A very bad day at the airport!

Now that you've met my kids, I'll continue the story ; )
On August 1st I packed averybody up and took the 2-hour train ride from Heidelberg to the Airport in Frankfurt, Germany. I had a real mountain of luggage, since the Army wouldn't be bringing my stuff to the US until the end of September. Within that pile were the ratties and two boxes of live fish - packed specially fo the ride. Things started out rough - I got on two wrong trains, riped one of my boxes in two, got stuck on a set of stairs for half an hour, then had to pay to catch a cab to the airport from a train station in the middle of nowhere... AARRRGH!!
Finally I got to the airport, and hoping things would go easily, wandered to the ticket counter (over three hours early, just in case). Unfortunately, things only got worse.
I checked very carefully ahead of time to make sure everything was packed just right, but once I got to the airport, it seemed like every airport attendant had to make me wait while they checked the rules and had my fish boxes checked by their supervisors. I ended up waiting for hours in different lines, while everybody and their mother... and aunts and uncles and second cousins... checked rules about shipping fish. Meanwhile, I was getting VERY nervous as I still had to take my boys to the other side of the airport to the animal shippers and there was only half an hour left... THEN they decided that my boxes were too heavy and made me repack them into other boxes, which of course, I had to pay for too. Then gee, big surprise, they made me miss my plane : (( Then, I spent four hours waiting for a hotel shuttle, that I found out later was unmarked (so, how was I supposed to know whih of the hundred vans to wave down???).. I ended up spending the night in a hotel (dragging my mountain of crap back and forth) and coming back the next day. The next day I did go through a little mess (new supervisors on duty of course...) but one good counter attendant from the day before helped me through. It did cost me $200 in extra luggage fees to get all my crap on though : P
I wanted to explode and ranted and raved like a crazy woman, cussing off my head throughout the several days it actually took to get on a plane. Luckily, a USO in the airport (lifesavers!) let me relax a little and supplied some MUCH needed chocolate for my nerves, and my loving ratties gave me all the love I needed to relive the stress in the evening.

When I finally arrived in Seattle a day and a half later, I had to stay over for a night to wait for the ratties plane to get in too. I repacked all my fish (about a hundred) in fresh water and bags. I lost very few on the plane ride (a good thing!) but they were all ready for a water change after about three days in the same teeny bags. I fretted like crazy about the rats, but a call to my parents helped a lot - apparently, the shippers on the Seattle side called them about eight times asking what to feed my babies, if they needed extra care, could they be petted, etc. etc... Good stuff!

The next morning, bright and early I headed to the cargo bay to get my kids. The shipper ladies there had fauned over them so much that the boys just kind of looked up and said 'oh, it's you.' Thaaaannnkks guys. What poops. The shipper ladies had fed them peanut butter crackers and fresh grapes, which they'd totally inhaled. When I went to leave all the workers came up to say bye to my babies and asked me all sorts of questions about rats as pets. I hope that maybe one or two will adopt kids of ther own! The kids' cage was buckled into the front seat of my rental car and off we went! We got home safely in just under three hours : )