to collect Genghis” I said producing the email which had arrived earlier that day. The girl took it from us, scanned it quickly, asked us to wait in the reception then disappeared back through the glass door, through another door and down a long corridor. There was only one other person in the reception waiting area and the whole place was deadly silent. We sat and waited for the girl in the green scrubs to return. It seemed like an interminable amount of time passed. I started to think, what if something was wrong with Genghis’s paperwork even at this late stage. What if they said they couldn’t release him and that he had to be quarantined for several days, weeks or months? Even worse, what if they said he had to turn around and go back to Turkey? I tried to quash the rising panic which had started in the pit of my belly and was making its way up to my throat making it hard for me to breath... Suddenly he was there at the end of a lead held by the young girl whom I assumed was either a vet or a veterinary nurse. The girl pushed open the door and allowed us into the inner reception area. Genghis looked tired, bewildered and unsure of where he was. We made a massive fuss of him but he hardly wagged his tail as if he didn’t know us at all. I put this down to the fact that he was disorientated, exhausted and confused after his long journey. The young girl handed us a thick file stuffed with Genghis’s paperwork and told us to keep it safe as it contained the record of his vaccinations and import documents. Then she said he was ready to go. She enquired whether we wanted to take Genghis’s travel crate to which I replied yes as it had cost a lot of money and could come in useful in the future. We were told to go round to the side entrance to collect the crate so we went outside and waited by the large metal and glass doors with Genghis. The crate was soon wheeled out balancing on a large metal trolley which we were told we could use to manoeuvre the crate over to our car.
While my husband tried to load the crate into the car I walked Genghis around on a small patch of grass in case he needed to spend a penny. After a few minutes of cursing and thumping my husband declared that the crate would not fit in the car and we would have to leave it behind! I told him it was bound to fit if we just took the dog guard down and lowered the back seats however on attempting to do this we realized that one of the bolts securing the dog guard had recently been replaced by a large screw and although we had an Allen key in the car for the bolt we didn’t have the right tool to undo the screw… Suddenly I noticed some plastic clips on the side of the crate. I undid them and the top came off allowing us to fit the crate neatly on the back seat of the car leaving the rear section with the dog guard free for Genghis to travel in. I picked Genghis up and loaded him into the back of the car. It was now very late in the evening and we were weary but we felt happy and relieved as we set off up the motorway towards home with our doggy passenger on board.