Doggy Dilemma (J2)

The situation with our canine companions is currently this:

We have to have forms to accompany the puppies from Dublin to Frankfurt to Johannesburg. These forms must be translated in German (because of the Frankfurt stopover), and they basically say that Ireland is free from some 5 or 6 diseases, and that they've had their rabies vaccinations.

The "Dilemma" comes in about the time that we hit the all-important "at most 30-days-before-departure-but not-less-than-10-days" window of time that the forms need to be filled out (now). And we find out that there are indeed MULTIPLE versions of the all-important forms, hanging around out there in the universe.

Form "A" (we'll call it the "good" form) is short and to the point, and requires the signature of the puppies' vet saying that they've been vaccinated for rabies, and Ireland is free from X, Y, and Z; as well as the signature from the Government vet stating the same.

Form "B" (we'll call it the "evil" form) is 4 pages long and requires appx €1600 worth of blood tests to be taken from puppies, shipped off to a variety of EXTERNAL testing labs (Manchester, Liverpool, Belgium, etc) and pronounced negative at least 10 days before departure. Well obviously that ain't gonna happen. We were told that was anunnecessaryy form by the South Africans who are actually receiving the puppies, and would be the ones who would need to worry about diseases coming in. Since they're used to doing this sort of thing on a daily basis, we chose to go with their advice. However, there's some smart-arse Government Vet running around Dublin at this point in time, who knows who we are and what we're trying to do (only because we were stupid enough to call him and ask for his advice and make sure that we were doing everything above-board), and has even put a phone call into our own vet saying that heunequivocallyy, definitely COULD NOT sign such a form unless the blood tests were done. Even though the blood tests can not even be DONE in this COUNTRY. !?!??

Now the waiting game.
We have located a local government vet who will sign the "good" form for us. He won't go out on a limb and sign the "evil" form without having blood tests done, even though the "evil" form has the same text on it that the "good" one does, and is essentially stating the exact same thing (that Ireland is free of these diseases and therefore tests are unnecessary). So we're going to try and push them through with Form A. Fingers crossed nobody stops us.

The positives:
* Our "receiving end" company in Joburg has told us that just as recently as September, they successfully received puppies from Ireland with the Form A.
* Our "sending end" company in Dublin airport told us really all they need is Form A and we don't have to worry.
* Our local Cork Government Vet says we should be OK with Form A, he doesn't mind signing it, and needn't worry.
* The puppies official private vet says he'll be happy to sign Form A, and he sees it go through all the time.

The negatives:
* Some fruitcake, red-tape-loving, upper-ranking Government Vet in Dublin is going to try and do everything he can between now and December 4th (when the form needs to be signed = 10 days from their flight date) to make sure that all underling Government Vets (including local Cork-guy) are made aware that FORM B IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE FORM FOR EXPORTING DOGS!!! Mainly, all because WE got in touch with him and alerted him to the fact that there is a "good" and "evil" form floating around out there in the universe!! DOH!

* If, for some unforeseeable reason, we get stopped mid-way through the process and instructed that under no circumstances is Form A acceptable, we have no backup plan. The window of time will be expired for the tests to be taken and results to be returned (from overseas) and flight to be made.

Fingers crossed.....

j2