Tommy flies to camp

I just shipped Tommy to Field Trial trainers Randy Anderson and Tony Falley of CROSSCOUNTRY KENNELS for a three month session with wild birds in North Dakota. The aggravation of getting all regulations satisfied and the expense of shipping has been more than I expected.

Tommy just had a session with our DVM late last week - check-up, full set of boosters and his first Red Rock rattlesnake vaccine injection. He had already had rabies vaccine prior to being shipped to us in January. The window to ship him was open early this week, and I rushed to make arrangements to ship via Delta to Randy in Tulsa, OK. Except I needed a health certificate. 

So... I called my vet and got the office weinie, who said that I needed to bring him in for a check up and rabies shot, which they did not have on his records. After finally convincing her that the same dog had been in the office a few days before, that I had already provided the rabies information, and that he would be flying (God willing) within a 10 day window, she said, "Well we need to weigh him again, please bring him in." So I load the pup into the truck and off we go to the vet. Arriving at the vet's, I put Tommy on the scale, and he scales the same as he did 5 days before - 44-1/2 pounds. She smiles and hands me a full page form to fill out which asks for information about his rabies vaccine (manufacturer and lot number), and other details I didn't have... grrrr. I suggested that it would have been good if she had informed me of what was needed when we spoke on the phone 30 minutes earlier.  After atrip home to fetch Tommy's file folder and phone call to Bruce Hood DVM, the vet who inoculated Tommy in January and issued the original health certificate in Missouri, I managed to have him quickly fax the details to my vet. After more than a hour in the vet's office and two trips back and forth, I had the health certificate and had only to set up the flights, prep a traveling crate, affix stickers and assorted warnings to the crate... then to the airport, yada, yada...

Randy called me this morning to say that he had Tommy with him, and that Tommy was "...laid back and relaxed - not weirded out at all like some dogs get when flying." Anyway, $404.65, a crate, and another vet bill later, Tommy is in Vinita, Oklahoma starting his formal education at the tender age of 10 months. He will be in North Dakota with Randy and Tony beginning July 5th. I will travel to ND for a few days of dog work with Randy and Tony in late september, and then head for eastern Montana for sharptails - the beginning of my '08 - '09 bird season. 

Ted will stay home and train with me this Summer, and travel with the rest of the gang to ND in September.