Picking Up Giselly!

We had to drive to LA to pick up Giselly since she was shipped to the LAX Airport! The traffic was not fun!

The first thing we did was go to the airport where we would be picking up

our baby girl and signed in. Since we were about an hour early, they told us to go grab some lunch.

After Googling places to eat, nothing sounded good, so we decided to drive around. Luckily, we found a little food center. (We saw the LA Times building on the way) There was Starbucks, subway, a sushi place, and Noah's Bagels. We chose to eat at Noah's Bagels and it was delicious! I ordered a turkey, bacon, avocado sandwich on an everything bagel. After that, we went to Starbucks, and I ordered the pink drink. If you haven't heard of it, it's the Strawberry Acai drink with coconut milk. It kind of reminds me of a strawberry high chew!

After we ate lunch, we drove back to the airport to pick up Giselly & it was packed! We weren't the only ones waiting to pick up an animal! We were waiting and waiting, then, we finally heard a special bark! I went out the door where you could view the animals from behind a fence and there was Giselly! She was in a wooden crate. She was finally here! Even though she was here, we still had to wait for paperwork. After what seemed close to an hour of waiting, we finally got the paperwork.

Now that we had the required paperwork, we went to US Customs and Border Protection where they authorized her release on the paperwork. Then, we drove back to the airport, again, where they would check the conformation & finally released Giselly!

We walked into the warehouse part of the airport where Giselly was sitting in her crate. While they were cutting the zip ties off, my mom got the car and crate ready and I got the toys and collar ready. My mom and I walked up to Giselly, opened the crate, and put her collar on. She was so excited and such a spazz when we first opened the crate, but can you blame her? She was on a 16+ hour plane ride! ... We didn't want to take any chances of her running away or getting hurt!

In the car, she was a little shy at first, but warmed up to me as we started driving. She even picked up her water bowl and dumped it out, luckily there was not a bunch of water in the bowl and the towel in her crate absorbed it. About 1/4 of the way home, I opened up her crate door to pet her. She did really well! I ended up leaving the crate door open for quite a while and she just layed her head on my lap while keeping her body in the crate.

About half way home, we stopped at Chick fill a for some of their delicious lemonade and let Giselly go potty. She walked around a little and then literally sat in a bush. It was so hot outside! I went to turn on the air conditioner before putting Giselly back in, she started whining for me! 😍

Once we got back on the road, Giselly continued to lay on my lap. Then we picked up a pizza on the way home. Once home, Giselly started barking at my dad! She was protecting us from a man she hadn't seen before. Once she realized he was my dad, she was okay. Before anything else, we gave Giselly her first bath! She did pretty well although she wasn't a huge fan of the water!

Her first night, Giselly stayed in her crate in my room. We didn't get much sleep! You see, Giselly came from South Africa, so our nighttime is her daytime. I wish I remembered that! I had to sleep with my fingers in her crate to comfort her all night, which was not comfy for me. It was like sleeping with a baby, when she noticed my fingers were not there, she would howl and bark, and when I put my fingers back, she was quiet! At least we made it through the night with no accidents!

She decided to wake me up the next morning by howling. I took her out, got her water and breakfast, and she went pee. She wouldn't stop howling until I sat with her. She really likes her attention! She's all settled in now and doing well, and yes, sleeping through the night!

I hope you enjoyed the story about picking up Giselly! I love her so much, she is sooo cute! Make sure to follow me on Instagram to see pictures and updates on her!