Irresistable Sam

Since the future owners of our house wanted to come by to do a walk through yesterday morning, I took the temporary exile as an opportunity to take Bailey and Samson to the dog park. How long do you think it took before Samson was sitting in someone’s lap? I’d estimate 30 seconds.

As soon as we got through the gate, he bypassed two dogs and ran straight up to a woman who immediately scooped him up, carried him over to the nearest bench and sat him down in her lap. Seriously, that’s the power of Sam’s cuteness. Complete strangers are helpless to resist. I sure hope he turns on the charm when he gets to animal control in London and they just let him and his equally adorable sister right on through.

Speaking of transporting the dogs, I think I finally have a handle on everything that needs to get done. The only problem is relying on my veterinarian for assistance. The man is seriously unhelpful which is complicated by the fact that he does not take appointments, only walk-ins. I went to the office yesterday afternoon and waited around until his assistant informed me that the vet was performing a surgery and wouldn’t be available for 2 hours.

I’m trying to send a trial run of the paperwork to the USDA this week so that they can confirm that everything other than the tapeworm treatment has been completed correctly. I left the paperwork along with instructions for the Vet to review and left a message for him to please contact me when the paperwork is completed or if he has any questions.

I appreciate the fact that he is a very busy man, but I also want to stress to him that importing my dogs to Scotland is very high on my list of important things in my life and I’d be ever so grateful if he could just reply to my various messages that I have left for him. Maybe I’ll stage a sit-in and bring Sam along. Those adorable eyebrows should get his attention.

The dogs have to be treated for tapeworms 5 days before arrival into the UK. Since our dogs will be getting to London next Sunday morning, the earliest they can get their treatment is Tuesday afternoon. Immediately upon leaving the Vet office next Tuesday, I will march right over to Fed-Ex to over-night the paperwork to the USDA Vet in Austin. I will include a self-addressed over-night envelope for them to return the signed documents to me.

From my local Vet, I will need a generic certificate of health for my pets to fly and the completion of microchip, rabies, and tapeworm treatment sections on the European Union Health Certificate. Seriously, it should take him 10 tiny little minutes and I will gladly take care of the rest.

I won’t mention the fact that it’s usually the Vet who, out of courtesy for his paying customers, faxes all of the relevant documents to the USDA a week early to make sure everything is in place. And I also won’t mention the fact that it’s the Vet who, out of courtesy for his paying customers, Fed-Ex’s the documents to the USDA for endorsement. I’ve had both the USDA Vet and my Pet Transport company ask me several times, ‘Why isn’t your Vet doing this?’ Good question! Come on Sam, I think it’s time for a sit in.

Okay, you're right, naps first.