It’s amazing how long ten days is. The law change of January 1 meant that the quarantine for dogs coming to New Zealand went from nothing to ten days. Ten days, that’s nothing we thought. But now we are here and waiting for next Monday seems a very long time. We are amusing ourselves visiting the outlet shops in Otaki, heading to the beach – Waitarere to be precise, and generally soaking up the rural lifestyle but our girls aren’t with us.

It feels like the girls are doing time, porridge, a stretch, or whatever the term is for a prison sentence. Each morning we arrive and expect to find them sporting new tatoos or a really short haircut, or to be walking a little funny. We’ve contemplated a prison break or smuggling a file in inside a can of dog food as a way to shorten their stay. As you can tell our minds are wandering. We are really bored with this.

Having said that, the facilities are probably a lot better than the average prison (even an above average prison) and it is only ten days – well, only 3 to go now.