Several readers have emailed to ask about my fall at Simon Oliver's house. Although there is still a sore spot there, I'm fine. I just had a big bump for several days. It gets smaller and less sensitive every day now and I'm sure will be gone within a week. I didn't do any damage to my back or organs or anything and I'm fine. It just hurt.
Another popular question today has been about Andrew's planner. He did get it back yesterday - which is an entirely new and funny story, but I'll let him post that on his site. Anyway, suffice to say that he got it back and everything was there, so it's ended well.
I'd like to take a second if I may and congratulate two teachers at my former school. Sharon Lee, a friend and former colleague, has achieved a huge honor and become a Nationally Board Certified English teacher! This is a HUGE deal and a LOT of work. My friend and mentor Nicole Benke applied while I was her intern and was certified also. Only the very best of the best teachers earn the honor and I know that both Sharon and Nicole are very worthy. I really look up to both of them as teachers and I'm proud to know them. In a related note, my replacement, Lynne Devin-Smith, has made it successfully through her first production with my former students. She's a seasoned theatre professional and educator, so it's nothing new for her to put on a show, but I'm thrilled to know the first show at BHS went well. Congratulations!
At this point I suppose I should address the third issue I've received a lot of email and personal comments about: the quarantine. Yes, the British government has finally seen fit to allow Americans and Canadians to take their animal companions with them when moving to the UK without requiring an expensive six-month quarantine. The concern has always been that the UK is a rabies-free island. Ironically, the week they finally changed the law, a man died from rabies (he got it from a bat) in the UK for the first time in 15 years.
This is a big deal for us, but not as great as it probably seems at first. Yes, it will save us a lot of money should we decide to bring our "kids" over here. It means we don't have to immediately have them placed at a vet's office 30 minutes away (by car) and pay for them to live there for 6 months and be cared for by people other than ourselves. In that sense, it is wonderful.
Unfortunately, the quarantine was only one stumbling block for us in getting them over here, and it wasn't the biggest one. First of all, without the quarantine there are still lots of hoops to jump through. All three cats must be microchipped, re-vaccinated for rabies (even if they already have been in most cases), and tested for rabies. Six months later they must be re-tested for rabies and examined including treatment for tapeworms and ticks. And of course there is lots of paperwork to be completed by you and your vet. Then you have like 48 hours to get them on an approved plane and out of North America to the UK. So the earliest they could move here would be over 6 months from now.
Secondly, you must fly them via cargo, which means they can not fly in the passenger cabin of a plane. This is probably the biggest hangup Andrew and I have with the process at this point. Flying, as we learned this summer (but already really suspected) is very, very hard on cats. I don't care if you sedate them or not, it's very hard on them. And that's when they are flying right next to you in the cabin. I can hardly even imagine putting my Romeo in the bottom hold of an airliner and then making him fly over the Atlantic. It's almost more than I can even think about and I don't think it's really the right thing to do to an animal when they have a safe, comfortable home to stay in now. Don't get me wrong, I want them here. And I want it badly. But I think it would be really selfish of me to put them on a cargo plane - or maybe even in the cabin of a plane - and bring them over to me. Even once they arrive there are hours worth of procedures through customs to go through. And then a bus or train ride to Oxford. It would be an almost 24-hour, non-stop, potentially terrifying ordeal for them. I don't know if I can do that to them.
A third problem, and a close second to the above in severity, is that of finding proper housing in Oxford. Flats here are very expensive. It costs the same to live here as it does to live in London. We live in college accommodation now, which is expensive (about $750 US per month for a tiny flat), but quite cheap by local standards. Obviously, animals are not allowed in college or university housing. Living out costs significantly more (at LEAST $1000 US per month, and that's for very meagre accommodation). In addition, almost all landlords are members of local landlord associations (for their protection and that of their renters) whose bylaws do not allow for animals in rented flats. So, basically, we'd have to live in private housing, which is very expensive, and would be very unlikely to find a landlord who would let us keep cats. Obviously, this is a big problem and probably the hardest one to fix.
So for right now our cats are safe where they are. We will begin looking again into private accommodation, but we did serious amounts of research before getting here and were told by several places that we simply wouldn't be able to find animal-friendly private housing inside the city. We would either have to buy a house (HA!) or rent a place outside of town (we don't have a car).
Anyway, I did feel obliged to mention the change in laws since I have gotten a lot of emails about it. It's good news, but, as I say, doesn't change much for us just yet. If I felt okay about putting them on a cargo plane, I'd be a lot happier.
Posted by Erin at November 26, 2002 09:04 PM