I could be in dog prison now – and would my Vet care ?

This is an extra entry on Star Ship Priscilla log.

You know when a days going to be s***, and our last day on this adventure was just one of these days.

The wind had not gone away, and we had to do the Pont de Normandy, the wonderful huge bridge over the Seine, at Honfleur. We left early as the forecast, was said to get worse as the day went on. But at 8.30am we were blown from side to side, and Guy was not happy. Alan struggled to keep us on the road, not made easy when he had to swerve to pass a motorcyclist who had been blown over. So when we got over the second bridge, we all took a deep breath and opened our eyes. The rest of the journey, was less eventful, if you discount the fact that a major viaduct on the A16 (just outside Boulogne) was closed to all vehicles over 3.5 tonne and that’s us, so off through Boulogne, to miss high winds. Just added a little to our journey time, we had spare, so now worry,

We get to the Euro-tunnel terminal, and off we all go to the “Paws” pet centre so I can get checked in. I am over excited, and get told off for causing to much noise in the reception. Now its our turn and the world stops……..

SORRY LEOPOLD CANNOT RETURN TO THE UK !!!!

What! we all go cold, and the very nice French lady at reception tries to explain the problem. This is the same passport that I re-entered England last year.
She had spotted that according to the entries I had been chipped after my rabies jabs. This is illegal and made my return to the UK a problem.

What are we going to do, am I going to be separated from my dads, will we all have to stay in France for 6 months (an idea we had all be thinking would be nice, but not this way), we just stare at the lady. The reception staff last year had missed the problem. Is there any thing that can be done? Well if its an error the Vet who issued the passport can state the dates put in the passport were wrong, maybe something can be done.

Alan gets on to my new vet, who issued the passport. I used to go to a brilliant doctors in Nottingham, Alan Hickling, who Alan had used for all his pets for over 20 years. He moved on and we decided it was not worth travelling 30 miles to see a doctor, so we got a local one just 8 miles away. The vets in Nottingham chipped and jabbed me, but the passport was issued my the new vet (complicated isn’t it ?). Nothing was noticed when the document was issued, the new vet receiving a fax with all the details. What we did not see was that they put wrong dates in the boxes, and now because of this I cannot return home.

Anyway dad got on to the new vets, who said it was difficult because she would have to go the filing cabinet to get the information !! (some people have such stressful jobs –going to the filing cabinet!*!*!) Dad kept his cool – nearly – and got them to phone back. Not much use, as the girl found it difficult to read the notes and deliver a logical answer to a question that was beyond her. So he called the old vet, they had to get the archives out as they had stored all the details of Mr Hickling files

We have been here nearly and hour, and all we need is for a vet to fax a legal note to DEFRA, giving the correct dates for my treatment. They will then fax the French Office to allow me to travel home. We wait. We wait. We wait. The French lady tries to make us feel little better by telling us a funny story, but we are still waiting.

The old vet finally comes through, gets the fax to DEFRA, and the fax machine in front of us comes to life. The French lady smiles and says your free to go……….
You could not see our ars** for dust as we run to Priscilla, and try to check in. Check in on a day when the ports are closed due to the bad weather, and the tunnel is the only crossing open. BUSY, and we are late for our check in. Guy puts the details into the check in machine and gets told we are to late………..but we can just get on the next train in 30mins………just get us out of here !!

Straight trough to the holding bays, our luck changes, this year we are not stopped and searched by French customs, we are smiled at by UK customs and we get to board on time. On arrival in England the same problem with ports closed, the whole of the M20 southbound is closed, and used to park up thousands of lorries in miles of lorries parked up on the motorway. The only thing that is said was it was a good job we were not setting off today !

Not sure if I will be visiting the new vet ever again, not sure if they will be alive when Alan takes the passport back to them to sort, I hope they take me I would like to show them the size of my teeth ! they could take cover in the filing cabinets if they could be bothered !

The moral of the story - NEVER trust your documents are OK, Check that idiots have not entered the wrong information. If we could not have got the info sorted, six months would have been the consequences………

So we are back home and all wishing we were in the blue skies and sun and warmth of the Mediterranean ..one day.

One other piece of information you may be interest in, is the total tolls paid on our trip - €283 nearly all in France.

Leopold.