forward. We planned like mad, met with as many friends in Corvegas as humanly possible before leaving, pawned off our cat on two friends, packed our entire place, moved everything into storage, cleaned our apartment and moved out (24 hours later than we expected, keeping with tradition), spent the night at the Zang B&B, flew to Germany, took a train to Austria, met and stayed with friends of a friend in Austria, walked in the Alps for four days, hung out with my brother back in Germany, Sam flew to Morocco, and I flew back to Portland where I’m writing this posting. But I guess a little more detail here and there could be informative … I’ll save our wanderings in Europe for the next post.

So, the two or three weeks leading up to our departure from Corvallis: Sam worked forty hours a week wrapping up things at OSU and spent her evenings getting her life in order for her new position in Morocco (while trying to have dinner with friends as many nights as possible). I worked a similar amount of time trying to think of as many details as possible about the upcoming journey(s), doing laundry, packing, planning, etc. For those unaware of our convoluted schedule, check out the calendar on the right.

One of the myriad fascinating questions we pondered was what to do with our weight- challenged, spirited, not-so-fond-of-traveling cat Bruce. Our first inclination was to bring him to Morocco – we already cruelly left him behind for six months in 2005, and he’s really fun to have around. Then we started to discover the reality of the situation:

• Bruce weighs 17 pounds and the requirements for Royal Air Maroc (one of the few carriers that flies into Morocco) is that, to be in the passenger area, the animal plus the carrying case must weigh no more than 11 pounds. This means that he would have to travel in the cargo hold. It also means we would have to buy a huge carrying case for him and lug it around an airport with all of our other baggage, all the while accompanied by the music of Bruce yowling. Also, the tale of a pet owner who put his pet in the cargo hold and arrived at the far end of the journey to find his pet dead (urban myth?) made us think pretty strongly about this option.
• Entrance requirements were unclear. Sam’s contacts told her that Morocco was lenient on bringing animals into the country. I pictured us testing this leniency by bringing our FIV-positive, overweight cat to Morocco and then having a thoroughly entertaining conversation in the airport in Fez (conducted in my lilting Arabic and/or French) about what was to happen to our cat that actually WAS NOT allowed into the country. So, I called the consulate. The person I talked with said that I simply needed to have the “normal” veterinary checkup, get this checkup document certified by the USDA, then overnight the USDA’s document to the consulate so that they could issue a certificate for the cat to enter the country. When pressed about the “normal” checkup, the official could offer no details. Hmmmm. And, there would be new entrance requirements to bring him BACK to the United States.
• Then there were the logistics of traveling with Bruce. We would be in Europe for two weeks, and originally our friend Sam Lee was going to stay at our place and watch the cat. However, this would mean that I would need to drive to Corvallis from Portland when I was back in town, put anything left in the apartment in storage, drive back to Portland and shift Bruce from house to house. Then I would need to take him on a plane to Detroit (see bullet point 1), and find somewhere for him to hang out there, potentially moving him from house to house again. Plus, he has FIV, so he can’t be around other cats. Simple.
• And finally, once in Morocco (if he was actually allowed in, bullet point 2), we would need to find someone to watch him anytime we traveled.

I’ve spent a bit of words describing this quandary, partially because it was pretty funny, but primarily to throw a hearty thank-you out to our friends Kathy and Hai Yu who were genuinely excited to take Bruce for the year we’re away. THANKS GUYS!!

Another thank you needs to be sent out to Stephen and Cynthia. Not only did they give us Yoda Choking A Chicken to be with us in our more difficult times abroad, they brought us some fantastic burritos on moving night (made even more delicious by a full day of packing and not eating) and participated in a whirlwind packing job that would have rivaled any operation conducted by Allied Van Lines. Sam and I had packed quite a bit by the Friday before departure, but we still had the kitchen to do as well as our personal packing for Morocco. The latter turned out to be pretty complicated since we needed certain things for our trip to Austria and certain things for Morocco. The former was no easy feat either, contrary to what we imagined. When Stephen and Cynthia arrived at 6:00 pm on Saturday, we still had some serious packing left (and had told our peeps in Portland that we would be there Saturday evening … sorry peeps!). But we had the truck for that evening only. And my sudden recollection that our storage barn in Corvallis closed at 8:00 pm fueled a fevered rush to load the truck, drive to the storage area (by 7:55 pm) and unload as much as we could so that no security guard would have the heart to tell us to leave. And that’s how it went down man (shit, I can still smell that newspaper). THANKS GUYS!!

Finally, thanks to Shojiwan for accepting the onerous task of receiving our mail, to Rachel for offering to drive the hour and a half to Corvallis to help us finish packing, and to Ben and Amber of the Zang B&B for putting up with us (arriving very late on Sunday), putting us up, and taking us to the airport. And thanks to all our friends and family for the enthusiasm!!