Hi

Thank you for all yoir helpful replies, I'm not fussed about the flight time for myself, all I'm bothered about is my cats.
Anyway I will keep doing my research, that will be the only way to put my mind at ease.

cheers

I couldn't agree more! It's stressing me out sooo much too! It's the logistics of it that worries me - I want to get all of my stuff over there & have it in a house before the cats arrive so they just walk in and all their stuffs there, so, I'm thinking: put them in cattery for a few weeks before they fly out, get my stuff shipped & on its way before they go & then hopefully they'll be out of quarantine by the time it's all sorted!

It makes my head hurt

Im in two minds if we should take our 9 year old cat to Perth, we love him dearly and we as a family would be lost without him, but Im wondering how he would get on in OZ with all those toads, spiders and snakes etc as hes a little hunter, plus theres the flight and costs to think about and Im not sure I would want to put him through all that. My SIL has offered him a home which I know he would be well looked after, its going to be very hard to know what to do for the best for him.

It's nice to know I'm not alone, and we're a long way from even deciding whether to actually go and I'm looking into it already. My worry is they will have to live in rented accommodation with us until we find a house ( if we go), so that will be stressful for us and them. You could always pack some of those foldaway beds for them in your case, just make sure they have been using them and got familiar with them before you go. On a different subject if you love cats I've just read a great book called "Fur Babies- why we love cats" by Liz Jones. There are various stories in it from some celebrities about their own cats including Ricky Gervais and the money goes to a cat charity.
Good luck anyway,.....

hi all,

thanks just read al this and i too was worried with taking my cat but feel much better with this, i'm more worried wth regards to the creepies an my cat. how are all ur cats with them ??

we were wanting to travel a bit before we settled for about 10-12 weeks but not sure how to go bout it with the cat, any ideas ???

Diane

I'm a bit worried about how my lot will be with the creepy crawlies, lizards, birds etc etc! As a rule, they don't usually hunt (far too lazy for that!), but I'm sure they'll be intrigued with all of the new stuff - I guess I'll just have to let them get on with it & keep them in at night.

That book sounds good - will have to get a copy

3 of mine are over 9 - the other 2 are still babies. I couldn't not take any of them although have been in 2 minds with my eldest as she's a funny girl at the best of times! Couldn't really leave her with anyone else because of that
It does cost a lot, 'specially to get 5 of them there, but, I don't have kids & they're my babies. If it comes to it, I'll leave the husband here instead - cut down on the costs!

We're not quite decided on going either. (Getting closer though - we've said yes, just waiting for the company to process the transfer and hope the current location doesn't block it.)

We want the minimum time possible with our kits in quarantine/cattery, but we'd also initially be going into rented accommodation (that's another issue, finding pet-friendly inner city accom).

Ideally we would send them ahead of us as they will freak when the movers come in to pack, but we also know we'll need a few weeks in a serviced apartment once there, and are not sure how long we'd be without our shipping - coming from Singapore so should be shorter than you folks but I understand customs can take a while.

They've never been in a cattery, and the elder two were hand-reared down my friend's cleavage so really are nambypambies.

I'm hoping we're getting a relo agent to worry about all the logistics on my behalf.

There's absolutely no question they're coming with us, they were a big factor in our decision-making process. (And no, we don't have kids either. )

Just thought I'd add our experience for the record

We have been in Perth since Sept 2006, we shipped our two cats (around 8 yrs old at the time) with Golden Arrow and they were brilliant. The cats came out on a BA flight around the same time as us (we flew Air Singapore) and we visited them at the quarrantine station in Byford the day after we arrived. They suffered no ill effects from the flight whatsoever and were 100% fine and happy to see us!

They stayed in quarrantine for 4 weeks and were collected by a local cattery as their bad old parents were travelling round Aus for 3 months We were finally reunited just before Christmas when we managed to secure a rental (cats were not a problem, lack of rentals was). After being here over a year I can honestly say they are exactly the same as they have always been! Haven't had a problem with wildlife, my two couldn't catch a cold but we have had the odd lizard/frog as a present.

We now have our own place and the whole family is doing GREAT! We are expecting bub no.1 in June so that will be a whole other adventure for the poor old moggies!!!

Hi,

When we decided to bring our cat with us to Australia from England, we were really worried and concerned that we were doing it for the right reasons, would she be ok, how would she react etc.... (she was fairly nervous/skittish).

We used a company called Airpets, and I can't speak highly enough of them. Found their staff helpful and friendly despite the many questions we asked!!

Whilst in quarantine, she was very quiet. Eat very little and rarely came out of her little igloo (only at night, to use the litter tray). However, when we came to pick her up, as soon as she heard our voices - she got up, had a stretch and gave us a kind of "where the hell have you been?" look that only a spoilt cat can and began to rub around our legs... she was fine.

The total cost, including quaratine fees this end was somewhere around £1300... But you do keep the cage that is built for your cat so should you decide to head back to England, you can re-use it!

Paul & Louise

Hi, I brought my cat over, she had to do quarantine in Sydney, as there were no places left in Melbourne. We are South Australia.
We saved money by not booking her second flight from Sydney to Adelaide, with petair, back in the u.k
I booked it once here with a small australian company that i got in the yellow pages.
She was nervous at first but fine within a few days.

Hi
It is hard deciding if it's too much to put a cat through, I couldn't leave them with anyone as noone I know would be as daft about my cats as I am.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens further down the line.
It's nice to know I'm not the only one mad about cats ( no kids here either)

I went to a Ladies' Lunch here once and there was a German lady that knew nobody but the hostess. Three of us were wittering on about our cats and she said, "none of you has kids, then?" She was right.

Hi, I have just got a quote for our cat to fly from Heathrow to Perth and it was just over £900 including VAT plus around 600 dollars the other end for quarantine.

I was expecting this sort of a figure and I thought it was pretty reasonable.


Fiona

We brought our two cats with us, as well as our 18mo German Shepherd, in August 2005. The cats are 14 this year, so we were undecided for a while about the stress of the trip, especially since ours couldn't manage a 6-mile trip to the vets in the UK without serious distress. They did 3 weeks in kennels before shipping out, then 30 days quarantine at Byford, then a further 3 weeks in another boarding kennel while we found a rental. The problem there was the dog, not the cats.

They stayed together in a run, and although they had lost a fair amount of weight by the time we picked them up due to diarrhoea, they were fine again within a few days of coming home - we think this was the stress and just general food fussiness! They are indoor cats, so no worries about local wildlife, although one still pulls the legs off spiders!! She's at more risk from chewing electrical cables, I think!

They have settled really well and on the plus side, none of the pets gets travel sick any more. Still play each day, chase each other, bask in the sun...

I have this idea in my head - probably wrong - that you are limited to a certain number of cats in one household - thought it was three but check it out anyway. I may be dreaming it. Certainly our rental has a limit - no more pets while we're here. But generally speaking, in our search for rentals we were told that cats aren't a problem at all. Daft that - our two have a far greater potential for causing damage than the dog. But then again, your pet bond covers any damage so that should ease everyone's mind.

Good luck - we used Airpets and I'd recommend highly.

r12p