Bella got her replacement passport today!

Phew! That's a relief. Lost it before she ever used it!

The Vet was SO good. He said the only thing he didn't have were the batch numbers from the rabies vaccine bottles (they peel 'em off and stick 'em in the passport).

But that he would get some for me - he said he is going to contact the vaccine suppliers to get the right batch numbers for Feb last year just to be on the safe side.

Now we just have to FATHOM the latest version of the EU pet import stuff where they say the Rabies jab should not have been more than 365 days before travel. The boosters are only given every TWO years - Bella's isn't due until next February - but that means it will have been more than 365 days since the last one when we travel in July.

She had her annual jabs today and the worming pill too. She was looking suitably sorry for herself.

I travelled to the UK at the end of January this year with my 2 dogs and cat.

I think I'm correct in saying the EU regulations work on an annual, not a 2 or 3 yearly Rabies vaccination because in some EU countries such as Hungary where I live it's compulsory to have dogs and cats vaccinated every year.

Here, every village has a list of owners and pets and once a year we're notified a week in advance of the date,time, and place ..... in our case the village green!

Even though mine weren't due for their jabs until March of this year I decided to have them vaccinated again before we left because we weren't returning to Hungary until the end of April.

Another very important thing to note is that pets cannot travel until 21 days after they have received their Rabies jab.

Hope that helps.

Is the 21 day rule new then? When we got Milly's pp a couple of years ago we had to wait 6 months before we could leave UK AND bring her back in without quarantine.

When we get a passport for the new dog, does that mean we can take him over to France AND bring him back if the passport has been in force at least three weeks before we go?

Millysmum .... The new EU regulation came into force on January 1st 2012 which was very lucky for me as I'd broken my leg the month before and my son who'd come over to look after me decided we'd all be better off going back to the UK whilst I recuperated!

The new regulation states :

The dog/cat/ferret has be be microchipped before being given the Rabies vaccination.

21 days has then has to elapse after receiving the Rabies vaccination before said animal(s) is allowed to enter another EU country.

Tick/deworming treatment must be given not less than 24 hours or more than 5 days before entering another EU country.

We travelled by car and came through the Eurotunnel. At Calais we had to go to a special area and present the dogs and cat to UK Border Control where they were scanned to confirm they had been microchipped and have their passports checked to confirm they'd been vaccinated.

When travelled back from Dover to Calais by ferry however, at the French Border Control, we only had to show our own passports but not the dogs or cat's which struck me a rather odd.