Well, as promised yesterday, here’s a quick update on the cats arrival.

When we picked the cats up from Byford yesterday we received an official AQIS receipt for each of them.

The receipt looks like it followed the cats through the whole process since arriving in Australia and includes an official ‘release from quarantine’ notice and AQIS stamp which is good to have as it proves that both cats have been ‘through the system’ before release.

I think we’d be safe without it though, unless of course someone picked up on a meow with a slight hint of a Yorkshire accent. It’ll be reet tho.

In addition to the cats import certificates, we also had another bill to pay, the cost of the quarantine.

The total bill for both cats at Byford was a pretty reasonable $1067 (about £426 by today’s money). Remember though that this doesn’t include the cost of actually getting the cats over here which was the bill settled with Airpets before we departed.

Included in this cost and in addition to the cats ‘rent’ was 2 x vet checks per cat ($71 each) quarantine entry ($10), Audit of veterinary certificate ($27), recovery of the airline handling charge previously paid on our behalf by AQIS (33) and conveyance of cats and dogs (picking them up etc – ($95).

The 30 days lodging was charged at $13.55 per day for the first cat and $10.55 for the second. Keep in mind that both Charlie and Geoff were sharing accommodation. I’m not sure what the charge would have been had they not got on so well

When we got home? Well, let’s just say they were slightly cuddly. Even at time of typing (some 30 hours later) it’s like having two little shadows following us around.

Both boys are still in excellent condition and it’s obvious that they have been well looked after.

I must say though, they were still carrying (and shedding) a large amount of fur when we got them home which makes one wonder how frequently they had been brushed (although they are short hairs and not one of the more exotic longer haired felines requiring more attention).

Still, once we got them home, a good brush for each and they were looking as good as new and about half a kilo lighter.

Their little claws needed a trim to, we did see lots of scratch pads for the cats when we originally visited them at Byford but these appear to be have been very rarely used.

Both cats seemed delighted to try out the leg of the sofa in the house we are currently renting though; a habit we will need to get them out of before our new sofa arrives this Saturday at the new house in Kinross.

It was actually quite funny but having a wooden floor, we could hear both cats walking around during the night.

At one point it almost sounded like Charlie was walking around in a cat sized pair of high heals but somehow I don’t think he’s into the cross dressing scene just yet.

As for the cat boxes prepared by Airpets…Have a good look of the pictures above and below (each opens in a new page – click the picture in the new page again to see the full sized version):

As I mentioned in yesterdays post I was pretty interested to see what the quality of these boxes were like and I must say the boxes were excellent!

Not to big and not to small and the quality was great to (all of the boxes are made by staff on site at Airpets and they obviously take great pride in their workmanship!

Although, being confined to such a space for over 24 hours would have been a pretty significant bind, on the basis that both boys would have slept for a good part of the journey over to Australia I’m sure it wouldn’t have been too bad.

As you’ll see in some of the pictures, Charlie (the cat lying down with the white paws) and Jeff (the all black cat) have done a good job of modelling their transportation boxes.

Make a note of the funnel attached to the front of the boxes for the addition of water during the journey. Also, see the two small ring’s on either side of the rear door? This is how the box was sealed apparently).

There are also plenty of extra locks and catches on the back of the boxes to ensure your loved ones don’t escape en-route.

You’ll notice in the pictures that both cats look pretty chuffed to be back ‘home’. If I really think about it, I don’t think there’s been a minute when I’ve not heard them purr.

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Well, it’s been a very long time without them (nearly three months) but today we’ll be picking up the cats from Byford.

Since we originally visited the cats we’ve made a conscious effort not to make any additional contact as it didn’t seem fair to get their hopes up (if cats are capable of such a thing).

Still, in the meantime they have still be in our thoughts and we’ve been busy getting together lots of new stuff for them; ‘Ant Free Double Dinner’ bowls, toy mice, balls, streamers, tunnels and scratch pads (in the hope that these will use these to keep their claws in trim instead of attacking the new sofa). Oh, and about half a hundred weight of kitty litter (my job!)

The cats will be coming back with us this afternoon to the house we are currently renting in North Perth. They will remain here until this Saturday when we all move again to the new house we will be renting for at least the next six months in Kinross.

They’ll have to get used to being house cats without the freedom of the outdoors for at least a couple of months but comparatively speaking, the amount of space they’ll have in either house will seem positively palatial by comparison to the holding pens they have both called home during the last couple of months.

It’ll be quite interesting as we’ll be bringing the ‘boys’ home in the same pens that they travelled out to Australia in. I’m keen to get an idea of the type of boxes Airpets used to send the cats here and will of course report back with any interesting findings.

I’m sure the cats will be looking forward to the comforts of Air conditioning to. Both of the cats where in fur shedding overdrive pretty soon after their arrival in Australia and its forecast to be a muggy 36 degrees today! Pool little blighters, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were half bald by now!

That’s all for now

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Well, it’s taken 6 weeks but finally at time of typing the boys (cats) are finally air bound and heading on their way to sunnier climbs.

We had an E-mail from Airpets advising that they had a preliminary check up by the vet on Friday and they will be having a full preflight check up by the vet on Saturday.

They asked us to contact their offices after 2pm UK time (11pm Perth time) on Saturday to confirm that their final preflight inspection had gone to plan. The news back was positive, both lads received full marks and would therefore be flying out on Sunday.

Since we had the earlier issues when one of the cats failed his preflight check, I never thought to ask the guys at Airpets exactly what time of the day both cats would be flying out second time around.

What I do know though is that both cats were being delivered to the animal check in at Heathrow on Sunday morning so by my rough calculations they probably took off early Sunday afternoon (or early morning today Perth time).

Whatever time of the day they were due to fly out, I reckon they should be en-route to Singapore at time of typing (and hopefully sleeping soundly).

I have read quite a bit about the conditions that pets and other general livestock fly in, in commercial airlines. Predominately the area within the aircraft where the pets are kept is kept dark to keep the animals calm (although I’m unsure how this helps cats with their super sonic night vision).

Temperature wise its pretty much the same as the temperature within the main section of the aircraft.

I’m not sure how the source of this information knows this (perhaps they hid in a box) but allegedly most animals sleep throughout the whole journey. I’m unsure if that last snippet of information is taken from the days when animals used to be sedated when flying long haul (which they no longer are) but having looked at the chilled out state of the cats when they spent nearly 3.5 hours driving from Bradford to Heathrow I can kind of understand where this theory comes from.

Both of ours cats moaned and grumbled in their own catty way for the first hour of our journey down to Heathrow. Once they realised that they weren’t going to get out of their cat boxes despite their vocal representations they simply gave up the fight and bedded down for the journey.

Even on our bumpy roads and motorways both cats slept for a good part of the journey down to Airpets. Although we’re talking just under 4 instead of 24 hours I’d hope that the smoother passage associated with flight would help contribute towards a trouble free and hopefully stress free journey for both cats.

I’m just looking forward to getting both cats home. Then the whole family will be back together again.

Finally I know that I keep on raving about Airpets but they really have been great. The communication continues to come back at regular intervals and hopefully we have all done everything we can to contribute towards a safe journey to Aus for our feline buddies.

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Well, it looks like the cats are going to be spending Christmas, and welcoming the new year in whilst based at Airpets in Heathrow.

We had an email from Airpets confirming that Quantas were fully booked right through to the first week in January so the cats will not be flying out to Australia until Sunday, 7th January.

Fortunately, we will not incure any additional boarding fees from Airpets, I’m assuming this is covered off by the insurance which is going to pay for the second set of flights etc.

When shipping out your pets from the UK to Australia its pretty easy to look at the charges associated with flying your pets out with a company like Airpets and think – phew, thats a lot of cash for something you can sort out yourself.

The professionalism, peace of mind and insurance provided by Airpets when things go wrong makes it money very well spent in my eyes and we would certainly do the same again.

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Some news on the cat front. We got an email from Airpets yesterday evening advising that the cats will not be travelling out today as planned.

Apparently, when the vet saw them for their export health certificate she has said that one of the boys has an upper respiratory infection, it could possibly be contagious and therefore he has not passed his health check. Poor lad..

So he’s on antibiotics now and will need to remain on these until he gets a second checkup on Thursday.

Fortunately for us, Airpets is insured against things like this happening, so the re-booking of flights and quarantine space will not incur any additional costs. Another big tick in the box for Airpets.

A lot can be said about how a company operates when things go wrong. So far, I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Still a shame that its going to be an even longer stretch in the confines of the cattery for both boys but still, once they get that sunshine on their back the purring will soon return.

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Well, the cats went to Airpets today.

I must say what a fantastic and professional set up they have there!

It took us about three hours to drive down to Staines and both boys took the journey well.

If anything, it was kind of comforting to see that that both cats slept for a decent portion of the journey.

I know it’s only three hours but thats about 25% of the time they’ll spend on the plane during the first leg from Heathrow to Singapore.

Anyway, chuffed to bits with the setup at Airpets. Both cats were put into a nice large kennal inside a heated room with other moggies bound for varous parts of the world.

They have a month at Airpets before flying out to join us in Oz on the 21st December.

I have a feeling they will lose their winter coat pretty damn quick once they get there

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Well, the cats are sorted kind of. We decided to opt for a company called Airpets Oceanic based in Staines Middlesex.

We always knew sending our two cats to Australia wasn’t going to be cheap and the transport service provided by Airpets was pretty much what we expected.

Airpets will charge us £1469.00 to transport our two furry felines to Perth but within this cost they provide quite a good service.

To summarise, our £1469 will get us:

Freight (a spot in the plane)
I.A.T.A Air Travel Containers
Airline Handling Feeds
Delivery to Airport
Application for Import Permit
Application for Quarantine Space at Perth
Application for Ministry of Agriculture Export Certificate
96 hour paraciticide
Sealing of Air Kennels by Airport Vet
and a days boarding prior to departure.

Having spent the time to apply for our Visa’s I know that we could have pretty easily done a large part of this ourselves. However at this moment in time, with so much stuff going on it makes sense for us to get ‘the boys’ booked in as its one less thing to worry about.

On top of the £1469 to get the cats to Australia, we’ll also need to pay for a months boarding in Perth so lets call it a straight £2000 to get the cats there….gosh!

Now lifes never straoght forward is it so now we have a slight complication. When we initially enquired approx 10 days ago, we were told that we’d be looking at early to Mid November to secure a place in Perth for our cats. Now we’re looking at early December!

This could be a complication for us as potentially, if the house sale goes through in the timescales that it should, we might (Ok its very likely that we might) end up having to move out to Australia before the cats.

Airpets could pick up from West Yorkshire but they would charge approx £400 for the privilege, they do offer boarding though @ £15 per day for two cats sharing so worst case we may need to send them early, board them until their spot becomes available and then ship them out.

Ideally, we’d like to keep this boarding time to a minimal as were mindful that they will need to stay in quarantine for another 30 days when they arrive in Perth.

We could fly them to Sydney and then get an internal flight from Perth but we feel that the whole flying thing will probably be one of the more stressful parts of the whole journey so want to keep the time in the air to a minimal (if you can call 24 hours minimal).

Eitherway, pick up or boarding? This is going to have to be a decision we make once we know when the house is finally sold and when we are all likely to be made homeless.

Oh well, we’ll see how Airpets fair. So far the service seems very professional, the people we have spoken to seem very switched on. Lets just hope they do the best job for our boys

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Well, dare I say it but things almost appear to be happening.

Spoke to the Halifax yesterday who are still beyond useless (not giving us the promised updates resulting in a number of ignored call-back requests). However it seems that we are now progressing with our latest buyers which is the best bit of positive news we’ve had from the Halifax for some time.

All of the mortgage paperwork has now been completed and the survey fee’s have been paid. The surveyors will not be instructed by the Halifax until the Mr of the buying party has his employees reference back. This is pretty standard practice apparently and is expected to be back by early next week.

The SOLD sign has been ordered and is expected any day. Daft though this may sound, this is probably one of the things we’ve been longing for the most.

I know getting the sold sign doesn’t make everything legally binding and it doesn’t mean the house is really going to see. Its just psychological I guess.

Driving around the corner every day when I get home from work to be confronted by our ‘For Sale’ really gets you down after a while. Being presented by a nice SOLD sign will really give us the boost we need to get us to the next level

The fact that the survey fees have already been paid is a good sign as this represents quite a big sum of money. As our home is just under 10 years old I hope that the survey doesn’t show anything up. If it does we’ll need to fork out the cash to get everything sorted. If its structural it should still be covered by our NHBC certificate but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

In other news, we’ve had a quote from a company (which appears quite reputable) called airpets for our two cats. It looks like all in all its going to cost us just over £2k to fly the cats out to Perth and house them for the 30 days they’ll need to remain in quarantine. Its a lot of money but we couldn’t leave the boys in Blighty, they are part of the family after all.

Anyway, fingers crossed and lets see what the next few days bring.

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