August 15, 2015

White Dog buried her head in the pillow. "Here we go again!" she moaned. Many of you might recall our long standing struggles to get our city to recognize Puff's medical exemption for being spayed so that she can be properly licensed. Until that occured we could not get a multidog permit to make the number of dogs in the White Dog Army legal. Finally, we learned a few insights and took our case directly to the head vet of Animal Welfare. She approved Puff's exemption request from OUR Dr. Julia (stating that Puff was 16 years old, had heart and lung damage from a bout with Stage 3 HW, a collapsing trachea, and bronchial scarring...all of which meant that Puff could not be anesthetized for spay surgery). Finally we were in compliance.

THIS year we received no notice that our permt was due for renewal so I asked when we picked up Nilla from Animal Welfare to check on the renewal date. This was in early June. We were told the old permit expired in the middle of the month. The clerk told us she would send a message to permitting to start the process which included a home inspection. In July, I called again to remind them that we still had not had the necessary review so that we could renew the permit.

Finally at the beginning of August after yet another phone call from us we received a phone call from the officer in charge of permitting. Twice we set up dates for the inspection; they were canceled at the last minute. The third time, she actually arrived and we passed the inspection.

Only now the system had been revised. No longer could she issue the permit but we had to take her inspection form to one of the city facilities to pay for the individual dog licenses and the permit.

That is where we had just come from when White Dog greeted our return. Instantly she, and all of the WDA, could see that all was not right...and it wasn't.

As the very helpful clerk, who did not issue the multidog permit explained, "I cannot license Puff because she is not spayed." We explained that she had a medical exemption and that there was a letter in her file. "Oh, you need to bring in a new letter every year when you license her," we were told. "Why? We asked, "none of the circumstances have changed except that now she is a year older." "I wish I had a different answer," was the response. Without Puff's license we could not get a new multidog permit.

So Monday, we will call Dr. Julia and ask for a NEW letter and will deliver it not to the clerk but to the head vet at Animal Welfare in the hopes that we can get what should be a simple renewal taken care of.

The White Dog Army gathered around Puff. "Don't worry, sister" they nuzzled and consoled. "This is not your fault. Humans just like to make things as complicated as possible."