Gecko Chasing

Wow, today turned out to be one heck of a day as far as the arriving gecko went. She was sent USPS Express, guaranteed to arrive by noon. I had her sent to my parent's house as the mailman here at my apartment is less than efficient, etc... and because theirs is not, plus they would be home all morning (I would be sleeping, ideally, I've been very sick with a cold). I had a doctor's appointment at 2:20, and my mom called me about 1:30 to tell me that no gecko had arrived, and the mail had.

I immediately looked up the tracking number on the USPS website to see what the deal was, and it said it had been deemed "undeliverable" (turns out my friend accidently wrote the wrong address on the box) and would be returned to the sender. MAJOR PROBLEM! My friend who sent the gecko was in the hospital having surgery today... if the gecko was returned, there was nobody to receive her, and she would most certainly have died. So I started calling... all the while trying to get ready to run out the door for my appointment. I finally tracked down which post office she was at, and my mom (who had come to pick me up) said she knew where it was so we planned to head down there after the doctor.

Sooooo we did. Aaaaand wrong post office, my lovely "cold voice" is hard to understand at times and my mom misunderstood me when I said which PO, so I spent probably a good 45 minutes or more there while they looked all over their facility, called 2 other POs, etc. Part of the problem was that I'd forgotten to bring the tracking number along in my rush out the door. In any case, they finally told me that the box had been at the post office I was originally told, but now was being trucked over to their facility. So I waited... and waited... and waited some more, and then find out - IT ISN'T ON THE STUPID TRUCK. More phone calls... and they still have it at the freaking original facility, which is naturally on the complete opposite side of town.

Then we had to hurry through traffic and construction to make it to that post office in time, where they FINALLY found the box. Holy friggin' crap I was stressed, tired, and upset after spending my entire afternoon chasing her down (not to mention I hadn't taken any cold medicine because I expected to be home much sooner - about passed out a few times I was feeling so bad). After we got the box and were back in the car, I made my mom whip out the tiny scissors that she keeps in her purse and ripped into the box to see if Hida was alive (and she was, thank God). It was just a good thing this happened today and not another day, because we were in the low 70's today and yesterday it was almost 90.

So that is the saga of Hida. She is finally here, and doesn't seem any worse for wear. She was very fired up when I first peeked at her - deep red base like her parents! She's got some orange blotching too, such a pretty girl. Seemed very sweet too, just calmly walked out of her cup onto my hand and then into her temporary cage (for quarantine). I'll get some pictures of her once she's had some time to settle in.



Lesson from this for my readers? Always, ALWAYS make sure to get the tracking number from your shipper. Personally, when I ship geckos I sign up for email updates that include the tracking number and related information (such as a link to follow tracking updates), and I also ask the buyer to provide an email that they'd like the same info sent to. That way everyone is informed and can be on top of any problems that may occur. I also exchange phone numbers with customers when shipping for the same reason, but that wasn't possible in this situation obviously. I'm just happy that I've got my gecko, and that she's healthy.