The past few days have been non-stop busyness culminating in strangely (for me) total exhaustion. Perhaps this is an odd form of jet lag or culture shock. (It's OK - I'm fine now!)
I won't write down everything that's gone on for the past couple of days as it will take too long. So I'll concentrate on my lovely dog.
I've mentioned before that our garden isn't dog-proof, so Kita has been tethered to a long rope while she enjoys the spring air. Until now! We were given approval to have a higher fence installed around part of the garden on Wednesday and the workmen turned up on Thursday morning. Now that's efficiency! So there was banging and crashing and men in the garden for two days.
Only part of the garden can be enclosed as our neighbours are having a similar fence erected down our boundary. But until a particularly lovely silver birch tree is felled their fence can't be completed. Apparently the tree "is in the way" - why not go around it? It seems a shame to get rid of such a beautiful mature tree. Anyway, not my decision...
The workmen finished their job on Friday evening and today we bought some chain-link fencing to proof the rest of the garden in, what will probably be, a long interim until the boundary fence is completed.
By this evening, Tim had finished his part in the dog proofing and now Kita has full run of our garden. What a happy dog!
More dog-related stuff: we're going to the UK in the summer holidays and will be taking Kita with us. Therefore she needs a pet passport. Which means we need to find a vet.
A lucky strike! There is one within walking distance and he advertises himself as speaking English. So Tim and I took a walk down there with Kita yesterday morning, intending on introducing ourselves and registering for an appointment in the future. Oh, and to pick up some tick prevention stuff. The revolting things are making their presence known.
We reached the building just as he opened. A slightly scruffy man was standing in the doorway and looked very suspiciously at us as we walked up his path.
"Good morning! Are you the vet?"
"Uh-huh...ja, yes."
Now maybe I've been spoiled by vets in Japan and in the UK, but usually they greet the animal too... this one didn't. Ah well, he looked like he had a bad hangover and had cut himself very badly shaving, so we carried on. Maybe he was fazed by random Brits turning up unannounced. Anyway, all we wanted a pet passport and a vet in close proximity in case of emergency.
He ushered us into his surgery - a converted room in his home. A bit shabby, but never mind. We quickly explained our needs and he looked even more suspicious. Very odd. But he got out the passport and then the next hour was spent trying to help him fill it in using the Japan-issued paperwork. He was very reluctant and was obviously out of his comfort zone by a long way. One thing he was very dubious about was the rabies vaccination and insisted on giving Kita a jab to make him happier in completing the form.
This did not go down well with Kita at all. His "bedside manner" left a lot to be desired. If I could have left I would have done, but too late, she got jabbed.
The next incident was him trying to find her microchip. It didn't matter how many times I told him precisely where it was - it had migrated after implantation - he insisted on looking for it in the "European standard place". Naturally, Kita was exceedingly unhappy being on the table with this man who hadn't properly fussed and petted our princess diva dog and treated us all to the infamous Shiba scream.
At least he knew what sort of dog Kita was. Most people call her a "baby husky" or a "fox on a lead"! All owners of Shiba Inus get this.
It was all a bit too much for Kita and she decided to start her season in the surgery. At least it was on a cleanable floor. And thank goodness we now have a high fence around her. I'm a bit concerned how we'll fare over the next few weeks with all the dogs here off-leash. In Tokyo it was fine as dogs weren't allowed off leash at all and we never had a problem walking her while she was on heat.
Finally the paperwork was completed and we were in possession of a pet passport. And some tick treatment.
We paid up and left. On the way home we suddenly recalled he hadn't charged us for the rabies jab. Oops! We'll pay it next time we visit to get more supplies of the tick drops.
To end this post, here's a gratuitous photo of her as a cute puppy.