The Way of Slow Travel Articles, tips, and stories about Slow Travel
It’s a frantic period of late. Not only do I have to wrap up SCDA X360, but I also have to prepare my vacations and my move out of China at the end of October. I’m officially running out of days of the week.
Moving our stuff back to Canada isn’t too complicated. But there’s one important piece of our home that’s a bit complicated: our cat 西施 (“Xi Shi“). Getting her out of the country is a tad more complex than, say, shipping a box of books.
The procedure involves getting her a rabies shot, but not just from any vet in the country: we have to go to a Governmental vet hospital for it. Said place is at the back of a garage, in the center of a collection of hot pot restaurants. When we stepped through to the back of the clinic, the place felt like a mad scientist’s lair.
After her shots, 西施 gets a nice little surprise to keep track of her identity: the vet takes a big syringe, and implants a small microchip at the top of her shoulder blades. Yes, you read that right: 西施 has a microchip at her back. It feels like a small button. And the vet verified it worked by putting a scanner next to her.
And when he waved it over our cat, curled up in fright in the middle of a rundown vet clinic, the scanner beeped. We now had confirmation that our cat was not pure organic anymore, but was now part cat, part machine.
As my friend Hugo would say, ‘Too much technology!’
Congratulations on getting your cat “chipped” indeed she is now cyborg of sorts 🙂 and the cutest one at that.