For the Birds(Bird).....Literally

OK, so half of this afternoon has been on the phone with the USDA/GOV. Why, because we have a bird, or better yet, the Bookworm has a pet parakeet. We were told that oh, it's a domestic bird and all he needs is a health certificate.........WRONG!!!

Big desicions to be made on the part of Jack(the parakeet) are in the near, very near future!

So Jack already has a reservation to fly with us, and now he has to have a reservation with the USDA! When we fly into JFK, he has to be wisked away to be quarantined for 30 days.....yes....30 days in New York and JFK isn't even our final destination! Urgggg

So, all of the people that I talked to at the USDA were very very helpful today. First we have to fill out a permit, then reserve him for a quarintine cage, all of this for a 10 euro parakeet that we got 5 years ago in Germany, not thinking that the bird would still be living! Go figure!

So lets see, the one permit is $93.00 and the quarantine is $325.50. Not to mention, how the heck do we get him back after 30 days! Fly to get him, or I learned that we can hire a bird broker to send him to us.(I didn't even know that these existed) So, if he goes with us fun time we get off of the plane, I can see it like this..........give us the bird, step away from the bird! Only to think, gee, how silly because he was just on a plane for say, ummmm, 10 hours! THEN he has to be quarantined...funny. But I started thinking,what if we send him ahead of us....that could work.....then we could just pick him up when we get there, he could be literally waiting on us! I would have to figure out how to get him there, and hire a "bird broker".

Oh the fun of moving........I have already talked about the possibilities with the Bookworm, taking him and how much it is going to cost, taking him and then the bird not passing his quarantine test and then we could have him, or him dying in quarantine, or just letting him go and letting him be free, or taking him to the local zoo here in Nove' to be with the other parakeets there. The response I got was tears, it broke my heart to see him crying.

It's not that we can't afford to bring the bird, it's just that I would hate for something to happen to this bird in transit.............around $500.00 later!