Before I begin, let me tell you that since my last post, I was in contact via Skype with three of my former colleagues. This was great to get fresh news and exchange notes. Don’t hesitate to contact me, please… The conversation was different that it used to be at times because we now work for different employers and we are all incredibly respectful of our NDAs. Anyway, the bootstrapping in Calgary continues and it is time to tell you more about traveling with four cats. More precisely, how to book a flight to Canada for four cats. Yes, I have four cats. Why do you look at me funny?

1. Identify an airline you are comfortable with and who will be accepting cats. Air Canada does not accept cats during the summer. I am guessing that they use natural cryogenics the rest of the year. I picked Continental. They were more expensive but they have a good service in Houston.
2. Book a flight for the slaves — you know the saying, “dogs have masters and cats have slaves”. Of course, the price of the flight increased by 50% since the last time you check two days prior but this is the usual boring story.
3. Call the Dedicated 24-hour Live Animal Desk
4. Learn that you need the exact dimension of each of the four kennels before you can make a reservation
5. Learn that they only ship three animals per flight for Calgary and that the flight you booked already has a four legged passenger in cargo
6. Be reminded that you will need health certificates from a veterinary dated less than ten days prior to departure
7. Learn that the cats will need to have three inches of room above their head when standing up. Thankfully, they did not ask about room on the side. My cats are not fat, they are horizontally challenged
8. Be asked to call once you have the proper information
9. Sweat a bit
10. Have your partner shove the biggest fattest cat in one of the kennels and measure
11. Call your veterinary
12. Hear that they need to check if they issue international health travel certificates. One month ago they did but they may have change their policy
13. Wait for the veterinary to call back
14. Hear that you may need a stamp from Austin before the airline can accept your cats
15. Collect the kennel dimensions from your partner in crime
16. Call continental airlines
17. Answer questions about kennel size, number of pets, each pet weight (this is the embarrassing bit), pets age, address, phone number, etc.
18. Hold on, anxiously, and for an eternity while they book the flight for you. OK, it was only five minutes but you are a bit anxious after all
19. Write down the confirmation number
20. Learn that you are indeed going to travel in the same plane as your cats
21. Heave a big sigh of relief
22. Write a blog post about it

I am flying back to Houston on Friday. Movers will be packing our things on Saturday and will be loading the truck on Monday. The cats are visiting the veterinary on Monday (they love this part) and our flight is on Tuesday. We are going to camp in the rented house until our furniture arrives after hopefully clearing customs.

Here is a short summary of the different steps you need to go through to buy a car in Calgary when you are moving from Houston:

1. While in Texas, buy Consumer Reports and select a model you like: Subaru Outback
2. Go to the Subaru dealership in Calgary
3. Learn that any car in Canada cost about $10,000 more than in the USA, just because
4. Test drive the car
5. Call your wife to pick the color
6. Negotiate the price down
7. Agree to buy the car with a large down payment and a four years loan at 1.9% APR
8. Pay a portion of the down payment
9. Be reminded that you have no credit history whatsoever in Canada
10. Learn that you need a proof of address to buy a car in Canada
11. Learn that you need a proof of insurance to buy a car in Canada
12. Learn that you need a proof of income to buy the car before you even got your first pay check cheque
13. Learn that you need a copy of your passport and your work permit
14. Go to Alberta Motor Association (same as AAA but better)
15. Learn that you need a letter of experience from your insurer in Texas before you can get insurance in Canada
16. Learn that you need proof that you have your driver license in Texas for over two years (driver’s record) with little or no traffic violations to get cheaper insurance in Canada
17. Learn that you need proof of address in Calgary to get insurance
18. Find a house to rent
19. Sign the lease
20. Go to the Texas Department of Public Safety web site and pay $22 to get your driver’s record abstract
21. Find out that they only send those documents to a USA address
22. Give the address of the forwarding service that you contracted right before leaving the USA. Smart move, pat yourself on the back!
23. Give up on obtaining your driver’s record before your car rental contract expires
24. Accept to pay more insurance until you have an Alberta Driver License
25. Call your insurer in Texas
26. Have your insurer in Texas understand what you want and have it sent you a letter of experience by e-mail
27. Bring the letter of experience to your insurer in Calgary
28. Find out that your insurance is going to cost you as much as what you were paying in Texas except that you now only have one car
29. Find out that you can not insure your vehicle unless your insurer has the vehicle bill of sale
30. Go to the dealership
31. Find out that the finance company refused to give you a four year loan with a big down payment because your work permit expires in two years
32. Accept to double your monthly payment with the same big down payment and get a two years loan at 0.9% APR
33. Make the rest of your big down payment
34. Fax your bill of sale to your insurer
35. Bring back the car to the rental agency at the airport and pay a $50 fine because you are twenty minutes late
36. Get a taxi to your apartment
37. Call the insurer and pay the premium
38. Receive the proof of insurance by fax and fax it to the dealership
39. Bring the bill of sale, your driver’s license, proof of address, and your proof of insurance to the closest registry
40. Explain to the clerk that you really have two middle names and that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) did not put a space between them because their software did not allow for it back in 1999. Ironically, DPS put a space by mistake in your street name for your Texas address
41. Hear that you won’t be able to register your car unless you can prove that there is a space between your two middle names
42. Walk 15 minutes to your apartment to retrieve your passport
43. Walk 15 minutes to another registry
44. Register your car, get one shiny license plate, and a piece of paper. Canadians cars only have one license plate at the back
45. Get the dealership to pick you at your apartment
46. Drive away with your brand new car

Your car has seat warmers, extra large sunroof, All Wheel Drive (AWD), mirror defrosters, wipers defroster (so they don’t stick to the windshield), engine block warmer (you know the plug coming out at the front of the car). Interests for whole loan life will amount to $256! This is your consolation price.

Go drive your car around and park it in the garage at the house you are renting which is a forty minutes walk from your appartment because you’ve already seen hail since you arrived in Calgary and we are in the middle of July.

PS: This car as a remote control and I can open and close the doors remotely. I promised all my colleagues in Houston that my new car will have this feature.

I thought that It would be simple to wire money to my new account in Calgary. It would have been a simple matter of calling the bank, proving my identity and have the funds wired. Unfortunately, deep down hidden on my USA bank web site, you can read that this can only happen if you previously obtained a pin number by going to a branch in person. As a consequence, Melissa had to go to the bank and wire the money.

Nevertheless, I surprisingly had to assist the banker over the phone since he was not familiar with transferring money to Canada and was confused between the SWIFT and the ABA number. Then, the transfer failed because he wired the money to the wrong name. A day later, Melissa fixed the situation.

In retrospect, I should have gone to the bank beforehand to get the pin number or bring more funds with me as I entered the country. Live and learn.

The housing market in Calgary is interesting. The median price for a house is $420K while it is $120K in Houston. This means that we are going to rent for a while until we know the town and we are ready to buy.

There are quite a few websites out there to help renters find their home and rentfaster is clearly the best due to its advanced search capabilities. Melissa located a few houses that she liked based on the description, photos, and budget. The landlord had be be willing to accept cats. I called about ten people and was able to enter in contact with about half of them. Three days later, I was able to schedule two visits; A house located in Mount Pleasant, a neighborhood in the north west at ten minutes by car from downtown and a house located in Scarboro, a neighborhood in the south west, also ten minutes from downtown.

The first house was quite nice, the interior was new and clean. It was located one street north of Trans-Canada Highway 1. Thanks to double pane windows, the house was really quiet but we didn’t really want to live right behind a strip mall facing one of the major thoroughfare across Calgary.

The second house, per Melissa’s description, was a jewel. Built in 1929, the house has original wood flooring on the main level and the finished basement opens to the back yard garden were you can find a huge outdoor fireplace. From the deck situated on the main level, you can see hills in the northwest. I went to scout the location and it is a green and hilly neighborhood. In brief this was the house we wanted.

The only problem was competition. Other potential tenants were visiting the house when I arrived and the landlord later told me that he had many other applicants. It took some convincing and Melissa, still in Houston, had to have a conversation with our nice landlord before he decided to rent the house to us. For obvious reasons, most people move during the summer and combined with the low inventory, this creates quite a demand for houses.

Now, my commute to work is going to be forty minutes, just like in Houston. The only difference is that in Houston I had to drive while here, I will be walking to walk. I could also take the bus but I am going to pass on this option for now. According to long time Calgarians taking public transportation won’t be necessary except one week a year when the temperature drops to -30C (-22F).

The laptop I ordered on June 27th finally arrived today. I am still alive and kicking. I simply was offline most of the time. More news to follow.