Mission aborted

It was bound to happen.  We were due.  Everything on the trip had gone so smoothly, it was inevitable that something really shitty happened at some point, and sure enough, it happened today.

Max's crate is one I bought over 10 years ago.  It's still perfectly fine, but over the years I lost the screws that held the top and bottom pieces together, so the other day I went to the hardware store and bought some really strong clips that fit through the holes and held the thing together really well.  Or so I thought.

We arrived at the cargo facility at 5:20 this morning, only to have the supervisor on duty inform us that the clips were not acceptable and that he wouldn't ship Max in the container as is.  Of course, he couldn't just say, "hey, I'm really sorry, but we have specific requirements and what you have doesn't meet them.  Here's what you can do to fix it, and we can ship him tomorrow."  Instead, he had to be a complete dick about it.  First he said, he wasn't sure, then he said he would do it, but he'd probably get fired.  We took that as a begrudging "yes" (accompanied by lectures and generally making me feel like an asshole, which I was willing to suck up if he would ship the dog). 

So we went into the office and started filling out the paperwork and processing everything.  Then Dickhead (aka Mr. Yamamoto) comes back, and I thank him again, and he says, "don't say thank you.  I haven't decided if I'll do it.  In fact, I'm leaning against it."  We (Jason, Andrea and I) try to ask nicely and appeal to his better nature, but this only seems to piss him off and he decided that he wouldn't do it.  In the meantime, he has wasted 45 minutes of time that could have been spent going to the Home Depot, which was, in fact, open, and where we could have bought nuts and bolts that would have satisfied him.

So basically, we were screwed.  I wasn't going to leave the dog, so we've had to rebook our tickets (at an expense of an extra $300) and reschedule everything - the rental car, the meeting with the rental agent, blah blah blah. 

We went to the hardware store and bought the requisite fasteners, so we'll try again tomorrow.  I will hold my tongue and suck up whatever additional lectures/rudeness Mr. Yamamoto throws my way. 

Once my dog and I are safely in Hawaii, I will write an ass-burner of a letter to his boss and do my damndest to get him in trouble.  Schmuck.