When Terry first picked Rosie up from under the truck by the Taco stand in Santa Rosalia and asked "can I keep her?" I warned him that it would change our cruising life and make travel (especially off the boat) much more difficult. But I'm really as much of a softie and animal lover as he is, so Rosie joined the Cetus Crew and we've enjoyed every minute of having her with us.

But, it does complicate matters. Not so much really traveling around here in Mexico, but there's a lot more to think about when we travel elsewhere with her -- like when we travel to and from the US.

And now, with our travel plans taking us maybe up to Hawaii and then hopefully on to Australia it has really complicated matters. Both of those islands are rabies free and along with a few others (Japan and New Zealand for example) they want to stay that way, so they have very strict entry requirement for pets.

It used to be that for Hawaii the only choice was a 120 day quarantine at a veterinary facility. I'd heard things were better now and through research of Hawaii's agricultural website and a few calls to them to clarify how it works with a pet on a private boat I've learned a lot in the past week and think I'll be able to do all the necessary paperwork so that Rosie will be able to stay on the boat with us when we go to Hawaii.

She already had the required microchip (used in this case to make sure it's the right animal) and she's had her rabies shots. But what she needs is to have an FAVN blood test to prove she doesn't carry rabies. It would be very simple to do this in the States, but I, unfortunately, did not get it done when we were up there this summer ;-( I had looked into it a little thinking I would need it for Australia, but at the time I thought I read it was only good for 120 days -- which wouldn't have done us any good because we wouldn't be in Australia that soon. But what I've learned since is that it has to be done at least 120 days before entering the country in question -- but it is actually good for 36 months. Sure wish I would have known that last summer!

So, it can be done here in Mexico, but it is a bit more complicated because the only lab that does this test is at the University of Kansas. And to get the serum to Kansas quickly from Mexico is a bit more complicated because it has to go through customs. Luckily the Kansas State University website has detailed instructions and even the necessary custom forms to attach -- and helpful friendly people answering the phone to answer all my questions.

I've done the paperwork and gotten to DHL to get that all set up, talked to the vet (we even used him when we had our previous cat Cali down here in La Paz 11 or so years ago), secured ice packs and we were all set to go in this morning, do the blood draw, package the sample and ship it off. But...... the vet decided that the amount of blood he'd have to draw to get the required serum would be too difficult on an un-sedated cat. And, he couldn't sedate the cats (our friend Vicky is going through the same process and we took them in together) because they'd both eaten this morning -- and they can't sedate them unless they've been fasting for 12 hours.

Tomorrow we'll try try again and if all goes well and we get the serum on it's way, we will be on our way on Wednesday!

In the meantime we've got some football to watch and dinner to eat at the local Sport's Bar: Tailhunter's. So thanks to Rosie we get to enjoy yet another day in La Paz -- so we're not really complaining!