It has ben an insane couple months. We have moved to S.Korea!
All the preparation for moving was stressful to say the least. It was hard selling all my furniture and my car for low used prices when they were in perfectly good condition. I didn’t even try to clean the apartment I moved out of. Every apartment I’ve moved out of charges a cleaning fee regardless and luckily my apartment had a fixed cleaning fee. I already miss my apartment as it was right on the edge of Lake Washington with a beautiful view 2 minute walk away from my doorstep.
Kip was too heavy to take on-board the passenger part of the plane and had to go down into the cargo compartment. One of the movies available during the flight was Lady and the Tramp. I teared up thinking of Kip alone in the cold cargo compartment during that 13 hour flight. Yes, I’m a hopeless dog mother. I made sure he was wearing a comfortable dog coat with a soft dog bed inside the crate. I really think the Ark Naturals Happy Traveler Soft Chews helped. He cried throughout the entire shuttle bus ride to the airport (20 mins) but didn’t cry at all once we landed and reunited at baggage claim. He didn’t even cry during the 2 hour ride home from the airport. He seemed happy to be out to stretch his legs and sniff around but didn’t seem traumatized. Believe me, I have seen plenty of traumatized pitiful dogs after flights when I was working at the airport. I was so glad to see that Kip didn’t seem traumatized at all.
The biggest concern I have now that I’m in Korea is the availability of pet products. There are small vet hospitals but nothing like medium-sized local pet stores like in the U.S. There is nothing the size of Petsmart or Petco at all. There are many online pet stores though, some that are almost the size of petsmart/petco online. However, I have no way to judge the credibility of Korean/Japanese company products. There is no Whole Dog Journal or Dog Food Advisor/Dog Food Analysis for Asian products. There are however, more people than I ever anticipated that feed their dogs a raw or natural diet. Kibble that is imported from the U.S. or Canada are double the price. A $40 bag of Orijen kibble costs $74 in Korea. A $15 bag of Missing Link is $50 in Korea. Wellness treats aren’t even being imported. Cans are hardly existent at all, and I’ll be damned if I feed my dog Cesar canned food. Where do they come off saying that their food=love when it’s full of beef-by-products, meat-by-products, and chicken-by-products?
