About six months ago, we took off from the U.S. for Australia and left our dog, Charlie, with my brother-in-law, Chris. It turns out that Australia is one of the most difficult countries on Earth to bring your dog. There’s no rabies in the entire country, and they’re working hard to keep it that way. The upside is that if one of the gigantic bats here, known as fly foxes, that more resemble pterodactyls bites you, you don’t have to worry about getting rabies from them. It’s a small consolation.
When we found out we’d have the chance to live overseas for a while, we looked into bringing our dog and discovered a byzantine world of red tape, rules and expenses that would take us about three months to sort out. Turns out that it’s taken closer to 10 months. Before we could even start the process, we had to do multiple vet visits, exams, photos of Charlie having his microchip scanned and two blood tests sent to a special lab at Kansas State University that took months to send back results. Then, it turned out one of our vets in New York had listed his color as “yellow” on an official form, so we had to do it all over again. By the time we had that all done, we found out there was a four month wait to get a reservation at the dog quarantine facility in Melbourne, Australia. So, a long wait later, we’re finally in the final stretch of bringing this guy to the other side of the world.
Since we left, Charlie has been terrorizing my brother-in-law. Seldom a day goes past that my wife or I don’t get a photo of a chewed up belt, shoe, wallet or slipper. Chris has two other big dogs and a dog door they use to go into the yard. Charlie is the only one who uses that door to drag clothes, dog beds, shoes and anything he can reach on the counter outside. Once or twice, he tried to drag the couch cushions out, but only succeeded in getting the pillows outside. Chris is, understandably, eager to get Charlie on the plane.
If all goes well, Charlie will soon be on the other side of the world eating kangaroo meat, which I didn’t believe they actually fed to dogs until I saw it myself in the grocery store.
