A few weeks ago a German family came in to see about bringing their pet rabbit with them from the U.S. to Germany as the father was being transferred. It seemed a simple enough request. People move with their pets all the time. It wasn't quite that simple. The salient fact is no domestic air carrier takes live cargo on passenger planes any more. This is a recent development. Lufthansa does, though, and since my Germans were moving home to Munich you would think it would be fairly straightforward to arrange for their bunny to go with them.

Ahahaha.

In my experience, precisely one person at Lufthansa knows what they're doing. I talked to a minimum of five people in five different departments before I finally located someone with a brain and the willingness to follow up on the correct procedure and details. My clients talked to a different set of airline employees, some of them in person, all of whom gave conflicting information about how to handle live cargo and importing animals. This caused them much anguish. I told them to concentrate on packing and let me do my job. I hate when clients duplicate my efforts. It always ends in tears, sometimes mine.

Complication! While I was on vacation they had to move their travel date up. Suddenly, we had three weeks instead of six to sort everything out. Lufthansa couldn't make up its collective mind on whether rabbits needed rabies shots. They said yes, I said no no no, rabbits don't pass on rabies. They said rabbits were exotic animals, I said they were like cats or dogs. I got a fax from the authorities in Germany advising cats, dogs, rabbits, parakeets, and ferrets were domestic animals. I got a note from a vet saying rabbits die from rabies shots. Lufthansa backed down. My clients phoned daily. I hyperventilated a lot.

Readers, I got it done. Reservations, costs, import license, health papers, location for pick up and drop off, even how to get the shuttle from cargo over to the terminal after they're done checking in "Bunny". Germans are sticklers for paperwork, so I was extremely careful about both ends of the transaction. Duplicate copies of all communications from Weisbaden, home of animal import bureaucrats. Phone numbers in Munich, phone numbers in Oberaudorf, phone numbers in Wiesbaden. All in order, everything sorted out, clients thrilled.

They brought in photos of "Bunny" to show me how they'd trained him to run little bunny obstacle courses. It was hilarious. The rabbit seemed immensely happy. The little girl is relieved that she can take her pet home. The parents promised to send all their American friends to me because I was the best travel agent they'd met since leaving Germany a year ago.

"You are so incredibly detail oriented and relentless in your pursuit of information," they said sincerely. "We have never met an American travel agent like you. You must be part German." They were amazed. They were grateful. We parted on the best of terms.

Too bad there wasn't any money in it for the agency. They bought their tickets elsewhere in a panic while I was on that vacation, not knowing I could have renewed the reservations we'd made originally. But hey, now I know all about exporting domestic animals to Germany. I've got a friend at Lufthansa Cargo now, too. You never know when it might come in handy.

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