[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":189},["ShallowReactive",2],{"journal-\u002Fjournal\u002Farrival-night":3,"journal-refs-\u002Fjournal\u002Farrival-night":180},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":167,"extension":168,"guidesReferenced":169,"meta":172,"navigation":96,"path":173,"publishedAt":174,"rescue":175,"seo":176,"stem":177,"weekNumber":178,"__hash__":179},"journal\u002Fjournal\u002Farrival-night.md","Arrival night — Barnie's finally home",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":158},"minimark",[9,13,21,24,29,32,35,38,45,49,52,61,71,77,81,84,90,93,108,113,117,120,123,131,136,144,150,155],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Barnie is home!",[10,14,15,16,20],{},"His journey had been booked to start on 22 September for a few weeks, so that date had been circled on the calendar for what felt like forever. Then came an update: it had been pushed back by a day, and Barnie would now leave Romania on ",[17,18,19],"strong",{},"Wednesday 23 September 2026",".",[10,22,23],{},"Honestly, though, it didn't feel real until the Thursday, when our rescue admin added us to a Facebook group chat for the transport. That's the moment it clicked that he was actually on his way, and the excitement (and the nerves!) really kicked in.",[25,26,28],"h2",{"id":27},"the-longest-few-days","The longest few days",[10,30,31],{},"The group chat is a lovely thing to be part of. There's usually a mix of adopters and fosterers all waiting for their dogs, and alongside them are dogs the rescue is bringing over to its UK kennels to find loving homes. Everyone's in the same boat, following every update.",[10,33,34],{},"Barnie and 23 other dogs set off from Romania at around 6am, with a route that took them through Hungary, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France before the ferry to England. Once they landed at Dover, the dogs were split into different vans grouped by area (south west, central west, north and so on) for the last leg.",[10,36,37],{},"The estimated arrival time was updated regularly in the chat. Ours slipped back a couple of times to around 3pm on the Saturday… and then the van Barnie was on broke down!",[10,39,40,41,44],{},"The team got it repaired quickly, but they had to rework the route so that the dogs heading to the rescue's safe haven kennels could get there before the facility closed for the day. That meant Barnie finally arrived at around ",[17,42,43],{},"9:30 on Saturday evening",". Four days of travelling!",[25,46,48],{"id":47},"the-handover","The handover",[10,50,51],{},"We were so excited to see him. But the dog that came off that van was very disorientated and scared, and he froze completely when the slip lead went on, so he had to be carried into the house.",[10,53,54,55,60],{},"After days on a moving vehicle, surrounded by strange dogs, noises and people, freezing is an understandable response. It's also exactly why the advice is to do the handover somewhere fully enclosed: a frightened dog can bolt in an instant. (There's more on that in the ",[56,57,59],"a",{"href":58},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftransport-day","transport day guide",".)",[10,62,63],{},[64,65],"img",{"alt":66,"height":67,"src":68,"style":69,"width":70},"Barnie, a cream-coloured rescue dog, sitting by the hallway radiator and looking warily at the camera, minutes after arriving",1440,"\u002Fimages\u002Fjournal\u002Fbarnie-arrival\u002Ffirst-night-hallway.webp","max-width:22rem;margin-inline:auto;display:block",1080,[10,72,73],{},[74,75,76],"em",{},"A few minutes after he arrived. Wary, but watching everything.",[25,78,80],{"id":79},"shut-down-and-settling-his-stomach","Shut down, and settling his stomach",[10,82,83],{},"Inside, he was extremely nervous and very shut down. That's completely understandable after the journey he'd just had, and the fact that, to my knowledge, he'd never been inside a house before. Everything was new: the floors, the doors, the smells, the sounds of a home.",[10,85,86,87],{},"His very first action was to walk into the empty kitchen and let go, big time! The biggest wee I've ever seen, and the foulest-smelling poo ",[88,89],"d",{},[10,91,92],{},"I'd read that nervous dogs can shut down things like digestion when they're stressed, and I can't imagine four days in a constantly moving vehicle helps matters. So after four days on the road, it was probably a relief for him.",[94,95,102,103],"video",{"controls":96,"playsInline":96,"preload":97,"width":98,"height":99,"poster":100,"style":101},true,"none",720,1280,"\u002Fimages\u002Fjournal\u002Fbarnie-arrival\u002Ffirst-night-food-bowl-poster.webp","max-width:20rem;margin-inline:auto;display:block;border-radius:12px","\n  ",[104,105],"source",{"src":106,"type":107},"\u002Fimages\u002Fjournal\u002Fbarnie-arrival\u002Ffirst-night-food-bowl.mp4","video\u002Fmp4",[10,109,110],{},[74,111,112],{},"First night: a very cautious look at the food bowl.",[25,114,116],{"id":115},"finding-his-spot","Finding his spot",[10,118,119],{},"After a very tentative look around, he decided to hunker down in front of the door he'd come in by. We gave him some water and some boiled chicken, then left him to it and gave him time to decompress.",[10,121,122],{},"It was probably the worst spot in the house, to be fair. It's directly opposite the stairs, so there's lots of foot traffic. I wasn't surprised in the slightest that he ignored the pen and the comfy dog bed we'd set up for him, though. Rescue dogs do things on their own terms, and the best thing you can do is let them. For the first 48 hours he has to stay at home by law anyway, so there was no rush for anything.",[10,124,125],{},[64,126],{"alt":127,"height":128,"src":129,"style":130,"width":67},"Barnie curled up on the hallway floor at the foot of the stairs, his tail wrapped around him",1144,"\u002Fimages\u002Fjournal\u002Fbarnie-arrival\u002Ffirst-night-by-the-stairs.webp","max-width:36rem;margin-inline:auto;display:block",[10,132,133],{},[74,134,135],{},"His chosen spot on the first night: the busiest bit of floor in the house.",[10,137,138,139,143],{},"It's hard to see them so shut down and scared, but it makes you all the more determined to put in the effort and patience it takes to finally give him a home of his own. If you're in the same place right now, the ",[56,140,142],{"href":141},"\u002Fguides\u002Fdecompression-first-three-weeks","first three weeks guide"," covers what this \"shutdown\" phase looks like and why it's normal.",[10,145,146],{},[64,147],{"alt":148,"height":67,"src":149,"style":69,"width":70},"Barnie lying against the front door the next morning, chin on his paws, looking up at the camera","\u002Fimages\u002Fjournal\u002Fbarnie-arrival\u002Ffirst-morning-by-the-front-door.webp",[10,151,152],{},[74,153,154],{},"The next morning. Still by the door, but those eyes.",[10,156,157],{},"Next time, I'll go through how Barnie's first week has gone.",{"title":159,"searchDepth":160,"depth":161,"links":162},"",3,2,[163,164,165,166],{"id":27,"depth":161,"text":28},{"id":47,"depth":161,"text":48},{"id":79,"depth":161,"text":80},{"id":115,"depth":161,"text":116},"Four days, six countries, a ferry and a broken-down van later, Barnie arrived at 9:30 on a Saturday night. Here's how his first few hours with us went.","md",[170,171],"transport-day","decompression-first-three-weeks",{},"\u002Fjournal\u002Farrival-night","2026-10-02","pawprints-to-freedom",{"title":5,"description":167},"journal\u002Farrival-night",null,"zMkUJrHWowqrghkvxSoTKrbNKMYR0FZNPaAGGHfti4Q",{"guides":181,"rescue":186},[182,184],{"title":183,"path":141},"Decompression — the first three weeks with a rescue dog",{"title":185,"path":58},"Transport day — what to expect when your dog arrives",{"name":187,"path":188},"Pawprints to Freedom","\u002Frescues\u002Fpawprints-to-freedom",1790948059083]