“A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.”  Dutch Proverb

Since I’ve never been burdened with a bushel (or any other measurement) of brains, I use my patience often.

As you’ve heard me lament many times already, our furniture and belongings have not yet arrived.  However, our patience has supposedly paid off.

They tell us our furniture has made it to Ajijic.  They tell us this, though I have no proof except for two phone calls David has had with our movers over the course of the last few hours.

We received a message, after an email inquiry I made yesterday, that our belongings had arrived and we needed to contact the movers for delivery.  David called immediately and was asked, when would he like to take delivery?  His response, how about now was greeted with, how about Monday.

Okay, we can make it through one more weekend.  I’m wondering if it would be possible to go and visit our stuff?  You know maybe pull out a few hundred things we are dying to get our hands on?  Perhaps, gaze upon a few items that hold special meaning – like, maybe, our toaster.   I guess that isn’t going to happen as they are still in their crates.

Life is full of ups and downs, a few steps forward and ten steps back.  For now, we march as one into the weekend knowing – though we have sustained yet another slow leak in our air mattress, our time is near its end and we will simply bound joyously into four more days of adventures in sleeping.

Pass the bottle of sleeping pills; I think I’m ready for a quick nap before the bed hits the floor!

(The pictures accompanying this post are a view of our blow up mattress and of Lumpel-Still-Skin – our cat – sequestered within said blow up mattress.)

The Blow UP

Lumpel Still Skin

Fortunately, Les noticed him on the roof before he could make his pitch for liability insurance, presumably by falling off of it.

OK–you don’t need to tell me this isn’t a gecko. I can tell the difference between ordinary lizards and geckos. Geckos wear glasses.

A local insurance agent

Many of you have read our posts about Gilbert, our fabulous Cockatiel. We’re going to be really sad leaving him behind, he’s such a funny and fascinating little bird. Read Les’ post ‘You cannot fly like an Eagle with the wings of a Wren.’

Gilbert entrances the local kittens

But we’re not the only ones who are attracted, fascinated, and ultimately entranced by him.

Google has now declared that Les and I are the official experts on the subjec t of importing birds into Mexico! And Google is never wrong. We really want to find a way to bring our favorite Cockatiel, Gilbert, with us.

The Great Gilbert, ruler of all he sees

With many emails, phone calls (I’m waiting  to see my bill this month), and faxes, I finally received this authoritative letter from someone at Senasica – The Department of the Mexican government that handles such things as importing animals.

Here goes, all you need to know:

According to laws and regulations in animal health subject, for import purposes in Mexico only dogs and cats are considered as pet.

If you bring another species as a pet like reptile, songbird, ornament bird, ferret, turtle, rabbits, etc. You have to comply with special requirements, established in the Animal Health Requirements Sheet.

In your case, according with the special requirements, established in the Animal Health Requirements Sheet (http://148.245.191.4/zooweb/Funcion.aspx), If you want to trade songbird. you have to submit the following documents:

To find the requirements you have to look for the following way in the web page (Especie-avícola; Función zootécnica-canoras y de ornato (mascotas); País de origen- Estados Unidos de América; País de procedencia- Estados Unidos de América)

ü First, you have to ask for the original Requirements Sheet, this Requirements Sheet has to contain your name and the address where you will be in Mexico; to get this Sheet, you have to contact with Importation Department in General Office Animal Health. In this Department, you will receive the instructions to get it.

E-mail address and Phone numbers to contact Importation Department are the following:
marcos.molina@senasica.gob.mx and rocio.campuzano@senasica.gob.mx

(55) 59051071; (55) 59051072 and (55) 59051077

ü Certificated health, which must be issued by a Veterinarian belonging to Agricultural Ministry of the origin country. This certificated has to indicate:

1) Songbird was in quarantine in official control for minimum 30 days, and it is healthy and free from infectious diseases and ecto-parasites.

2) In origin region weren’t cases of the following diseases (avian mycoplasmosis, Infectious Bursal Disease (Gumboro), marek, psittacosis, avian encephalomyelitis) for minimum 60 days before the trade.

3) Songbird must come from poultry farm, under monitoring system (in 35 songbirds),this monitoring must start by 18 weeks after birds had born, it must employ viral isolation and identifications of velogenic strains through brain pathogenicity rate (in 1 day chicks), those identifications were applied every  3 or 4 months with negative results. At least, must have been 10 samples from trachea, lung or brain spleen, and the rest (25) could have been cotton swabs from trachea or cloacae; subsequent samplings could have been 35 cotton swabs from trachea or cloacae or songbird has to come from a country free of velogenic strain Newcastle (NOM-013-ZOO-1994).

4) Songbird must come from a Country, state, region, poultry farm or incubator plant; that is free of salmonella (Salmonella pullorum y S. gallinarum) (NOM-005-ZOO-1993)

5) Songbird come from a poultry farm where 59 chicks were analyzed to serologic sampling, for maximum 21 days before the trade, by mean of ELISA test or agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID) with negative results to Avian Influenza from official lab recognized by Agricultural Ministry from origin country and during these period songbirds were in quarantine in origin region, if the trade were lower than 59 birds, all birds have to be analyzed (NOM-044-ZOO-1995).

6) Bird had to be tested individually in a period for minimum 30 days before trade by mean of serologic samplings or cotton swabs from cloacae with negative results on avian influenza through agar gel immunodiffusion test or viral isolation in a lab recognized by Agricultural Ministry from origin country and during these period songbirds were in quarantine in origin region.

7) This bird has to be in free trading in USA.

Containers and vehicles where birds are transported must have been washing and disinfected before the trade.

9) Bird moving has to be direct from poultry farm to entry inspection entry in Mexico.

10) Containers and vehicles where birds are transported has to have hoops until its arrive to Mexico.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

11) When the birds arrives to Mexico, they will be transported in vehicles or containers with hoops, and  they will be in quarantine for 30 days in facilities recognized by SAGARPA in the destination State, under veterinarian supervision recognized by SAGARPA Delegation. Hoops has to be removed by official staff from SAGARPA; in case of bird would get sick or die, it will be analyzed to determine causes. The expenses derived from the test are in charge of the owner.

12) Feed or material used as bed aren’t allowed.

13) Documents and bird have to fit with established regulations in section 24, 32 and 89, articule I. II. III and IV of Animal Healthy Federal Act.

Finally, when you fit all the requirements, you have to pay for Importation Certificated, it costs $1,620.00 MXN

REGARDS

If you need further information, please contact with the attention module from the General Office Animal Health located in:

Calle San Lorenzo No. 1151, Planta Baja
Col. Santa Cruz Atoyac, Del. Benito Juárez
CP. 03310, México, DF.
From Monday to Friday on 09:00 – 13:00 hrs.

Phone number:
(55) 59051071; (55) 59051072 and (55) 59051077

ATTE:

Subdirección de Aeropuertos

Dirección de Inspección en Puertos y Aeropuertos

DGIF-SENASICA-SAGARPA

Tel: 59051000 exts: 51135, 51136, 51133, 51016

Tel-fax: 59051080 ext:51135

C. electrónicos: miguel.ramirez@senasica.gob.mx; alma.espinosa@senasica.gob.mx;

flor.garcia@senasica.gob.mx; dgif-cesar@senasica.gob.mx;

dgif-angeles@senasica.gob.mx; dgif-martin@senasica.gob.mx

Quote by William Henry Hudson.

This morning I went online and typed the following query into Google, “How can I bring my cockatiel into Mexico?”

Gilbert & Mandy

Google, being Google, immediately responded with a page full of information about traveling with a cockatiel. Low and behold and to my great surprise the only URL that turned up (mid-way down the page) that even dealt with someone attempting to bring a bird into Mexico was www.boomerstomexico.com ! Too funny!!!

Many of you have written about the inability to bring animals, other than cats and dogs, into Mexico. We’ve heard stories of birds being confiscated on the border never to be seen again conjuring up terrible thoughts of just exactly what happened to them.

Now, admittedly, our Gilbert is not the most social of birds. Since we bought him his 3-way mirror he seems quite content to spend his entire time on top of his palatial cage – that is where we installed the mirror on a ladder that “rainbows” the cage. He spends hours upon hours talking to himself, whistling the one song he knows (Row, Row, Row Your Boat – only the first few stanzas), doing his Gilbert dance, and bellowing at the top of his lungs.

He is an entertaining bird in the sense that he has no navigational skills what-so-ever. His taking flight, which, thank goodness, does not happen too often, sounds like this huge eagle is flapping its wings frantically to gain altitude and, as he “stumbles” through the air (the only way I can describe it ), the realization sets in…he can’t stop without running into something…a window, door, a table, a picture – well you get my drift. After taking a direct hit, he tumbles like a hockey puck to the floor. Immediately he gains his footing and stretching his entire body to a cool 7 inches or so high (from tail feather to head plumage) he saunters across the floor strutting as if to say “I meant to do that”, with our cat Mandy in tow.

How could we possibly leave this lively and delightful little fellow behind?! Some of you have been kind enough to respond to our email queries in regard to bringing Gilbert in and we do appreciate those responses. However, is there anyone out there who was successful in bringing their bird(s) into Mexico? Surely there is someone! We wait in desperate anticipation.

We’ve got this uppity cockatiel see. Gilbert. Once of Gilbert and Sullivan. But I woke up early one morning to find Sullivan dead at the bottle of the cage. Gilbert was whistling with a michevious grin on his face. I think he wanted to be a solo act.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to find out what we need to do to bring a cockatiel into Mexico. I talked to someon in Seneseca, and they he led me to a page where there was a drop-down list of different species. He said I should use the instructions for Canarios Mascatos. ‘Make sure you use Mascotos’, the said.

Well, I couldn’t find any canarios at all. sure, birds of prey, wild birds, armadillos, antelope, emu, giraffes, your occasional tapir – but nothing that fit a pet bird! Anyone know what the rules are for this?

Judy bought Gilbert a mirror a few days ago. I’d been told never to give a cockatiel a mirror, and now I know why. He’s discovered his new BFF in this 3-sided mirror!

I don’t know why the sound doesn’t work – but imagine you hear some loud, off-key, shrill, singing.