Where's the beef..er..venison?

I didn't want to post about this until it was resolved, but we had a bit of a snafu with customs.  We had multiple "shipments" when we moved.  One air shipment, one sea shipment, one to Atlanta with Matthew, one to Tuscaloosa with Weston, etc..  The relocation company wasn't responsible for all of them, but we had cargo going in five different directions.  So, a mistake was bound to happen.

Several items were to be crated for the move.  Only two of the crates were supposed to come to India.  The rest were to go to storage.  Among the crates that were supposed to go to storage was "Rudy", the deer head mount that hung over our fireplace in Collierville.

"Rudy" standing guard over the fireplace in Collierville.

Yes...storage.  Why would we want/need Rudy in India?  I mean, really??

Well, we get a notification that our sea shipment is being held up.  Mike called me, "Hey do we have an animal skin or something in our shipment?"  Me: "Ummmm....no......leather coat maybe? Oh wait! Maybe that lamb skin thing that your parents gave us when Matthew was born?"  Mike: "Uh, ok, yeah maybe."  Mike calls back, "Did you bring the deer head?" "What? No! It went to storage."  Imagine the customs workers' (and our) surprise when they opened up the crate and Rudy was staring back at them!!!  Let me clarify...it is illegal to import animals DEAD or ALIVE into India.  On top of that, white-tail deer is endangered.  (I'm sure we have more than a few in the US that we can ship over to help you out.)  But this is a mistake, I naively thought.  They will just let everything else go and keep the deer head, right?  I mean surely they know that we didn't intentionally try and smuggle in a deer head!!! My imagination starts running wild at this point.  What do they want?  Surely, they will just fine us and be done with it.  I've heard all those horror stories about Indian jails and I didn't want either of us to experience that!  A "payment" maybe?  Well, if that was going to be the case then it was going to be a looong time before we had our furniture.

Because of that little mistake, our shipment sat at the Customs Depot for a month!  The kicker is that none of us even killed the deer in question!  I  bought it off Ebay....for $200!!!  We tried to tell them....we don't want it...just get rid of it...sell it....burn it...take it home and put it over your fireplace...but...no... they had to call a wildlife officer in to determine whether it was real or not.  "Oh my gosh!  Just tell them it's real!  Let's get on with it!  Let us just pay the fine and get on with it!"  But, I guess, technically I didn't know if it was real or not.  I mean, I had bought it off Ebay!  All I knew for sure was that it was from Washington state!  I'm holding out hope that maybe I bought a fake deer mount.

Finally, after much discussion between us and Customs (but not paying any bribes) and finally (after 3 weeks) getting the wildlife officer to look at it, they determined that:

a) It was a real white tail deer mount...and
b) It was a legitimate mistake.

So after a month of waiting, they released our shipment minus the suspect deer head. Thanksgiving weekend, we welcomed a little bit of "home."

Beverly Hillbillies anyone? 

Pretty sure that we wouldn't see Rudy ever again.  We weren't about to "pay" for him.  Especially, since he held no sentimental value whatsoever.  But, the saga continued.  We were asked a multitude of questions and asked to submit documentation that we bought him as opposed to killed him.  (Just FYI...Ebay only keeps records for 3 years, but Paypal keeps them indefinitely.)  Rudy faded from our memory.  We thought he was probably gracing someone else's mantle!

Fast forward 2.5 months.  Mike and I went to Delhi.  Imagine our surprise when we got home to this.  Can you imagine what went through their minds when they laid eyes on the "floating" deer at customs???

Yes!  Rudy finally made it home!  We couldn't believe it!  I guess when it finally sunk in that we weren't going to "pay"for him, they gave up and gave in.  Mike and I are glad to have Rudy home. Robert, our driver, was fascinated by him.  He stared at him, petted him and poked his eyes to see what they were made out of.  He had never seen anything like Rudy before except in the movies.  Unfortunately, not everyone here is so excited.  Satish (who lives with us) is freaked out by Rudy.  He had Robert stay on the front side of the crate while he stayed on the back side when they moved Rudy upstairs to the storage room.  For now,  Rudy is safe and sound upstairs.  We are still trying to decide where Rudy will make his next appearance!  (sheepish grin)