Stanley went home on Wednesday. It was a long journey. If you have a minute, sit down and I’ll tell you the story.

Stanley was matched with his family weeks ago and plans were put into motion for them to come pick him up. His “dad’s” work schedule didn’t cooperate and we agreed to keep Stanley a bit past his scheduled Puppy Delivery Day.

Stanley’s family lives across the northern border from us. We had hoped that by the time Stanley would go home that the border would be back open again. His dad was going to give it a shot and do whatever he could to make it happen.

I had scheduled an appointment for Wednesday for Stanley’s required health certificate so he could enter his new country. His dad had planned to leave his home early that morning and meet me at the vet around noon.

Unfortunately, I received an email early that morning that Stanley’s dad was turned back at the border. He could not make it down to get Stanley. The family was heartbroken. I guess we should’ve seen it coming, but we had hope it would all work out.

I hated to, but my next step was to cancel his vet appointment and start writing a post to find him another family preferably in WA so we wouldn’t have to make the 100+ mile round trip to the vet for the health certificate. And the sooner the better. Not that I wanted to kick Stanley out! No, he deserved to be with his family as soon as possible!

But before I had a chance to post anything (thankfully) more emails started coming in and conversations passed between myself and his Canadian family. They were committed and trying to think of any (legal) way to make this work.

Did you know that there is a park in the most northwestern corner of Washington state that straddles the boundary between the US and Canada? The park is called Peace Arch Historical State Park on the US side and Peace Arch Provincial Park on the Canadian portion. But it’s just one big park and residents from both countries can go visit  and enjoy the whole thing on both sides of the actual physical border. “But are warned not to cross the boundary of the park to enter the adjacent country without being cleared to enter by the respective customs authority, as violators are subject to prosecuted.” (from Wikipedia).

The actual giant stone arch for which the park is named was built to “commemorate the Treaty of Ghent and the Rush-Bagot Agreement, which “provided for peaceful resolution of U.S.–British disputes and an unguarded U.S./Canadian border. “(Wikipedia).

International families which have been separated by the Covid-19 shelter-in-place mandate and the closed borders have been able to recently meet at the park to spend time together.

So a plan we set in motion for us to meet Stanley’s family there. I know, it’s weird. We can both go to the park, meet, mingle without going through border security. His family would just need to make sure and go through their border security at the end of the park as they reentered Canada.

But first, I had to call and see if I could reschedule Stanley’s appointment for his health certificate for that day. Wednesday was the only day I would be able to make the drive and drag hubby along for company. The vet is almost back to normal hours (although they are still not allowed to do non-essentials surgeries and such) but since they are still doing parking lot drop-offs and owners can not go in they are spending more time on the phone. So all I could do was leave a message explaining my mission and wait for them to call back.

Fortunately, later that morning they called and had an opening at 1 pm. (See my previous post about Stanley’s boat ride).

When I got home from his appointment, I had to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening preparing for an early departure on Wednesday morning. Thankfully, my grown kids are staying with us so there would be someone home to watch the puppies and take care of things for the day.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning we loaded up and set out with our precious cargo.

He is such a good traveler.

When we’d stop for breaks, Stanley would get a break too in the bed of the truck. It gave him a chance to stretch his legs, go potty and get a drink. He had an early lunch in his crate since he had breakfast much earlier than usual.

The route we took is the scenic one that runs across the northern part of the state. The weather was perfect too.

Finally we arrived at our destination and started into the park looking for the great arch where we had gotten the message that Stanley’s family would be waiting near.

Finally all together!

It was a really long drive, but worth it to see those big smiles. 😀

The Arch with the Canadian entry on the far right and the US border crossing to the left out of the picture.

The park had some gorgeous flowers.

And since we didn’t have a deadline to meet on the way home we made a few stops along the way for pictures of the beauties of the Pacific Northwest.

I’m just glad it all finally came together and Stanley was able to finally go home with his forever family. <3

*P.S. This was a one-time event. Stanley’s family compensated us for taking time off from our daily schedule and making the almost 800 miles round trip (vet appt. included) to make this happen.

I do not plan on doing another delivery like this. So we will only be matching puppies with our northern neighbor’s on upcoming puppy matching days if the border is reopened at that time. No more “hoping” it will be reopened by puppy delivery day. And if you cannot meet us in Spokane on your intended puppy’s Puppy Delivery Day, please pass and wait for another litter. As much fun as it was to have adventures with Stanley, it’s not fair to the puppies I have at home that I’m raising for myself. They get put on the back burner so to speak because I feel I should be concentrating on socializing the puppy that is staying longer.

The adorable “Thank you” card from Stanley’s new human “sister” who, by the way wants to write a book about Stanley. I can’ wait to see it!