Day 27 - we paid the fine, and the terms changed three days later

Twenty-seven days ago Orion and Nova walked into the KLIA Animal Quarantine Station with every document in order. Today they are still inside, and we still do not have a date.

We are keeping a daily record from here. Not because we want to write it, but because every time we have relied on something being said rather than written, it has changed.

What we were told on 7 August

A compound of MYR 2,000 was payable. Once paid, release would follow one week later. And - stated plainly, because we asked directly - no repeat titre test would be required.

We paid the same day. The remittance reference is R39656871355. We did not negotiate, we did not delay, we did not ask for a discount. The sum was demanded and the sum was sent within hours.

What we were told on 10 August

That a repeat rabies titre test is required after all.

The person who put the question to MAQIS wrote it down as it happened:

"When I ask MAQIS they said no need. Now they need."

We are not paraphrasing. That is the sentence, in writing, from the person who asked.

The question nobody will answer

We accept the test. We have never disputed it. Our question is narrower than that, and it is the only thing standing between our cats and a release date:

Who draws the blood, and on what day?

Orion and Nova are inside a government quarantine station. We see them on supervised visits. We cannot take a blood sample from animals we are not permitted to handle. Only the station can.

A rabies antibody test at an approved laboratory takes five to ten business days. It is a bounded process with a knowable end. It only becomes indefinite if nobody starts it.

As of today, no collection date has been given, no laboratory has been named, and no result date exists - because, as far as we can tell, no sample has been taken.

Where this stands

We have asked, in writing, for seven things: a release date, a collection date, the official receipt for the MYR 2,000, the written compound notice naming the offence, the date the regulation came into force, an explanation of the reversal, and a veterinary report on both animals.

We have received none of them.

Nova has lost weight. She has developed a sniffle. We saw it ourselves on 6 August.

We are not asking for an exemption. We are asking for a decision.