Getting here...

This was my first experience flying with my dogs, and it was rather stressful, but everyone got here just fine. To begin with, we arrived at Newark later than we hoped, and had to check in the dogs in a separate location. Luckily two nice ladies who were waiting for their dogs to get off another flight helped me put together the crates and reassured me that the dogs would not be overly bothered by the experience. After we got the dogs and crates stickered, watered, zip tied, and paid for, Dan had to return the rental car, and I went to check in (which I somehow managed to do for both of us without him). We got through security, grabbed a couple of sandwiches, and made it to our gate just in time to see the second dog loaded onto the plane. When we arrived 8 hours later, we also got to see both dogs unloaded while we were on a bus to the terminal, though it would be another couple of hours before I would see them again. Once through customs and with bags in hand we were told three or four different answers to the question "where do I go to pick up dogs?" Increasingly frustrated, we waited for them to appear, and when nothing happened, asked again and were told to head to the cargo terminal, which was not easy to find, once there I was told the receipt we had from Continental was not the form we needed to pick up cargo, but at that point they would not even tell us if we were in the correct spot to pick them up, though the threat of a loud irate American making a scene eventually got them to at least release the information that yes, that was where Blaze and Tazzy were being held. We had to head back to the terminal to ask the Continental ticket person for the correct document, and they had no idea what we were talking about. So back to the cargo area again, and this time an angry Dan finally got them to call the airline, who sent a representative over to help us. A total of 2.5 hours from when we saw them get off the plane, a trip to the airport vet office, a few miscellaneous fees later, and our first real lesson in Portuguese bureaucracy later, we were finally all reunited. They were extremely excited to see us, but otherwise didn't seem too phased by the experience.