Settling in RomaniaWe arrived in August of this year minus our beloved dog Lulu who was forced to spend an extended holiday in Almaty, Kazakhstan due to the plethora of red tape to be overcome regarding her pet passport.
Here is our magnificent beast... she's some kind of maltese/shitzu cross of which the exact percentages I am unsure of.
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I flew back to Almaty, collected Lulu, bribed various government officials and procured a Kazakh pet passport.
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Throughout the preceding months I had heard and read numerous horror stories from people trying to get non EU animals into Europe. It's all about the threat of rabies apparently. All animals need to be micro-chipped and scanned at specified airports and any minor problems such as the airport's scanner was broken means you were sent back on your way.
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Moving from a dark green to a light green was seemingly impossible without a ton of paperwork or a spell in quarantine. Due the the Kazakh proclivity to accept Tenge for dodgy paperwork their official stuff had zero credibility so I was worried as I disembarked clutching a pet carrier containing a nervous Lulu at Henri Coanda Airport in Bucharest.
I had been advised to seek out the veterinary office which I assumed would resemble this.....
I arrive at human passport control and it went like this
Me: Hello (hands over human passport and tries to look as little like a Cali cartel member as possible. Seriously what facial expression do people go for when greeting passport control? Smiling seems to invite suspicion as a double bluff)
Lady officer: Hello
Me: I also have my dog here
Officer: Can I see the pet passport
Me: (Hands over Lulu's passport)
Officer: (leans over counter whilst looking at the optional photo in the passport that I had glued in myself) Oh she's so cute (hands back passport) Have a pleasant stay in Romania
Me: ....................... (quietly walks through, collects my bag and drives home)
That was it, she looked at a photo I had DIY'd in myself. No micro chip scan, no rabies injection certificate scrutiny, no brown envelopes passed discreetly under the table (How I miss Kazakhstan), absolutely nothing.
So that's the story of Lulu and also the laxity of EU borders. I quickly swapped her Kazakh passport for an official EU one and now she is free to travel anywhere in the world.
Should we be worried at the lack of stringent borders in the EU? Probably, but I had my dog back and I didn't care at all.
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