Over the next few hours I kept a watch on the progress of the flights firstly the flight from Ercan to Istanbul and then from Istanbul to Edinburgh. The technology currently available is very good and you are now able to track a particular flight as it progresses on its journey across the globe, very much like an air traffic controller. It got very exciting once the flight entered UK airspace and I was able to follow it all the way until it landed at Edinburgh. I was sharing screen shots and short videos of the flight’s progress with both Suzan and Maggie’s owner and giving them regular updates of whereabouts the flight actually was.
Once they finally landed it was over to Maggie’s owner to go through the relevant protocols and collect them. At the 11th hour we were told that there was an additional fee to pay as they had arrived over a weekend and the vets wanted an overtime payment. Of course we had no option but to pay up at that stage. Then finally I got a WhatsApp message to say they had all departed Edinburgh and were on their way south with an e.t.a. around half past one in the morning.
Surprisingly they made very good time and ended up arriving just north of Peterborough at 12:30 a.m. I had arranged to meet them just off the A1 near Wansford so after handing Claude over they could easily get back on the A1 and carry on their journey home.
I made sure that I was waiting for them at the agreed spot in plenty of time and low and behold after a few minutes wait their van appeared carrying our precious cargo. We all greeted each other and had a bit of a chat and a catch up about the journey they had just had, then it was time to open the back of the van and retrieve our Claudie. He was there and looked, OK but I was just so paranoid that he would be so nervous and anxious after his long journey that he would jump out and run off, so we made sure we had a good hold of him and transferred him safely to the dog travel area in the back of our car. Next we dismantled Claude’s massive travel crate and somehow managed to fit it on the back seat of our car. After exchanging our good byes with Maggie's owners we set off towards home.
As it was so late we decided we would put Claudie sleeping in our hall and introduce him to Genghis, Meghan and Harry the following morning. We set up a comfortable bed for him along with some water and food and settled him down for the night.