Why don't you just get a dog in America?

I get this question in one form or another from a lot of people back home, maybe not even about getting another dog, just why in general.

The life of a village dog is not pleasant but some are better at it than others.  Some village dogs honestly don’t do well indoors.  I don’t know if it’s due to poor training from the PCVs or genetics, probably both. They haven’t had any breeding, nothing to promote highly trainable dogs.  Thank about how many different breeds we have and how diverse they are, everything they were bred to do. There was an issue of National Geographic that had an article about dogs and all the different varieties. The best part was the pull out spread with dozens of different breeds. I showed it to my neighbors, first words?  “ah, this one (the French Bulldog) is very ferocious.” Me- “that one is maybe this big” Their eyes got big.  They don’t understand how a dog can be anything more than something that lives on the outskirts of life.

 And I’ve seen that, some dogs here are much much better in the village.  And you don’t understand that until you see it. They are pretty wild, some of them. My dog however.  My neighbors really like her a lot and I know they want to have her, they’ve said it many times. Actually a lot of people have, someone will see her and say how she looks very good, very fat, and ask if they can have her or buy her. There is no acknowledgement that her looking so nice is because I feed her or that she is so friendly because I don’t treat her badly.

She is special, she kept me sane for two years, and has been a big part of my life. I could try and find another PCV who loves dogs but you know what, I love dogs.  I love my dog and I don’t want to give up my dog.  I don’t want her to go from being fed regularly to scrounging for leftovers, fighting among the other dogs and having multiple litters of puppies, each more draining than the last. 

I don’t want that and I have the power to change it, apathy is a pretty poor reason to just stand aside and do nothing.  The magic number for a puppy here seems to be 8. If they can make it out of 8 weeks that means the mother had enough food to feed them and get them to weaning.  The next big one, and maybe the hardest is 8 months.  They don’t have mom anymore, they have gone to someone else’s house and are on their own.  When I say ‘on their own’ I really mean it.  Very few people leave water out for their animals, dogs, cats, chickens, or goats, they are expected to survive on their own. Food is precious, a puppy might get some left over nsima (boiled corn flour) or a bone here and there.  I see a lot of pups growing very slowly or with bowed legs because they just don’t get enough protein.  This is also the age range where they have to contend with most diseases, other dogs spread distemper, rabies and parvo all over the place, puppies don’t have high survival rates of these diseases.  If they can get through 8 months then they usually survive to adulthood.

Tiger, Dora’s mother has had probably 15 puppies since I came here, I know of two that are still alive, maybe 3. 

Dora got lucky, she found me, I took her in and helped get her over her bout with distemper, it would have killed her.  Call is bring a softie, messing with natural selection, whatever. I stepped in and we have each other now and I’m not leaving her behind.  

International Travel with a Dog

It seems like every time I mention that I’m bringing my dog back to America the first thing I hear is “But it costs thousands of dollars and you have to go through quarantine!” And you know what, none of those people have actually shipped a dog from one country to another.  I’ve hear it called the Bike Shed phenomenon, tell someone you are building a nuclear reactor and no one will give you any advice because it seems so big and massive that why would you give any input? But if you tell someone you’re building a bike shed, everyone will come at you with advice from how to build the roof to what color it should be because it seems like it is within their scope.  Still haven’t done it, but sure why not, I know all about it, I heard someone talk about it once.

Same thing, never shipped so much as a cockatiel but they know how to get a dog from Malawi to America.  But I digress.

So far prepping to leave has consisted of getting things in order. Probably the biggest thing to line up is the kennel.  You have to have a crate to ship the dog in and you have to meet certain requirements, it can’t be so small that they can’t turn around and comfortably lie down in. You also have to include a food and water dish that attach to the door.  You also need some kind of absorbent bedding to go in the bottom, they recommend shredded newspaper.  On the outside of the kennel you need to have Live Animal stickers and an owner information tag. The kennel is a big part.

I was going to have a typical plastic crate brought up from South Africa when some friends of mine went down but that fell through, on to plan B.  Plan B consists of having a wooden kennel made here in Malawi. So far that one seems to be working out ok, there is a carpenter in Lilongwe who I placed an order with and hopefully in the next few weeks it will be finished and then I can get it home to start getting Dora used to it. As for the dishes, and other stuff I got kinda lucky, I was going to try and pull all that together here but my sitemate is going home for a couple weeks and said he’d bring some things back.  So I ordered a basic pet airline kit from this website http://www.dryfur.tv/basic-pet-airline-kit-large I also ordered a couple of super absorbant liners for the bottom of the kennel http://www.dryfur.tv/dryfur-pet-carrier-inserts-2-pks/ I’m really happy I was able to get these and expect a review in the future on how they all work out, especially the kennel liners.

So that brings us to vaccinations.  Dora had a trip to Lilongwe back in November  to get her rabies vaccine along with Distemper and Parvo Virus.  My understanding is that the only one you need to have to get into the States is rabies.  I have seen too many dogs die from parvo and distemper to not get the vaccine.  If your dog gets seriously sick there is really nothing you can do if you don’t live close to one of the major cities where the good vets are. The rabies vaccine she got was Rabisin and according to the manufacturer they need a booster 4 weeks to 6 months after the initial immunization. Fortunately the vet here in my Nkhotakota actually has Rabisin so before March she is getting her final booster, it needs to be given at least 30 days prior to leaving.  I don’t fly out until April 15^th so that gives me about a month to get it done. Plenty of time. There is no quarantine for dogs coming out of Malawi, as long as they’re declared healthy and have their vaccinations there really isn’t anything they could bring with them.  

Now onto the actual flight which isn’t as complicated as you might think. As soon as I bought my ticket home I got a hold of the airlines and told them that I’m traveling with a dog, United was really simple to deal with, they have a form you fill out on line and there you go, easy peasy.  Ethiopean Airlines is a bit more complicated.  I have to go to the office in Lilongwe to let them know there is a dog traveling with me and to give them the measurements of the crate and pay for it, this however I have to do closer to when I leave.

So in terms of cold hard cash, just how much does it cost to bring a dog to America? Well right now I can’t give you a solid number, obviously because I’m not back yet but so far for the vaccines it has been about $20 and having the crate made is roughly $130.  Costs to come are the paperwork from the Department of Agriculture, a final vet check up and the price for shipping on two separate airlines.

We’re in the last 8 weeks here people, it’s crunch time. I hope to be keeping up with the blog better as we go through leaving and expect a grand total when I’m done.  Thousands? No, hundreds? Yeah.