Mon, March 6

Yesterday we had a teary departure from St. Augustine as Dawn and Kelly said their goodbyes. Brady and Jim had popped by a little earlier before setting out on their drive back to Flowery Branch. We on the otherhand drove back to the gulf coast and booked into the Knights Inn in Palm Harbor, right on our favourite road, US Hwy 19.

As for today, this was the 1st in four traumatic and stressful days for the three of us. First we had to drive to our vet (Diane Perry) to pick up Tiny's papers. We needed to get them signed, etc before we could take them to the USDA in Gainesville, FL (120 miles away) so they could endorse them and approve for us to take Tiny out of the country. If the drive to Gainesville wasn't bad enough, while we were at the vet's, one couple had to bring in their 17 year old cat to be put down, and another cat needed a leg amputated. It certainly put our ordeal into perspective.

As for the USDA office, Dawn was in and out in less than six minutes. But at least we had the paperwork approved, and had passed another of our objectives.