Our Friend Flicka

As I posted, back in May (here), we had been preparing for the arrival of another puppy from Hungary named Fricska. Well, after a series of delays for various reasons, we finally were able to make the arrangements for her travel to the US. The 4th of July weekend was coming up, and since we would all have an extra day off, I thought that would be a perfect time to bring in a new dog. So I made the arrangements with the pet shipping company to have Diana drive Fricska to the Vienna airport, where she would fly to SFO with a brief stop in Zurich.

Fricska winning a Baby Best in Show

the weekend before she flew to us

The puppy would be flying with Swiss Air Cargo, the same airline that Rietsu came on, and their shipments always arrive at about 4:30 pm. Since it was a holiday weekend, I I took a half day off at work so we could leave early and not get stopped in bay area traffic (I didn't want the puppy to have to sit in the cargo warehouse longer than necessary).

We made it into the city fairly quickly, and with several hours to kill we decided to grab something to eat and do a little window shopping in Milbrea while we waited. There just happened to be a pet store in the same strip mall where we were eating, so we stopped by to grab a new toy for our new arrival as a sort of welcome present.

When we had about an hour before the plane landed, we drove back to the airport and waited, but by the time 4:30 rolled around I suddenly realized that we were in the wrong area. Apparently Swiss Cargo had moved it's receiving station, but thankfully not far from where it had been before.

Happy to be out of her crate!

Nevertheless, we needn't have rushed, because it took almost an hour for the cargo people to collect the necessary documents for us to take over to the customs office before we could actually claim her. Add to that a silly mistake with her paperwork, and it took almost another 20 minutes to actually collect her. When we were finally allowed to take her out of the crate, she was all wiggles and happy smiles!

We led her to the closest place we could find to see if she needed to go to the bathroom, but it was apparent that she had already soiled her crate, so I wasn't surprised when she didn't do anything.

Relaxing in the yard

We then drove over to my friend Shannon's house where we waited until the early evening before departing back home. Fricska explored Shannon's yard and mingled with her Dachshund, Renley, like she had been here her whole life. So far, she had not met a stranger and was happy as a clam.

Flicka and Shannon

Her friendly ways have continued ever since, and we could not be happier with her. She is a real gem! Because her given name is too difficult for our American tongues to pronounce, we decided to call her Flicka, after the beloved horse in the popular 1950's television series.