The road to Hong Kong

Bailey becomes a California girl on her 13th birthday

The opportunity to come to Hong Kong emerged last July when my company signed a letter of intent to acquire the firm where I am now working.  As we shared the news with friends and family, the most common refrain was "What about Bailey?" (our dog), or "What about the bees?"

Fortunately, the solution for our two beehives was relatively easy.  Since we started keeping honeybees a few years ago, we have been relying on the Bee Lab at the University of Minnesota (http://beelab.umn.edu/).  I attended their courses in beekeeping and participated in their Bee Squad beekeeper mentoring program.  They also have a program called "Hive to Bottle," which will manage the two colonies in our yard while we are away. 

One of the drawbacks of the opportunity to move to Hong Kong was that it was just too difficult to bring Bailey with us.  While it would have been possible to bring her, the realities were daunting.  First, Hong Kong requires a quarantine period for animals brought in from other countries.  And while there are ways to exempt out of the quarantine requirement, qualifying would have meant months of preparation and paperwork in the U.S. before putting her on an airplane.  Then there was the prospect of preparing her for air cargo.  The most direct nonstop flights are from the west coast, and the flight time alone is 15 hours.  Bailey is a pretty well-traveled dog, having accompanied Jeff on many of the road trips he takes for his sales job.  At last count, we determined that she has visited 24 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.  But her mode of transportation has always been by car.  Bailey has never been on a plane, and we started to think that at age 13, a trans-Pacific flight probably shouldn't be the way to introduce her to jet travel. 

Fortunately, my parents offered Bailey the ideal retirement spot in southern California.  Although my folks are "dog people," it's been a number of years since they have cared for one.  But they know Bailey pretty well, and she adores them.  So we began our journey to Hong Kong on January 12 with a 1,948 mile road trip from our home in Minnesota to Orange County, California.  We packed up Bailey, our luggage and ourselves and drove our Jeep through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada, before arriving in California on Bailey's 13th birthday.  As much as we hated to leave her behind, we know she is enjoying her sunny yard in Corona del Mar with two indulgent caretakers who enjoy spoiling their grand dog.  We miss her more than you can imagine, but we are grateful to my folks for giving her a good home.

Bailey enjoying her new front yard in Corona del Mar
(Photo courtesy of Maggie McCray)