Our dog is Dutch

Märzen got her Dutch pet passport today. Although her rabies vaccination was good for three years, we thought the EU required yearly vaccinations because they require a vaccination within a year of entering the EU. So we made an appointment with the closest vet we could find in the Dutch online yellow pages, just two stops away on the bus and within easy walking distance, except that Märzen doesn’t really like to walk.

The vet is a nice woman named Annette, who has two dachshunds of her own. That was an unexpected bonus. It turns out that, although the EU recognizes rabies vaccinations as good for three years if that’s the kind you get, they don’t actually recognize the Fort Dodge vaccine that Märzen got in San Francisco. The ID chip scanner also didn’t recognize her chip, and they vaccinate here against some diseases that aren’t a problem in the western U.S. As a result, Märzen got a new chip and two shots along with her passport, and her mom spent all her cash.

The vet was amazed at the amount of paper in Märzen’s medical record because they computerize everything here and record the essentials in the passport. That’s very handy. Now if only they took Visa.