Poor Fargo. He is in dog jail. The kennel is all concrete, has a solid door with a tiny window for a person to peek in at the top, and a wire door at the opposite end, looking into an empty sidewalk and wall. He can't see any other dogs or people walking by. You get 2 hours to visit in the middle of the day. I brought a newspaper to sit on, some treats, the stuffed purple dog toy, and his rubber kong, which can be stuffed with treats for extended treat extraction activity. He can't understand why I don't take him with me when I leave. He can't leave this kennel at all for 30 days. This morning, my new friend Holly (also from CA) took me to a dog park/reserve, so I told Fargo he can look forward to going there with me. I told him it would be worth the wait.
The cats have a better situation. Their cages are upstairs/downstairs, they have a scratching post, and can see their neighboring cats. Plus, they are housed together for company.
The boarding facility seems to be taking good care of them. This whole process is totally unnecessary. Both cats and dog are required to have two rabies titer tests before they travel, as well as numerous other tests and treatments, so they are completely healthy and disease-free. The whole point the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is to make it so difficult and expensive to bring your pets here, you won't do it. It's not that they care about animal welfare, as they poison possums, infect wild rabbits with calcivirus, and allow the sale of puppies at petstores (not cheaply either). Yeah, I'm a little bitter right now.
