Trying to be patient and failing miserably

My frustration level is high right now. Seriously high.

Here's a quick recap:

I re-homed of my two cats, Nala and Alan, when Toivo and I moved out to Hawaii with Zac. This has left Toivo without playmates and bored. Zac and I spent numerous weekends at the Humane Society trying to find a second dog for our house and never found one that fit. We finally decided to see if we could find another Finnish Spitz somewhere on the mainland and bring the dog out to Hawaii.

As luck would have it, I got in contact with a breeder in Oregon that had a seven-year-old girl named Zoe that she was trying to place. Perfect! We would be getting a dog almost the same age as Toivo so we wouldn't have to deal with all the puppy-related issues. Due to the holidays, and the fact that the breeder lives in a fairly remote part of Oregon, it took quite awhile to get the quarantine requirements started. We knew it was going to take about 120 days of "stuff" on the mainland, i.e. shots and waiting, before Zoe could come out to Oahu.

After coordinating with someone to drive Zoe from Oregon up to Seattle where she could fly non-stop to Honolulu, we reserved a spot on a Hawaiian Air flight on April 28th. That's next Wednesday. I was told that the paperwork and everything else was in order. This is key, because if the paperwork is done right Zoe could be released immediately from the airport without spending anytime in quarantine upon her arrival. We were able to do this with Toivo, but at that time I was in charge of making sure all the "t"s were crossed and all the "i"s dotted. This time around I was relying on other people.

This brings us up to today. This afternoon I got an e-mail saying that there was a bit of a mixup on the paperwork. The Oregon folks did not realize that the paperwork had to be mailed so that it arrived no less than 10 days before Zoe did. The paperwork is still in Oregon - Zoe is supposed to be here in seven days. So direct release is out of the question now. It looks like if they send Zoe with the paperwork she might be in quarantine for five days. I hope. That's what I understand from the website. I put in a call to the Department of Agriculture to clarify that.

What irks me more than anything is that if they can't get all the paperwork together to send with Zoe on the 28th, the woman who is driving her is unavailable to drive her to Seattle again until the beginning of June. Yes. June. Another five weeks. At this point a small part of me is thinking, "To #@*!% with it. I've waiting four months, what's another five weeks?" But the other part of me is just livid.

I knew when I decided to get a dog from the mainland that there would be certain costs and waits involved. I was willing to absorb those costs and waits because I think Finnish Spitzes are terrific dogs and I really wanted to add another one to our home. But I am starting to get really close to the end of my patience. And it's even more aggravating because it's all out of my hands. I am totally dependent on these other people to get Zoe to Hawaii.

[deep breath]

Alright. I'm calming down. I am sure these people are doing their best to get Zoe to me. They probably have other stuff going on in their lives and couldn't devote most of their time and energy to the quarantine requirements, like I had to, to make sure everything was done correctly. Heck, the courier is willing to take two days to drive Zoe up to Seattle's airport.

Ok - moment of clarity. I think I might have come up with a solution. I need to go e-mail the driver. We'll have to see if this works. . .