making sense of the utterly ridiculous

You know that happiness is fleeting right? I have to laugh at the series of events that continue to give me grief and stress me out. I'm working on shipping my cat over to the UK...I called the airline that we're flying on and they gave me a number to call for cargo- which in turn gave me 2 different pet shipping companies to call. Well one company never returned my phone call and the 2nd company....well they are why I'm writing today.

After leaving the initial phone call with the company and finally getting a return call 2 days later (there was nothing speedy in that returned phone call). I give the information to the lady on the phone, she says that she will e-mail me some forms and that I am to scan them in and send them back to her. One of those forms is a contract that required a $75 non-refundable processing fee. I immediately write her back letting her know that we are a military family doing a PCS (permanent change of station aka moving) to England and that I do not feel comfortable signing a contract when I don't even know how much the charge will be. She e-mails me back letting me know that's fine and she will have an estimate for me Monday morning. Monday comes and goes and so does most of Tuesday. I call her and let her know that I'm still waiting, she tells me that she sent me the estimate, I let her know that I do not have it. Then she replies "Oh you're right, I haven't done that yet". Are you ready for the estimate? I almost crapped my pants! $1,600.00
Okay here's what's what...I can get a round trip ticket to London flying out of Rapid City, SD for 2 people and still have more than $300 left over! Needless to say I'm NOT going with that company! I'm now searching for ways to get my cat shipped over there w/o someone seriously padding their wallet!

So that being said, is that the most utterly ridiculous thing you've ever hear of or what?