The Cat

The cat proved to be quite a challenge and took up a large portion of my move preparation.  My "mature" cat is a bit of an odd one.  When faced with the prospect of the journey she would need to take and the reality that I will not want to spend much time in my flat, I felt sure the best option was to find her a good home.  But it took her years to get used to me and in my observation, she seems more attached to me than to a place.  Of course I am attached to her also.  Then she went and tore her knee ligament.  How could I stick someone with a crazy and injured mature cat?

After much deliberation, I decided to bring her with me.  I had no idea what I was getting into.  We both survived.  She holds no grudge against me and each day seems to be getting more comfortable in her new place.  I can't even imagine what she must have thought as she was in the belly of a 747 jet taking off.

For those interested in the specifics, the rest of this post will describe the experience.  Unless you are planning to travel with a cat, I would skip the rest.  Don't torture yourself.

First, my vet was tremendous.  Unless you want to pay about $1000 more than the travel expenses to hire a pet transporter company, you have to do the following:

• Find the pet rules (live animal import) for the country you are entering.  
• Schedule all the visits to your vet within the correct timeframes for the USDA State vet to approve the animal is fit to travel and meets the rules for entering the country.
• Figure out transportation of the animal.

Traveling is really quite easy these days.  You can do everything online.  You get confirmation numbers and can check status online at your convenience.  Forget all of that when you are dealing with a live animal.

For the UK, I could not find anything that said I could take the animal on the plane with me.  As I understand it, animals entering the country need to be transported in the cargo hold of the plane.  I still think this may not be true if the animal is small enough.  But I decided it was just as well to have her in the cargo hold than with lots of people around.  

Here is what happened:

• I figured the best option was to take the 9 hour flight direct from Seattle to London.  It would then be about an hour flight to Glasgow.
• I called BA cargo a few times to ask questions on what I would need to do to book her on a flight.  I was planning to travel between Christmas and New Years.  The earliest you can book a spot in the cargo hold is two weeks before the flight.  
• The first person I spoke to warned me that Glasgow airport could not process animals on weekends.  They also notified me that she would have to overnight in London because they need to allow 6 hours for her to clear customs, which would mean she would miss the last flight out of London for Glasgow.  They will give you a price estimate but it won't be final until you drop off the animal since it is based on size and weight.  It turned out to be the same as the estimate.
• The second person told me that Heathrow does not process live animals during the holidays, usually shutting for about 2 weeks.  But he could not tell me the exact dates of closure.  I tried to find out but never found someone who could tell me.  Right.  Complete rework of my plans and now the plan is to leave in a little less than a month.
• Booked my flights with fingers crossed that I could get her on the same flight.
• Bought a crate based on specific requirements for the size of animal.  I received some good and some crazy advice from the pet store.  I put the crate out with her favourite blanket and she immediately started going in on her own accord.  Very happy that she looks comfortable and calm in the crate.
• Took her to the vet to get re-chipped (because her original chip would not be readable in the UK) and rabies shot (at least 21 days before entering the country).
• The vet was concerned about her muscle loss and weight gain.  She wants to do blood work but depending on the results, she may not be able to travel.  
• After 3 days, the blood work came back ok.  Plans are still on.
• Both BA cargo and my vet said no to sedation.  There is no way to know how the animal will react to medication when they are flying.  They are kept in a pressurized, temperature controlled section of the cargo.
• Called USDA live animal export office to schedule an appointment for her health certificate to be stamped within 10 days of travel date.  It was about a 2 week wait for an appointment so plan ahead.
• Called the BA cargo office exactly two weeks before my flight about five minutes after they opened.  There is no office to go to and there is no way to do this online.  Only by phone.  The woman said she would not be able to enter the whole reservation because the flight to Glasgow was the following day, which was more than 2 weeks away.  She will make a note and put it in the computer the next day.  So I had no reservation number.  The next step is that they would send me an email about 5 days prior to flying with all the information I needed, not any earlier.  
• A few days later, I realized it could be close to freezing when we arrive in London.  I decided it was better for both of us to get off the plane at Heathrow and drive to Glasgow.  She would not have to be reloaded onto a plane in the cold.  I phoned BA cargo back, changed the booking, and got my reservation number.  
• Called my vet to find out when I could pick up the health certificate and remaining paperwork needed.  I found out that she has to do another health exam since it has to be within 10 days of entering the country (we had been in 15 days earlier).  I madly shift my schedule to get her into the vet prior to the USDA appointment.
• Took the paperwork to the USDA export office.  The State vet reviewed and stamped the paperwork although he flagged that she was missing one of her shots.  After I re-read the material, it appeared to be only for dogs and a return visit to the USDA office confirmed that.  Phew.  Avoided another visit to the vet.
• Thursday afternoon prior to traveling on Tuesday, the email from BA cargo arrived.  Instructions are to fill out the enclosed customs form and fax it to the UK - to the company that will be handling her at the airport and processing her at customs.  Once they receive the fax, they will then fax BA cargo with the OK to FWD.  If they do not receive this OK to FWD, the cat will not be allowed to travel.  I send the fax Thursday night, assume it will be processed Friday, and I will hear back that everything is ready.  The cat is to be dropped off 4 hours before flight time.  I have an address where I am to drop her off - it is near the airport.  I have a map of where I am to pick her up at Heathrow but no specific address.
• Late Sunday night (early Monday morning), I called the UK company to check if they have received my fax since I have yet to hear anything.  The woman who picked up the phone call is sure they must have.  Is that a yes?
• So I emailed BA cargo to see if I could get a more concrete answer (They specifically said to contact via email).  They responded with a statement that does not answer my question.  The full email read "We will get the OK to FWD from London.  Thank you".  Do you promise?  I can't say I was stressed.  At this point, there was not much to do except just wish on a lucky star.
• Monday afternoon I get another email from BA cargo saying they have already received the confirmation.  Glad to know we are set to travel in 24 hours.
• Packed a bag of her cat food, litter, and feeder in one of my suitcases.
• Tuesday mid-morning I was notified our flight would be 2 hours late.  About an hour early, my cat wandered into her crate to clean herself and I decided it was best to shut the door then.  The setup was a water absorbent pad with her favourite blanket on top.  There needs to be a food dish secured with external access in case they need to feed the animal.  I also tried a drip water feeder but I would never do that again.  I think all the water leaked out of her water feeder during the flight.  I also zip tied the door to make sure it didn't accidentally come open.
• Drove 1.5 hours to the airport.  I got lost finding the place and needed to phone them once again - turns out it is called Menzies.  
• Dropped off my cat in a building that is a big freight office.  It took an hour for them to fill out a few pieces of paper and check that the crate was appropriate.  I learned they don't want a bag of food.  Their credit card machine is a carbon copy machine which I think anyone about 5 years younger than me has never seen.  I had to hand over my original copies of her USDA stamped health certificate.  I had two other copies with me but this made me incredibly nervous.  Then she was carried off to go through a scanner in the midst of freight boxes and hopefully transported to the airplane for our flight in three hours.  
• As I waited at the gate, I asked if a cat had been loaded into the plane and thankfully, they confirmed that one had.  I had this fear that I would be flying over the Atlantic and my cat would be stuck in a warehouse.
• Of course, we had turbulence this flight :(
• At Heathrow, I waited about 2 hours to clear customs myself.
• I picked up the car I had hired and pieced together a few maps to decipher where I was supposed to pick up my cat.
• I drove around in a few circles but eventually I got into a roundabout with a little sign saying Animal Reclamation Centre.  Bingo.
• I buzzed at the door for help.  A woman popped out, took my name, and went to check.  
• She came back and sat down with this serious look on her face.  She started to talk about my cat and I truly thought she was going to tell me the cat didn't make it.  Turns out everything was fine.  It would probably take about 20 minutes more in customs.  Many steps before this, I realized that when someone tells you a timeframe, just add an hour.  Then you won't get upset.
• They brought my cat out about an hour later.  No quarantine.  They seemed a bit worried as she was ornery.  She immediately started meowing and looked very feisty.  Frankly, I took that as a great sign.  
• From there, we drove about 7 hours to Glasgow with a few brief stops for me to grab some food and try to get her to drink water.  

This experience has made any of my past travels seem like a piece of cake.