The Beast of Belgium

So here we are at the end of our Belgian holiday. We haven’t had that much internet access so I’ll probably write a retrospective once we get home, but this morning’s escapades were … well, something else.

This year, Dyson stayed at home being looked after/spoilt rotten by friends. He’s getting older and doesn’t travel all that well now, so we thought that was the best for him. Snowball, on the other hand, really pines if parted from us, and she travels reasonably well, so she came with us.

This morning was the pre-return visit to the vet.

A week ago, we contacted the vet recommended by our hosts, only to find he handled only agricultural animals. If there’s one thing Snowball is not, it’s agricultural. Then we went to a vet in the middle of town, only to find the practice was locked and treatment was by appointment only. So on Monday, I telephoned and made an appointment for 10.00 today. The timing is important because, under the Pets Passport scheme, Snowball is required to have her treatment 24 to 48 hours before the return journey – no more, no less.

So, as I said before, this morning was the pre-return visit to the vet. Snowball obviously knew something was up as, for the first time since we arrived, she hid under the bed in the furthest corner. Eventually, she came out and we had a bit of a battle of wills before she ended up in her box.

We arrived at the vet early at 9.45. The surgery was locked, and the only people there were the builders putting the finishing touches to the vet’s new swimming pool. A neighbour told us the vet had gone out an hour before with his bag. As we had an appointment, we waited.

By 10.20 there was no sign of the vet, and I was getting concerned because of the time requirements for the pre-entry treatments, so I decided to ‘phone round other vets to see if we could get a short-notice appointment.

This was when I discovered that, although I had confirmed with my mobile ‘phone company that I was registered for international roaming and had put extra credit onto my ‘phone, I was limited to emergency calls only. Luckily, Luc’s ‘phone worked, and the first vet we tried was able to give us an appointment at 11.00.

So forty minutes later we descended the stairs to the consulting room of a very pleasant young vet. Snowball came out of her box, charm and beauty personified (or should that be catified?), and I explained what was needed. It became obvious that this particular vet had never done the UK re-entry treatments before, but he was very happy for me to explain what was required. Thank God we had chosen to stay in a French-speaking part of Belgium! (Ik spraak geen Nederlands!).

The flea treatment went on the back of her neck with no problem; she didn't like it much, but she didn't play up at all. Then came the worm tablet.

I had forgotten quite how much Snowball hates tablets. In future, we must insist that this is done by vaccination instead.

The tablet went into her mouth, and was spat out.

The vet put the tablet into a delivery device and tried again. Snowball lashed out with her claws – something I’ve never seen her do before – started foaming at the mouth, and spat the tablet out again.

Another try by hand, Snowball attempted to bite the vet, more foaming at the mouth and the tablet was spat out and disappeared some distance across the floor.

Our pretty little Snowball had become the cat from hell. I’ve never, ever seen her like that before.

Another attempt with the delivery device was unsuccesful.

It was on the fifth attempt that the tablet went in and wasn’t seen to come out. I wouldn’t swear she swallowed it, but there was no evidence of it external to Snowball.

Then came the “fit to travel” examination – and a lot of growling.

Despite all this, the vet remained calm and polite, and even asked about our holiday – did we have family in the area? Come to think of it, perhaps he was trying to establish if he might ever have to deal with the Beast of Belgium again .....

Just a spoon full of chocolate ....

Just a few quick words from Belgium, where we are on holiday.

Yesterday we went food shopping and found ......

Chocolate All Bran!