These little critters have had a life of travel that most humans would envy! Born in Italy growing up in the countryside of Campania in a 5 bedroom villa complete with its own vineyard! Spoiled indeed. We all were! Then the next move was back to America for about 4 months until we settled in Singapore. That in and of itself would make for a good horror novel! What a nightmare getting the importation paperwork, making reservations for a room for quarantine, and the many hoops to jump through for air travel.
Air travel with pets…..it makes me shutter to remember what it was like. We decided these poor little things would be so much better off under our seats for the 30 hour, multiple stop over flight. Oh, how wrong we were. From Jacksonville to Seattle not to terrible with the meowing but the 9 hours from Seattle to Tokyo! Peppe decides he has had ENOUGH after first 20 minutes and starts to caterwaul almost the entire 9 hours! Thank God the few rows around us were filled with teens on their first trip over seas and it was a night flight. All of them had on head phones and slept through most of it. Another couple had cats and could feel our pain.
I had decided it would be smart to put “chux pads” to line their carriers in case they peed. But as Peppe became more aggravated he began to tear at it and claw his way through the pad which then became a big dust ball of fibers and he began to sneeze over and over. I had to do something! I decided to take him to the bathroom to at least get the now shredded pad out. We all know what a bathroom on a plane is like mid way through a several hour flight…urine on the floor! Once I got him out, he immediately tried to find cover somewhere inside the bathroom which had a very tiny crawl space under the sink area! I grabbed him seconds before he could have crawled into the planes guts! Who knows where that could have led to. But the fun doesn’t stop there…when I pulled out the tissue shredded pad it was like a cotton ball exploded in the bathroom and it was sticking to the urine soaked floor! I stuffed the cat back in the carrier and prayed no one was waiting to use the bathroom so I could make a “clean” get away – and I did!
Once in Tokyo we found a “family” bathroom that was a large room you which could lock the door. We let them out and they crept around like wild animals trying to escape. The only up side is now this unfamiliar territory is more scarey then their carriers…so they went back in very easily!
Loaded up and ready to board for the final leg of the journey. Tokyo to Singapore. It is a late flight and everyone is exhausted. Except Peppe! He starts his loud meowing right away to which the guy behind me says something like, “Shut that cat up”. I would have punched him right in the face… but to my shock right about that time Peppe shut up! The rest of the flight we slept.
Once in Singapore you relinquish your pets over to be transported to the quarantine facility. But you have to come back to the airport to sign all the paper work. We slept about 2 hours and back we went to the airport. The cats are transferred to the facility. A small cage with a large window looking into a courtyard. They could see us approach and seemed happy to see us come and visit the, for the 10 days they had to stay.
But this is a story about Mexico, not Singapore. Guess what…we get to do this again! The only saving grace is this is a 4.5 hour flight and we will make this work. I will have ear plugs to pass out to the crowd around us and just deal with it!
There is no quarantine time required so straight to the house we will go.
Not nearly as much hoopla to import them to Mexico (says me, before I have to actually do it) but it seems like it should be alright.
To be continued after the trip is made in 20 more days…………..
Well, this is the start of an exciting, scary, wonderful, adventure! We’ve sold most everything and are heading to Mexico to set up our new little Casa. Cats in tow, of course, their names will fit right in. Peppe and Tony (Antonio)
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