Wednesday 28 September 2011

Good news... bad news...

Well this is official now. The process for our permanents visas is finally being processed following many delays.
In the end we have to go back to the UK to pick them up at the Brazil embassy. We were thinking to fly off soon… but then!
Last Saturday we took our adopted puppy to a vet to start his vaccinations. It’s only the 3rd vet he sees in 3 weeks! Anyhow, now we have an explanation for his increasing spams: Distemper (Called cinomose here).  We wait for the full blood test for more on that. The blood analysis also revealed he had a secondary infection following ticks bites. He is a mess.
We started him on a severe treatment, which includes a full range of drugs and vitamins and daily injections. Every day I have to drag him across most of Copacabana to the closest vet stocking it for a jab!  The injections leave him crippled in pain for several hours. I wanted to stop these but further research and talks to the vet convinced me it is the right thing to do. Today he had a day off and tomorrow I will try another painkiller with the injection. Hope it will be better.
The outlook is not great but our Scruffy is in good shape (with the exception of the spams) and we keep hope that he may pull through, although the vet told us the odds are against us on that one. He’s got a truly nasty virus!
So, with all that we cannot leave him; and also even if he starts getting better, without vaccinations, we cannot leave him in a Dog Hotel. However we have to pick up the Visas soon….
We will see what happens in the next few days. On Saturday we should know if he is still having Distemper or if he had it and showing only neurological damage (via the spams).
In 3 more weeks he will be done with most of the treatment. So the last solution for us would be to hire a”Dog-nanny”! Basically find someone to stay in our flat with the dog for the 10 days we will be away!
Oh well we still have few weeks to see how things go! We remain optimistic that Scruffy can make it!

I have finished my advance Portuguese class (since last Friday) so I can spend all my time looking after him.
Friday is Alistair's birthday, but with all that I have not been able to find time to get him a present! Planning to do this tomorrow after I come back from the vet.  Maybe I will have a look around Uruguainas tube station. There are lots of shops and a market selling anything at decent prices, or so I was told! SO I want to investigate that! I have to find a good copy of a Botafogo football shirt for Alistair!
I would also like to explore more the centre during the week now I am off school. But I cannot leave the dog alone for long at the moment.  

Meanwhile, our container with all our stuff is still in the UK. Once we get the permanent visas, it will be released and we can hope for it to arrive about 6 to 8 weeks later. So if we get to the UK by end of October, it means the container may turn up in Rio about end of the year, the worst possible time.
I can’t see how we could get our stuff released by custom until after Carnaval. My most optimistic date is for early March.  If lucky! Customs here like to take their time to release stuff.
Few amusing anecdotes on that!
Last year a big (huge, massive!) public owned company imported a piece a machinery (small, could fit easily in a suitcase!). It has been stuck with custom for at least 7 or 8 months now! Why they did not smuggle it in a suitcase, I ask! ;) – especially as they are desperate for it!
Another big piece of machinery was also imported by (again!) a big public owned company, 2 years ago, worth over 2m pounds. Again, it has been retained in Customs for ever. The last they heard about it, someone was trying to sell it on eBay. There was no bidder!
It is impressive to see civil servants working so hard against PUBLIC owned companies! Oh well not my country but I hear many of those tales and although I find them amusing, it does not bid well for the future development of Brazil. Either severe reform has to be made across the entire civil servants system or the country, with the help of computers, will end up in a complete stand still through dreadful red tape. I say no more….

1 comment:

  1. Hi Maria,

    You might remember me from Luiz's walking tour of downtown Rio, my name is Adam. Jim told me of your flat/dog-sitting issue and I actually finished doing just that last week! A doctor friend in NiterĂ³i took an 8-day vacation and hired me to stay in her apt. and feed/walk/give attention to her 12 yr. old poodle. It was my first time doing so but I really enjoyed it. She'd be happy to give a reference.

    At the same time, I need to be out of the apartment where I've been living within a week or two, so not sure on how this all would work but I thought I'd let you both know.

    Feel free to contact me at eyesonbrazil@gmail.com or on Facebook via Jim. Cheers!

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