The dog is cleared for take-off

Now, the "fun" part begins ... wrapping up the last details before we leave the country. Didge went to the vet for his last checkup, and as indicated by the title of this post, he is healthy enough to fly. In fact, he is quite healthy: 55 pounds healthy. This is a little high for him, depending upon who you talk to. Some vets have told us that he should be around 45 pounds; the vet here said that Didge is fine right now. Personally, I have no idea how vets arrive at the magic number. Sure, I know that they feel for a rib cage and look for a waist line, but how do they know if 45 or 55 is better ... especially when you consider what a bizarro dog he is to begin with!

In general, I think Didge is starting to figure out that something's up, but he seems to be in denial. Right now, he's laying next to me on the floor, upside down, with all four legs protruding out into different directions. How that position can be comfortable, I'll never know.

We've also packed up more boxes to mail back to the US, and Colin packed two of our suitcases. I checked today to see if it would be better to mail our books or check them as excess luggage, which turned out to be more of a no-brainer than I expected. Colin and I can have two suitcases each, which must weigh no more than 23 kilograms (50.6 pounds). If we want to pay a "forfeit" of 125€, we can increase the weight of one bag to 32 kilos (70.4 pounds). After that, it's 25€ per kilogram! That final option is also the way they take excess luggage. Yikes! La Poste is looking better and better all the time.

2 days left...