Highcroft Custom Made (Imp USA)
This magnificent puppy, call name Sydney.
By: Ch Highcroft LodeArk’s Legend ROM AOM
From: Ch Highcroft Wyndlair Azure ROM
I was so excited about the arrival of this stunning sable merle dog in Australia.
In what started as a well choreographed trip to Australia, Sydney’s ended up on the the trip from hell to Australia. He left Minnesota to fly to LA. There he was to meet up with Quinn who was leaving Dulles airport in Washington.
Both dogs were in the air on the way to LAX in transit to Perth, when the Twin Towers were hit in the terrorist attack. This situation resulted in both dogs being detained in LAX for ten days. By the time Sydney arrived in Perth quarantine, he was one very sick puppy.
It was a Friday, at the start of a long weekend. Luckily I had made the 200 kilometre drive to Byford quarantine, just to make sure the two dogs were OK. Quinn was just fine, but Sydney was lying outside on the concrete in the rain, covered in diahorrea and flies, his breathing sounded like an aquarium filter. The staff seemed quite unconcerned and said it was pretty normal. I did not agree !
I asked the staff if they had a vet on duty. This dog has “passed” an AQIS vet inspection on arrival, only a matter of hours earlier. Which by the way cost $200. They said no vet available, I would have to wait until Tuesday. They would get a vet after the long weekend!
Sydney would have certainly been dead by then.
I told the staff I would be back at 7am the next morning, with my partner who was a vet. That someone had better be there to let us in. They were.
My partner put Sydney on a drip with antibiotics and we treated him ourselves daily for infection and dehydration, until he was better. That dog would have certainly died, had we not taken matters into our own hands and treated the dog appropriately. Yet it cost $1500 to be in quarantine.
Once out of quarantine it became apparent that the trip and a month in quarantine, whilst gravely ill, had certainly taken its toll on Sydney. He was a very cautious, unsettled dog, not the outgoing pup who left the USA.
We wrote to Canberra and put in an official complaint about the treatment offered to this dog in quarantine. It was brushed aside and they basically said it never happened!
It can only be worse now there are only two quarantine stations in the whole country and now 10 days not 30 days but the charge is of course the same. No visitors or your dog has to stay longer.
Mmm, not very transparent or satisfactory is it ?
I showed him a few times, Sydney was Reserve Challenge to Grd Ch Barcoo Chief Among Braves at The Western Classic in 2002. He took a few CC’s and more Reserve CC’s, but I never persevered with him, he was not enjoying the experience at all. I felt he had been through enough already.
I cut my loses for Sydney’s sake, sterilised and pet homed him with my friend Isla Potter in Kalamunda. Sydney had a very happy life with Isla and died suddenly of a what was a suspected brain embolism.
