Les chiens

You would not believe the hoops we must jump through just to make sure the pups are able to come with us to France. We went through a small-scale version of the health-certificate process with Arthur and Oliver, who just had to travel to Missouri. The international challenges are much greater. The most difficult part of it is the majority of the paperwork must be done no more than 10 days before departure. So, it's left up to the last minute but there's nothing we can do about that.

For Arthur and Oliver, we took them to the vet 10 days before their flight. They had to have a health exam ($54 apiece) and then the vet issued a health certificate ($30-something apiece). Then we were sent on our way.

For Ichigo and Mr. Roboto, the process is a little different. We went to the franceintheus.org website this morning to ensure we had the most up-to-date information (we learned from experience getting our visas that requirements change often). I'm glad we did, because the forms I'd printed out months ago are now out-of-date. Luckily the requirements for microchips and rabies vaccines are the same, so we were all good on those fronts. Problem is, once at the vet (we called ahead to make sure we would get a USDA-accredited vet), she was unfamiliar with the new France pet-import form. We sat there for a good hour trying to figure it out together. The pups got their exams, their microchips were read, information was written on the certificates. But since the vet wasn't confident she'd understood everything, she asked us to come back after she'd had a chance to call the local USDA office, which oversees the import/export of animals and ultimately has to approve the certificates.

So, now we wait. Once we get the certificates, we'll have to overnight them to the USDA office in Sacramento, which will approve them and send them back to us--all in a week's time. Stay tuned!