Certifying the dog as Grade A Beef

I forgot to mention the small debacle with certifying our darling dog to go overseas...

As it turns out, Didge nor Colin nor I needed to physically go to Lansing to certify the mutt with the USDA. Our vet fills out the paperwork, and then we can Fed Ex it to them. Of course, we didn't figure that out until Colin had already made it to Lansing. Among the other jewels of wisdom we picked up:

1. Our vet doesn't do many overseas forms because out of the three it had to fill out, all three had errors.

2. It's best to do this within 14 days of the dog's departure because some airlines require a very recent health check up. No clue as to whether Air France does, but I figure better safe than sorry.

3. Websites can be wrong. OK, I knew this in advance, but I assumed that the USDA would have the right ADDRESS on their website. Instead, poor Colin ended up in a random building in Lansing - right address from the website, just not the USDA. Fortunately, the place he ended up in had a helpful receptionist who called the USDA to get better directions. He was only about 30 minutes late to the appointment that he didn't need to make. Sigh.

The things we do for our pets!!