It has been a very exciting week at Brookfarm!

Talk about an exciting and hectic week. Mark had made all the travel arrangements for Maurio about one week before the transport, which is what is required when shipping animals. We had been anxiously watching Keeleigh in anticipation of her cria’s arrival, and then Mark headed out to work his Routing and Signs job at the Lance Armstrong Foundation ride in San Jose, California. The plan was for Mark to pick Maurio up at San Francisco International airport at noon on Monday, July 13th, as he returned from San Jose.

Jackie Church, of Windance Farm, is in Gouverneur, New York, which is near the Canadian border. We visited Jackie and Windance in March and she spent the entire day showing us around and especially showing off her Maremma’s and the two new litter of pups! After learning of our needs for Brookfarm, Jackie chose Maurio for us, the perfect mate for Tessa. The name came to us when we visited Windance and happened on a sweet Italian restaurant there. We had been pouring over name choices on our trip out to New York; and as we were served late the night of our arrival, the chef came out to greet us. He was a robust man named Maurio, wearing the standard white chef’s apron... and it all just clicked. Even though we thought of many other Maremma names throughout our trip that week, we always came back to Maurio.

Dogs are shipped in the cargo hold of the plane so the airlines have very strict requirements about temperatures of departing and arrival cities, as well as any layovers. It cannot be above 85 degrees F or the animal won’t ship. So the flight was scheduled for very early in the morning out of Syracuse, New York. Jackie ships Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs all over the country and so guided us in making these arrangements. Her husband, Tom, had planned to leave very early in the morning to get Maurio to the airport for his 6:15 AM flight.

Low and behold there would a glitch at the airport. You see, the staff person who confirms that all the veterinarian certifications and additional paperwork are in order, does not arrive at the airport until 6:30 AM. Yet the airlines had allowed Mark to book a 6:15 AM flight for Maurio. Somehow, my clock does not work to accommodate such a situation. Even though Mark received Tom’s call at 2:30AM California time, Mark was sharp enough to remember the details of the alternate American Airlines flight he had considered, which left Syracuse at 7:30 AM. So all was good and Tom was able to secure the American flight for Maurio. Wahoo!

Mark arrived at SFO early to see what he could do about picking Maurio up at the cargo dock, rather than having to take him through the airport terminal. Again.... American Airlines was very accommodating and it all worked out perfectly. The only other glitch was that all the paperwork to be affixed to Maurio’s crate did not arrive with him. But it did arrive in the mail a few days later, as though it had fallen out at the connecting airport and someone had been kind enough to pop it in the mail to us.

Maurio going through the motions at SFO cargo dock.

Poor little guy, he may look large, but at 5 months old, this had to be a traumatic experience.

Mark quickly realized that it would be best for Maurio’s crate to face forward for the 1.5 hour drive to Glen Ellen and made the switch before leaving the airport. He talked to Maurio all the way to Brookfarm.

At last, an hour and a half after leaving SFO, Mark and Maurio arrive at Brookfarm - Home sweet home!

And Maurio finally gets to get out of his crate, drink some water on a very hot day, and meet us in person.

And meet Tessa and Nicco; and the labs in the background, Lance and Rhody.

And finally, what Maurio has been waiting all day to do ~ meet his alpacas!

By the way, the airlines has a 100# limit for animal cargo. Maurio and his crate, weighed in at 96#! That was 75# of 5 month old puppy, and 21# of crate. Whew!

It has been exactly one week since Maurio arrived and he is a welcome and loved addition to Brookfarm. He has excellent manners for such a young lad, is appropriate at all times with the alpacas, eats only from his own bowl and doesn’t challenge the other dogs when eating. He never jumps on us or bites. He is a little angel, with gigantic feet and so much loose skin that it is frightening to think just how large he will become in the next few months.

Watch for an announcement Fall of 2009 for the first litter of beautiful Maremma pups from Maurio and Tessa early in 2010!