Princess Villa Moves to Portugal

We’ve been fostering a dog for the last year through Mona’s House in Groton. Her rescue name is Princess. While the name fits her wonderful personality, I couldn’t bring myself to call out “Princess!” in the backyard and have this powerhouse come racing up the hill:

So we changed her name to Villanelle, Villa for short. We had not initially planned on moving her with us to Portugal; we’d hoped she would find a forever home in CT. Maybe with a nice yard for her to keep occupied. That wasn’t in the cards, so she’s become an international dog!

I decided to have a pet transport agency help me with this move. This turned out to be an excellent decision because there were a lot of moving pieces to her flying over here. I used WorldCare Pet Transport out of Darien, and we had a great experience. They kept me on track with the medical requirements, necessary paperwork, and even picked her up at the house and drove her to JFK! Huge bonus not having to drive there and back.

The agent working with us, Wansu, kept us in the loop during Villa’s trip. We got updates as she arrived at each airport and passed through check-in, medical screenings, or customs.

Here she is in her room at the Paris airport. She had a layover there for a full day. The EU has a requirement that pets must rest at least 6 hours before flying again. A vet screens their health at each stage as well.

Villa flew out the day before me. We arrived in Lisbon on the same day. Ben and I found an Airbnb near the airport with an early check-in time, so we could relax while waiting for Villa to clear customs. She landed 4 hours after me, and it took 3-4 hours for her to be ready for pickup. We picked her up at the cargo terminal. There was a lady there from WorldCare to meet us.

Amazingly enough, she arrived with the toys and blankets I sent her with. I thought for sure she would have torn them to shreds during the flights. The crate is so big, and our car so small, we had to secure it to the roof, but we got everything in!

In case you were wondering, jet lag hits dogs as well. Her internal clock was thrown off for the first few days, taking a long time to wake up in the mornings and ready to play just as the day was winding down. I’m sure she misses the yard, but she enjoys the sun on the balcony. She can’t see much from it, but she can smell and hear everything. I think the sound of the ocean waves confused her, but now she’s used to it.

Two weeks before we left, Villa tore her cruciate ligament (like a human ACL) jumping in the back yard. Of course she does. Luckily, she could still fly with the injury, so we opted to have the surgery here. It takes at least 8 weeks to recover, and she would not have been able to fly with the cone of shame.

The surgeon in CT actually had a contact in Portugal. She gave us names of two vets over here. Ben got her an appointment with the surgeon in Porto the next week from when we arrived. We spent the day up there, the surgery went well, so now we’re in recovery. The hardest part will be to keep her from jumping for the next 2 months.

Can’t wait for more adventures when she’s fully recovered!