[Jo_b]

I am so nervous about shipping our two cats over to Welly in November. :no They are rescue mogs and one in particular is quite nervous - I just don't want them to regress five years of gentle coaxing and confidence building in a 48 hour period!

Anyone out there who has sent their cats out got any stories about how it went (good or bad? There is still time to pull out!)

Thanks.

[Moorf]

Hi Jo

We've always had cats back in the UK, and we toyed with the idea of bringing our last remaining puss with us but decided against it, albeit heartbreaking.

A few factors I considered...

- stress of journey for my cat, I knew his nature and he'd have hated me and the journey and the change of climate/environment

- ease of finding rentals. We had enough to deal with regarding where we lived without having to find a rental with a cat. Not only that we might have had to move around for jobs and from rental to rental - again, more stress for cat AND for us as rental properties limited or expenses of cleaning during handover etc.

Grumps now lives with our very good friends in the UK - we get regular updates and piccies by emaili and he's happy as Larry and so are we - it was a good compromise, not lightly made, but ultimately made for Grumps' benefit not ours.

Of course I'm not suggesting either way is better - just that for us and for Grumps' nature it was the best scenario.

I have friends in Chch who bought their cat with no problems at all. I think dogs, overall, cope better with the journey, I'd have probably have bought a dog with me had we had one. We've got one now!

Moorf

[diforsyth]

After some long, hard, heartrenching chats we decided to leave our two rescue cats, that we had from kittens, behind primaraly because: -

1. possible stress during trip
2. finding a rental home that a) took cats & b) suited them because they were used to unlimited access to fields etc. with no busy roads
3. a visiting NZ vet in Jersey once mentioned that "if they lived in NZ, their pink noses & ears would need sunscreeen applied daily" - this was before we even considered applying for Residence
4. bringing them to NZ would have been for us more than them - cats are very adaptable
5. we weren't moving to NZ to improve our lifestyle through property & location etc., we wanted to explore NZ at weekends and hence would have to leave them at home.

I should point out that money was never an object if we wanted to move them even though it was over £3,000.

Giving them away was very difficult, no doubt about that, and then discovering that they had ran away from their new home caused even more anguish. It has been 3 months now and still no one has spotted them or made anyone aware they have been found. Whilst it angers me that there were flaws in the re-homing process, I do keep thinking to myself "What if they ran away in NZ?". At least in Jersey they are close to their own hunting ground and know how to deal with local situations.

This post is not much help to you with your current thoughts but it does give the alternative view & rationale.

I can add that I do know of, and have petted here in NZ, a cat & dog which relocated successfully from Jersey by a Kiwi vet.

Best of luck.

[Ana&Steve]

Our friends just moved to Auckland from the states, and their cat is in quarantine there. Unfortunately, they found out AFTER they got there that there is a quarantine facility closer to their house; the one kitty is in is 45 min away. They have visited them twice in the 5 days theyv'e been there, though! :) One of the vets recommended they not visit as it might confuse the cat, but my friends feel that while kitty misses them, he's not a stresser suffering from separation anxiety, and will try to visit him when they can.
I don't know if that helps, but I wanted to throw it out there just in case!

Ana

/Cat lover
//going through same internal struggle

[Richnat]

Hi Jo B,

Once again the forum provides timely threads on just the things Nat and I have been thinking about (spooky!). Unfortunately we cannot give any concrete info on the actual NZ process but we plan to bring our two rescue moggies with us when we come over as well.

We did once export a cat from Australia to Germany and, due to circumstances at the time, he sat in qurantine for 30 days. (We moved quite unexpectedly and the timing of his rabies jabs was all stuffed up). When he got out we had an extremely affectionate puddy for a few days...and then we went out to discover his new territory and conquer it. Aussie bushcat versus softie local cats - it was a non-contest ;)

We may be mental but our cats are part of the family and we couldn't imagine leaving them behind - so you're not the only one worrying about bringing pets over :)

Cheers

Rich and Nat

[Jo_b]

...I have put up hurdles all along - if they have to go into quarantine then I won't send them (they don't as we are coming from the UK); if the vet says it's risky I won't send them (he said "yeah fine, they'll adapt").

They are a part of our family, but I also feel that having 'adopted' them we have a duty of care to keep looking after them (though if we had a family member who was in the position to take them in I'd probably think about leaving them)

I spoke to one person on email who said her cat had hidden under the bed for a couple of days on arrival, but after that showed no ill effects. That's what I'm hoping for!

[neilw71]

Hi there,

We brought our 2 lads across with Golden Arrow 18 months ago. We were nervous, but knew that there are cats moving around the world everyday and they are nearly all fine.

Anyway - both were absolutely fine when we picked them up from Akl airport at the crack of dawn on that Saturday. They were so glad to see us - and us them :) We got them back to the rental and they settled in really quickly, despite it being rental furniture, so was strange to them.

Since then they have settled in well to NZ life and are loving it nearly as much as we are :)

Neil

[Nicola]

we also brought our cats with no problems. We solved the rental house problem by leaving them with Nicola's parents after arranging the travel etc.They then came over about a month after us once we had a cat friendly rental sorted.( Actually we tried to foster them off with the inlaws but they said NO so we just went for it and brought them. about 3000GBP I think )

Both were fine and Nicola picked them up at Napier airport from a confused looking man - wondering if the two yowling boxes he had been left with were freight or passengers I think.

Both cats were a year old, rescue cats, we got them as kittens.

As regards quarantine, we were told just to keep them indoors in our own home for three weeks. They did escape outside after a week but nobody has checked up or anything.

personally I think bringing them along helps you settle better, especially if you have children.

peter

[Debbie P.]

We're in the same dilemma with our elderly nervous ex-rescue boy. It's very hard to decide. But I think there was another topic on this and I'm sure someone said they tend to sleep through the journey.

Ours has a tendency to be travel sick though, and I don't fancy the thought of him stuck in a dirty cage throughout the journey.

[Nienke]

We brought our 10 year old cat from Holland to Auckland. We never contemplated leaving him behind but I was worried sick if he would be alright during flight and that horrible 30 days quarantine.
He was completely stressed out because of the flight, and he hated quarantine, which made me really feel guilty about bringing him. But now he's completely fine and absolutely loving his new life here in Titirangi!

[Croft]

We've got a great cat, inherited her when she was 2 from our parents in law when they emigrated to Spain. We are planning on taking her as she has never had a problem settling in a new house - she was even OK when travelling in the car on the last move which was a revelation.

Our concern is her age - she is now 13 and will be 15 by the time we move. Do we spend £1500 on an elderly cat?

[Blakie]

Mlle. Little Puss flew from Charles de Gaulle airport via Singapore last week. It was a longer flight by 13 hours than if flying from the UK. She arrived in ChCh in good state and was quite happy according to Canterbury Quarantine Services who collected her from ChCh airport.

Little Puss is now doing her 30 days quarantine at Canterbury Quarantine Services and by the sounds of it she is charming the pants off them all there. She is a little grey tortoiseshell, a little timid but very affectionate - hope we get her back!!

If you're bringing your cats from the UK they wont have to do the 30 days confinement - ours was only because MAF NZ consider France as a rabies controlled country.

It was very sad saying goodbye to her at the airport and we worried until we knew she had arrived safely but my suggestion would be if your animals are in good health then it is worth doing it.

Good luck

[Ana&Steve]

We've got a great cat, inherited her when she was 2 from our parents in law when they emigrated to Spain. We are planning on taking her as she has never had a problem settling in a new house - she was even OK when travelling in the car on the last move which was a revelation.

Our concern is her age - she is now 13 and will be 15 by the time we move. Do we spend £1500 on an elderly cat?

Well, we've got a 19 year old cat who has also always travelled and relocated easily; when I asked the Vet if it was unreasonable to bring him, she 1st asked if his presance would be a boon to me while adjusting to a new life. (I said yes) Then, since he is such a spunky old man, she said as long as his blood panel comes out OK, and I'm willing to spend the money, there is no reason not to take him. Hope that helps. :nice1 Mind you, that was only one Vet's opinion, but I liked the answer!
Ana

[lollypop]

Hi Jo

We brought our 7 year old cat over from the UK. We collected him at the airport and had to take him straight to a cattery for 10 days, as we were staying in a holiday home at that time. Since then he's moved with us to two different rental homes. He's very settled now, bless him, though he did hide under the duvet whenever we went out for the first few days!

He really only came because my kids were unhappy about re-homing him but I definately think we made the right decision, it just helped all of us with whole settling in process.

We are on the move again shortly as we have bought our own house but I shall just keep him indoors for a week or so and he should be fine.

P.S. We used Golden Arrow for the big move and I would highly recommend them.

[Jo_b]

First hookworm tests back negative, first meeting with the vet for worming done, collected the box yesterday so they can get used to it, so it really is happening! Scary stuff! Poor pair are a bit put out at all the chaos at home right now as we've just had our stuff collected for shipping, and my boyfriend left yesterday so it's just me and them in an empty house for a couple of weeks before they go and then I go.... Scary!

[Jo_b]

Pickle and Spooky are going tomorrow! I've had the cat crate in the house for a few days so hopefully it smells right. I'm taking them up to Heathrow (to Airsupply - our agents) and they are handing them over to AirNZ. I'm so scared! Will keep you posted on their progress.

I got them signed off by the vet yesterday. All went smoothly on that score. I'd read on other posts about people having to leave their cats at the vet until they pooed for the hookworm test, but I took samples at home and sent them for testing myself... The vet was fine with that. But don't tell MAF/DEFRA, at least for another 48 hours!

[Graham Cross]

This has been so helpful to me re your cats. I have got two chinchilla persians and one of the is very nervous (the female) but I can't bear the thoughts of leaving them here especially the male. They will be 11 next year and I have never had a vet bill up to now with either of them. They are indoor cats and don't go out apart from the back patio and and the garden to eat grass. I am thinking of leaving them over here with a friend until we have settled in and then have them shipped over to us. I think that is better what do you think

[Myrkk]

we've got the same quandry. Our cats and dog are all rescues from varying vets I've worked at and I've never rehomed anything other than two tarantulas and a polecat, both of which went to another vet. nurse. The thought of rehoming any of them is hard but one of our cats is old and takes fits and another is hyperthyroid. The other two are just old..... I don't know what to do, but at least we have time on our side at the moment to consider all the options.

My head tells me to do what is right for them, my heart tells me take them anyway :roll