That's what I get for waiting until Friday

I thought nothing could be more frustrating than Verizon's customer service hot line. But now I have suffered the ignoramus of the Chinese consulate phone system. I have a general grasp of what paperwork I need for Smudgie's trip but there are some details I wanted clarified by the only people who can officially tell me: the Chinese! Every website I look at says "contact your closest Chinese consulate for the updated procedures regarding pet import." So I tried to do that today, all day long.

In order to contact the Chinese consulate of NY, you must first get past 3 tiers of utter bullcrap. First, you must make it past the busy signal. Second, even if you manage to get a ring going, it might just ring forever and not even connect you to the recording. When you do finally get the recording, you have to listen to them spell out their website (twice) before choosing your options. Thirdly, you must press 8 for "inquiry by person". I now know how to say "The line is busy" in Chinese. There might be a 4th or 5th tier after that, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I also tried the consulates in DC, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. All of them suck.

I also want to state for the record, that I contacted them by e-mail more than a week ago and never got a response. I almost understand now why it costs $3500 to hire a pet relocation company. Anyways, here's a cute picture of Smudgie in his travel bag.