It’s been a busy few months but I am trying to catch up on my blog posts, starting with the new grey hairs the St. Lucian Lad gave me our first full day in Geneva.
I admit I was a little nervous about flying internationally with the St. Lucian Lad. He can be a bit of a head case but armed with a magic calming collar from the vet and his government paperwork, he did awesome. I think it helped that I was able to take him out for a little walk in YUL before our flight to GVA.
Anyway, fresh off his second successful international flight, the St. Lucian Lad nearly began his time as a diplomatic pup in JAIL. We arrived in GVA on a Monday morning and had the rest of the day to settle in, take the kids to a local park, buy groceries, etc.
The Tuesday though, M was back to work and we were on our own. Anxious to be on time his first day M flew out the front door of our flat with seconds to spare to catch the bus he was aiming for. I was in our bedroom unpacking, Tiny Human #1 was lying on our loaner couch playing on her iPad and the littles were in bed. Suddenly I heard a dog bark that sounded an awful lot like the St. Lucian Lad. I called out to Tiny Human #1 and asked her if she had fed the dog. A few seconds later she appeared in the doorway with a panicked look on her face. She couldn’t find the dog… We yelled for him, nothing… We shook his food dish, nothing… We checked in Tiny Human 2 & 3’s bedrooms, nothing…
Then I noticed the front door was ajar, panic hit me, in his rush, M must not have locked the door behind him. I threw on my shoes, grabbed his leash, my phone and keys and went tearing off down the stairs yelling for him. NOTHING… no little brown dog trotting up to me. Our building is set off the road and backs on to a walking path, where I had taken him the day before. I ran to the back gate, no sign of him. I remembered he was still wearing the Apple AirTag M put on him for the flight. I called M in a panic, he had to hang up so he could try to track him using the tag. As I ran out to street, I saw two police officers walking towards me leading a little brown dog using handcuffs as a leash, not just any little brown dog, MY DOG!
I called after them and they stopped, dressed in my jogging pants and pyjama top I tried to explain in my best FR that they had my dog. The police officers were not impressed he didn’t have the proper tag, apparently a woman had called them after the St. Lucian Lad had run up to her and her dog on the street. Off leash dogs on the street are a big NON NON. We just arrived, and he slipped out of our flat, I tried to explain. He didn’t have a phone number on his collar, but he did I said pointing to his travel tag with my Canadian phone number. I tried calling M, what good is a bilingual diplomatic husband if not to negotiate with police officers while you stand in the street in your PJ’s, but the call wouldn’t go through. Finally in desperation I showed them my boarding pass and the copy of his paper work on my phone. Finally after taking down, my name, my address, M’s name, M’s employer’s address and many promises that we were visiting the police station to register him with the canton by the end of the week, did they finally release the St. Lucian Lad into my custody. I called M who was relieved our dog hadn’t become a consular case and resumed his bus ride to work. St. Lucian Lad sheepishly followed me back into the building and up to our flat where he spent the next two hours cuddling with Tiny Human #1 who was much more forgiving than I was.
That afternoon, the Tiny Humans and I took the St. Lucian Lad for a walk behind our building and ran into a friendly older man who lives in the building next door and his little dog. He stopped me and inquired if my dog had been loose earlier, oui I responded preparing to launch into an explanation when he started laughing. He was just returning from his morning walk he explained when he observed the St. Lucian Lad trying to follow a tall man with a black briefcase (M) down the walk from our building and out on to the street.
The St. Lucian Lad still refuses to tell us the full story but our working theory is that the door popped up after M left and the St. Lucian Lad having not been taken for his morning walk took matters into his own paws. M didn’t hear him following him because we had taken off the St. Lucian Lad’s jingling tags for the airplane ride, he just had a flat tag with our name and phone number and his Apple AirTag.
Thankfully, the St. Lucian Lad has not tried any further escape attempts and after bureaucratic hurdles to complete the right paper work in the right order, the St. Lucian Lad is duly registered in GVA.
Inside the Mommy Bag 