Pet Passports

Summer is over and as winter rears it’s stormy head above the horizon and for those of us soon to be snowbound, thoughts of traveling to warmer climbs fills our dreams. There are a number of places to visit on the world-wide-web that will give pet owners excellent information for taking their pets along, comfortably and safely but what about traveling abroad with your dog or cat?

A newly married friend just moved to Egypt from Canada to be with her husband. She decided that she and her daughter could not go without taking their two cats. She purchased two carry-on soft carriers, halters and leashes for the kitties for their thirty-hour trip. An eight-hour stop over in Amsterdam allowed her to take them from their carriers for a bit of exercise, water and a small amount of food. Fortunately, a few months before making the trip, she researched what documents would be required for the emigrating cats. Passports. Yes, pets require passports too, consisting at the very least of vaccination and health documents from a veterinarian.

Here is an excellent website for finding the information you need if you are taking your pet with you on a trip to distant destinations both foreign and domestic. http://www.pettravel.com/passportnew.cfm
A good rule to remember is, if you require a passport to travel and you’re taking your fur-kid along… he or she will need a passport too and the criteria will be different depending upon where you’re going.

Our family will be traveling to Hawaii next November. Chances are that we will leave our little Mr. Rutgar with friends here at home as we are not planning to be away for more than a couple of weeks.

None-the-less, I am looking at what the requirements are in the unlikely event we should decide to take him. The lengthy and somewhat complicated process would need to start four to six months in advance as blood work that looks for rabies and communicable diseases that develop over time is compulsory. Micro-chipping is also required. Thankfully, the very discouraging six- month quarantine is no longer mandatory. Instead, pets now have to enter Hawaii through Honolulu and are then transported to a designated veterinary hospital where they are checked over and released to their owners the same day as their arrival. There is an advance payment of $165 that must accompany your pets documents no less than 10 days before their arrival in Hawaii.

I would only consider the above if we were moving to Hawaii or planning to stay for more than a month. Traveling can be hard on some dogs and cats. I say some only because, Ms. Lilly Zha Zha, my daughter’s Pomeranian, has been flying to and from Hawaii since a tiny pup and she absolutely loves to travel. She is completely undaunted by what other dogs might easily experience as traumatic.

So, before you embark on long distance travel with your pets, consider what is best for them and if you feel it’s better they accompany you, then give yourself plenty of time to get those all important pet passports in hand and take the barking out of ‘embarkation.’