We’ve paid another visit to the vet! I know, I know, I said I wouldn’t darken her doors again, but needs must. I have asked a number of people about local vets and searched online but frankly unless I was prepared to drive an unreasonable distance, there was no sense in going elsewhere. Another factor was that during my enquiries everyone told me that Marc Mougin, the vet whose Practice it is, was a very pleasant man and also he spoke a little English. I decided that having experienced the female vet once, I would find her easier next time or, better still, I might avoid her and find myself talking to Marc Mougin himself instead! The reason for needing the services of a vet again was to get EU Pet Passports for both dogs. The UK Animal Health Certificate only lasts for 4 months, thus for our dogs they expire a month before our Visas expire, and although we still intend to return home in the middle of May, the deadline for the dogs’ travel puts a restraint on our return that we could do without. We don’t want to be panicking about timing at the end of our adventure. Additionally, the European Pet Passport lasts the dog’s lifetime and who knows where we might want to take them next?!
As before, I begin with an attempt to telephone and ask for a rendezvous-vous to find out if they are both able and prepared to provide EU Passports for our dogs.. The first time I get through to a female voice (my bête noire?) who says “un moment s’il vous plaît” and vanishes. I hang on and many ‘moments’ later she returns, says something indecipherable and hangs up!! I decide bravely to count to ten and try again. This time I get the answerphone. Right, I was not prepared to go through that pantomime again, so Richard and I decide to pop in and attempt to ask their advice face to face. My first ‘pop in’ was a waste of time. I found myself in a waiting room full of anxious dogs tugging on their leads, and cats in carriers, with their owners sitting in silence, all looking as though they’d lost the will to live. I sit, hoping to catch someone to talk to between clients, but after 15 minutes with no sign of the present appointment ending, I lose patience and leave with a plan to return right at the end of the day, hoping to speak to a vet after the last patient leaves.
This ‘good idea’ looked as though it was going to backfire when I went into the waiting room at ten to five, only to find three or four people, with assorted animals, still waiting to see the vet. If the appointments were going to take as long as the one in the morning was clearly taking, I was in for a very long wait. I decided to sit it out and after about ten minutes there was the sound of someone coming out of the consulting room and leaving. The door opened and in came, not the dragon, but someone who was clearly the famous Marc Mougin. He summoned the next candidate and before he could go out again I leapt to my feet and started asking if I could have a quick word with him - success! Marc Mougin is indeed a very nice, smiley man, small and dark, with a twinkle in his eye. He speaks pretty good English and five minutes later I returned triumphantly to the car, where Richard was waiting, with an appointment for a couple of days later to do the necessary to get an EU Passport for each dog.
Richard came with me for our rendezvous-vous with Dr. Mougin, in case of any difficult questions and to help manage the dogs, as I was concerned that Laddie might freak out finding himself there again. He didn’t, Marc Mougin bore no resemblance to the torturer at his last visit, and he behaved beautifully throughout. The consulting room at this Practice is about the size of a small bathroom. Once Richard and I, the two dogs, Dr. Mougin and his assistant were all in his surgery, there was hardly room to move. His assistant sat at a desk with all the sheaves of paper we’d brought with us, transferring the relative information in French onto more sheaves of paper. Dr. Mougin, meanwhile, peered into the dogs’ ears and mouths, poked thermometers into their bottoms, stuck needles into their scruffs and handed over medication for fleas and ticks. I signed blindly where I was directed to on a couple of pieces of paper and, finally, we came to payment.. Paying Dr. Mougin’s rather hefty invoice was easily done by card. However, as the final part of the application, the completed form for each dog had to be sent to an official Registration Office accompanied by a cheque for 22€ (11€ per dog) drawn on a French Bank! This was the only form of payment accepted and the last piece of the puzzle. Marc Mougin had done his bit, so now, with a grin, he handed us the two forms and we left, scratching our heads as to how we were going to find someone to write a French cheque on our behalf. We had hardly got home before I noticed I had an email from Marc Mougin! Uh oh! It read:
‘Hello Madam Maidment,
If you have not yet sent the Icad papers for your dogs, could you please check the identification numbers, dates of birth and colours of your dogs as it seems that my assistant has made some mistakes. You can correct them before sending the papers. Sorry. Dr. Mougin’
We checked and, sure enough, the harassed assistant had given both dogs the same chip number and labelled Annie ‘white and black’ rather than ‘white and brown’! Mistakes duly corrected, we checked with Tom and Carrie as to whether either of them had a French bank account and drew a blank. Then we thought of Richard’s cousin Susie who has been living in France since the 1960’s. The unusual request was made via email to Susie who, with the warning that it might not reach us until Christmas(!), put the required cheque in the post and it dropped through our letterbox 2 days later! As I write we are keeping everything crossed that this will go through without a hitch. It feels like waiting for confirmation of our Visas all over again!
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