68 hours and she’s only halfway home

Sunny

Last night Sunny arrived in her foster home in Indiana after 68 hours of travel. This sweet little brindle girl had a rough start in life, but these days her future is looking as bright as her name.

Found starving on the streets of Spain, this tiny galga could barely walk when she was rescued by the team at Scooby Medina. Brought into an experienced foster home, Sunny flourished and soon caught the eye of a SHUG family with a lonely galgo in need of a sister.

During COVID flights from Spain have been few and far between. SHUG has always preferred to fly our dogs as checked baggage. Not only is there a human "attached" to the dog at all times, but the actual airfare cost for the dog to fly alone can literally be nearly 10x as expensive. (Not a typo: 300€ checked baggage fee vs 3000€ cargo.)

Sunny's family knew they were in for a long wait. Not only did Sunny need to travel from Spain to the US, once here she would then have another long transport to her new home...in Hawaii. Preparing a dog to pass through the stringent requirements to avoid quarantine and be admitted to Hawaii is a long and complex process in and of itself.

After a lot of discussion (begging, badgering, possibly crying) the decision was made to fly Sunny as cargo with a donation from her adopters to cover the additional expense. Under normal circumstances Sunny would have flown into Chicago to be picked up by her foster mom, who has experience preparing a dog to enter Hawaii. Because of COVID, the closest flight was into JFK airport in New York.

From Fermin and Claire at Scooby to Kristie and Travis at JFK to transport volunteers Teresa, Marilyn and Ann, and to Alisha and Cindy coordinating--Sunny's team has been absolutely amazing. Fermin fostered Sunny in Spain and Cindy will foster her until her final leg to Hawaii.

68 hours after she was picked up from Scooby, Sunny is sleeping peacefully in her foster home in Indiana...while her team works on the next phase of her journey.

This process is not easy--and this year it has only gotten harder--but it is possible because of the people who make it happen. The work that goes on behind the scenes to make these happy endings is frustrating and exhausting and yes, sometimes there are tears. But as long as there are people like these who are too damn stubborn to give up, we will keep going. We will be here.

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