Cats

Shipping the cats from Hawaii was kind of a pain, and we've done it twice. They hated being boarded for those couple of days between when we moved out of the house and when we flew out, and both times, they had to live with my mom for a time while we found a house. The first time, it was only a couple of weeks, but the second time, it was a few months. So, we decided we didn't want to try that again. So, one of the reasons we decided that Ev would go over first was so that he could find a house. When coming from Hawaii, we only had two cats, and we brought them over on the same plane that we were on, as our checked luggage. This time, we have three, and they'll be shipped as cargo. I still thought it would be about the same, though.

When looking online, you'll find lots of info as to what you need to do to ship your pets. Much of it is contradictory and/or makes no sense. While your situation may be different, I'll tall you what I had to do.

First, find out with whom you want to ship. I called around to a few different places, and finally settled on Lufthansa. It cost a bit more than United, but I had seen many people sing their praises for pet shipping. Plus, I don't think I've ever had a good experience with United for anything. United was going to be about $650 from Dulles to Frankfurt, and Lufthansa is almost $800. Pet shipping for Lufthansa is handled through Barthco. It took me a little while to get a hold of them, but once I did, they were very helpful. I've been talking to Mike & Lauren in the Special Services Division, and they've both been really great this whole time. They told me they needed to see the health certificates before they could book the cats, and they needed payment before they will let them on the plane. It has to be a certified check or money order.

When shipping pets, you need a health certificate. In the US, they're only good for 10 days, but the European Union ones are good for 40 days. I didn't know there was a special EU one. I had seen contradicting info about having to have the health certificate translated, just leaving it English, etc, etc. I had seen nothing about an EU one. Luckily, though, Mike emailed me the one I needed, and it was bilingual. When reading, I saw down at the bottom about a rabies serological test, but it said "if needed." Form what I saw online, it looked like it would be needed when coming from the US. Unfortunately, there are only 2 EU-approved labs in the whole US - one in Kansas and one in Texas. I asked Mike, and he said that it wasn't needed. Thank God. He didn't see my questions about the other two "if needed" boxes (the one for tick treatment and the one for echinococcus) I guess, because he didn't answer me about those. They HCs have to be filled out by a USDA-certified vet, so I called my vet's office. The receptionist said that my vet was USDA-certified. Hooray!

So, I took it to my vet, and we got it all filled out. We decided to do the tick & echinococcus treatments, just in case. I didn't want to have to bring them back, because it is not fun trying to herd my cats. They're mean little buggers.

I thought all was good, but no. Turns out, the receptionist was wrong, and my vet was not certified. Dang. But, I could send it in to the USDA vet in Annapolis. Yay. I called the USDA to see what all I needed to send them, and got this horrible man on the phone. It has been a long time since I've had to deal with somebody that unpleasant. So, just know that, if you have to call the USDA in Annapolis, pull on your big girl panties, because you're in for a fight. They said I needed an APHIS form 7001 in addition to the 998 I already had. I asked where to get that form, and the guy told me I had to call around and find one. He was unwilling to help me any further than that. He did finally concede (after a tense 10 minutes or so) that I could drive down to Annapolis and get one from them if I couldn't find one up here. Annapolis is about 2 hours away in good traffic, though, so I didn't really want to take that route. Luckily, my vet had the form, so they filled it out and I picked it up and sent it off.

Altogether, I needed to send them a 998 (EU health certificate) for each cat, the 7001 (all of them can go on one certificate for that), each of their rabies certificates, and a check for $105.

All in all, it's costing a bit over $1000 to ship them over there. Good thing we love them. :)