Two more cats on the ground!

We arrived at Heathrow this morning -- flying Virgin from Boston.  It was really uneventful.  I was a total wreck from the time I dropped them off at Cargo (more about that in a moment) until I got to the Animal Reception Centre @ Heathrow and received confirmation that they were A-OK.  They are doing well, both adjusting nicely to the new apartment.  I am so impressed by my resilient little cats.  They're both 11 and one is quite skittish and I was really afraid they'd be traumatized.  So far, so good.  They're eating, drinking, eliminating and exploring!

Massive, MASSIVE relief all around. 

 

There was a snafu with Virgin Cargo.  I booked 3 months ago and in the meantime, they moved locations and no one told me when I called to confirm the booking.  That was not a pleasant 20 mins while we scrambled to find the new location.  Once we arrived, the folks at the actual Cargo center were fabulous, though, and dealt with a very frazzled, very scared cat owner in a most kind and professional way.

Hooray for your kitties! So glad to hear this!!  I am already VERY nervous about my dog making the trip, so the more happy pet traveling stories the better!!

Virgin Cargo on the Boston side? Do you know the new address? My real estate agent is driving, so it's up to me to steer her right with my trusty GPS. Also, did you have to cab it from the people terminal to the ARC on the Heathrow side? I'm getting mixed messages about whether it's walking distance.

Oh, CONGRATULATIONS! Hurrah for the courageous pussoes!

Congratulations   

Thanks!  I was really a complete wreck.  I was so, so worried that I was forcing older kitties to do something terrible.  I'm so amazed at their resilience.   

Virgin Cargo on the Boston side? Do you know the new address? My real estate agent is driving, so it's up to me to steer her right with my trusty GPS. Also, did you have to cab it from the people terminal to the ARC on the Heathrow side? I'm getting mixed messages about whether it's walking distance.

Oh, CONGRATULATIONS! Hurrah for the courageous pussoes!

Yep -- it was Virgin Cargo on the Boston/Logan end.  It used to be on Prescott Street in "north cargo" and now it is on Harborside Drive in "south cargo."  Not sure how familiar you are with Logan, but it's just past the Hyatt Hotel and the Cell Phone Lot. 

On the Heathrow end, we DEFINITELY needed a cab.  It took a solid 10-15 mins drive (all still on airport grounds) from Terminal 3 to the Animal Reception Centre.  Once there, we got really lucky.  We arrived, waited for the Virgin Rep to get the paperwork approved by DEFRA and were on our way home inside of an hour.  There's a sign that says non-EU pet clearance should expect to take up to 4 hours, so we were shocked.  On the upside, there's a waiting room full of couches, so had it taken any longer, I could have had a much-needed nap.

I am so glad for you that your kitties came through the flight just fine.

My 3 get to travel on Dec. 13th. We're going from Dallas to Heathrow and I am a nervous wreck.

What all did you send with the cats ,besides their paperwork? Food? water? etc?

                                                 Thanks:)

Yay!!! It's so exciting to hear these stories - they make me feel just that much less worried (although I'm still PLENTY worried!).

When I move - I will have FOUR little kittehs to figure out!

What all did you send with the cats ,besides their paperwork? Food? water? etc?

I bought their crates a few months in advance and put fleecy blankets in there so they could get acclimated over time.  One of my cats took to it immediately and slept there of his own accord.  Weird. 

When it came time to actually move them, I put "dryfur" absorbent carrier liners down first, then a towel and the fleecy blankets to nest in.  I had 2 anti-slosh food/water containers, so I put a bit of dry food in one and Virgin filled the other with water once they boarded the plane.  Nothing was wet when I picked them up, so the container seems to have worked.  I considered a hamster/rabbit water bottle, but both cats are 11 and have never used it before, so didn't end up using it.

For my own peace of mind, I brought zip ties to secure the door to the kennel itself.  I had a few tags with their names, my name and our 24 hour contact info.  Pretty much, that's it.  With their paperwork, I enclosed large, clear pictures of each cat, lest the worst happen and there was an escape. 

I was a TOTAL wreck about the cats.  I was sobbing when I dropped them off and sobbing again when the plane took off.  I'm not one for drama, but it was really hard for me to hand my precious cats over to someone else.  The cats flew with a frequent flier dog -- she'd been on 10+ transatlantic flights.  That was reassuring.  All of the success stories here were reassuring, but there was no relaxing unil I got the "all clear" from the Animal Reception Centre.  I figured Virgin would have come to find me if there was a problem...but yeah, it's really nerve wracking. 

Yay...congratulations!!

About the hamster-style bottles.. My 23 y/o cat learned to use them for the last flight.  Just like with chickens, cats need a few seconds of training (basically, bonk their nose on the end so they get a bit wet).  They figure it out pretty fast!  Handy for long train/car rides, too. 

Once I get Charlotte in the big carrier, my anxiety is over. She's a former feral and an escape artist. Keeping her from buggering off before time is my focus. The plane ride will be hard on her, but she was once a kitten that lived on bugs. She'll deal.

Great to hear! I was the same, not sobbing but I was definitely very afraid of handing my baby over to strangers for what would eventually be at least twelve hours separated from him and not knowing if he was even mistakenly halfway to China or not!

It IS very frightening to hand them over. But everything went great for me too and, like you, I was relieved to receive my cat at the other end with no problems at all, and again, like you, amazed at the resilience of the little guy -- he was a little stressed out on the car drive home, but once in the new flat, he sprang back to his old self, was exploring, pooping in his new litter box, and picking out favorite new windowsills to sun in.

These international journeys are a huge deal but it's remarkable how strong our animals can be. I'm sure he was horrified all through the flight, "what the hell is happening to me and where is my mom?", but within hours he was acting like his new home was just his former home and all is well in his world.

Believe me, I was terrified the entire six months of preparing his paperwork -- I felt SURE it would all go wrong, he would get lost, be sent to the wrong destination, die on the flight, be quarantined -- I was worst-case-scenario-ing the whole time. But it really can all go well and the cats can come through it with flying colors. 

All of these posts talking about how terrifying/emotional/stressful the whole transatlantic pet experience is I could have written myself.  I felt EXACTLY the same way about my two kitties (9-10 years old).  I cried on the car ride up to the airport, and the kitties were meowing the entire car trip.  I cried dropping them off at the cargo dropoff, even though as soon as the cats were out of the car and sitting on the floor they were calm.  I cried sitting in my seat on the plane, waiting for the flight attendant to confirm that the cats had been loaded onto the flight, I cried for the 45 minutes we were stuck on the tarmac before taking off because there was fog and air traffic control delays, I cried for the first two hours of the flight because it was a REALLY turbulent flight with lots of bumps and such, and all I could think about were my little kitties hunkered down in the dark with all kinds of strange noises.  I cried when we got to the pet reception place on the other side because I was afraid one "i" wouldn't be dotted or one "t" wouldn't be crossed and the whole reason I'd been separated from my husband would have all been for naught.  And I cried when we loaded the kitties into the car, because they hadn't been meowing when they were sitting in the office while we signed the release paperwork but they started meowing as soon as they were in a moving car again.

I also cried on the car ride home, because my little Eliza peed her bed and the smell was really really awful, but that's kind of a different type of crying.

And I too was AMAZED how quickly my cats rebounded from the stress of the trip (heck, they rebounded faster than I did).  I was reminded of Cesar Milan's admonishment to so many dog owners that animals are living in the moment, that as long as their current situation is one of comfort then they are generally going to be okay, and that they aren't capable of dwelling on unpleasant experiences like we humans are.

I guess the best advice for people who are going to take their pets with them is to just accept that you are going to be a wreck, and that more likely than not your pets will be less stressed and traumatized than you.

Heck, I'm still a wreck about it.  Whenever I tell my story of bringing my cats over, I get teary eyed and emotional.  My kitties just beg for more food.

So true -- this whole thing is rougher on we humans than on the pets, in the long run! There was a part of me that felt sure I was never going to see my little guy again for one terrifying reason or another. And even though an attendant had checked and been assured my cat had been loaded onto out plane, all through the flight I couldn't help wondering "Is he really with us? Did they get the right cat? Did he even make it onto the flight??"

But I believe the airlines are so careful, because there are obviously a lot of animal cruelty regulations they could get clobbered by, that ultimately the animals are in very good hands on these journeys. It's an incredible relief to get them back at the end, though.

I am glad your kitties got over alright, and glad to hear everyone else had a good experience. I never brought an animal over but I feel more assured after reading your posts!