Well I spent the morning on the phone with Virgin Atlantic in the UK. Flights have been booked and puppies have been booked.

Just cancelled QM2 for the Nov 25th sailing, so there are 3 kennels available - although I'm sure they've already been assigned to the next person on the waitlist. Those things are like gold!

We leave Los Angeles the afternoon of Thursday Feb 26th and arrive noon in London on the 27th. My heart feels a little lighter knowing that the puppies will go straight to the animal reception centre and get checked over by a vet, given a cookie and allowed to run around unlike when they arrived at LAX and were kept in their crate for ages and treated like common cargo

Don't know why I keep calling them puppies, the youngest is 13 the oldest nearly 16 - I just hope they'll be OK

All the best.. Do you have place to stay? Like own your own property.. This time (I believe) you won't be a ping ponger..

Biscuit, as you are talking about the UK, you really will have to learn the language..

BISCUITS!!! sorry!!!!

fulwood - we're working out a rental right now. Just getting them to agree to dogs.....always fun. And by fun I mean a HUGE pain in the bum. However I've dangled the "extra deposit" carrot in front of them which should help. Plus I'm going to pay either 6 months or a year in advance.

We won't be ping pongers again. I know it!!!

You're flying back with THREE dogs? Holy cow, the thought of flying our ONE Golden is enough for us!
I wish you loads of luck on your journey, do give us all the full lowdown on the journey once you get back, won't you?

TexasPenguin - I flew here with FOUR dogs last year!!! Mental.

I will give you a full report once I'm back home, drinking tea and eating a jaffa cake! Thanks

Lovely news and hope all goes well, your nearly into Spring when you arrive, lighter mornings/evenings, apple blossom and the birdsong (where we live anyway) never fails to impress me. Good luck

We call our two girls 'puppies' also.

I thought that term was usually only applied to dogs..

Ironically (or should that be "confusingly"? ) dog "biscuits" are also dog biscuits in the US too!

Pulaski - that's weird!

brits1 - yes looking forward to that. We're moving to Surrey so lots of bird song and bluebells!!! The place we're hoping to rent backs onto a wood and yet only takes 30 mins by train into London Victoria. Gotta love the greenbelt!! (Just not the prices....gulp!)

Did you have any problems finding a rental that would take the dogs?
It's another one of those "worries" that concerns us about the move back.
We won't be able to buy for several months so need to find a rental.
Our likely area is around Aylsbury and I've been looking on-line at the rentals. There seems precious few that state "pets allowed"....

TexasPenguin I've found that money talks!!!! Most say NO DOGS however don't take no for an answer. I immediately reply that we would of course pay a higher deposit and can (if needed) pay a year in advance. I've found landlords suddenly change their tune pretty quickly!!

Of course I understand that not everyone has the ability to pay a year in advance but maybe a bigger deposit will be enough to sway the landlord.

We also tell them our dogs have fantastic references (which they do!) but we've never had to show them!!!

Outside of London is usually easier to find rentals willing to rent to dog owners.

BTW how many dogs do you have? One isn't usually an issue. But as soon as I say 3 or 4 (which was the case last time we were in the UK) I can see the look of horror on people's faces!!! It doesn't matter that all of our dogs put together don't weigh as much as a big dog. When people hear "dogs" they immediately picture labs or golden retriever size dogs!

Ahhhhh, british birdsong, apple blossom, bluebells, the May!