DEEDEE01

Hi All ,

Just wanting to express the way I am feeling at the moment in respect of moving to Oz (fingers crossed!).

We all go through the same things like 'having to sell the house', 'having to find a suitable place to live when you arrive', finding schools' etc.

The hardest thing for me at the moment is my chocolate lab. We got him in Sept last year, so he is just over 12mths old. We had discussed taking him back to the breeders as the next 12mths ahead are going to be up and down.

I finally made the decision to write a letter this week and the day after sending it to the breeders, I got a phone call. This was a phone call I didn't want to take, but I had to . She has given me the weekend to think about when I take him back and then she is going to ring me on Monday night to finalise.

Last night when I got in from work, I broke down and just cried for about an hour. I spoke to the hubby and he said that if I wanted to keep him, then we keep him, simple as that.

I don't want everyone to think that we were getting rid because we couldn't be arsed, I made the decision, becasue I thought it would b better for the dog, it's gotta be hard travelling 22 hours on a plane !!

Well, what I'm trying to say is, that over my dead body I will not be taking him back. After 12mths of bonding, it was like trying to give my child away, I couldn't do it.

What I am trying to say is, has anybody been in this situation before and if so what was the outcome ? Who did yoiu transport with, is the process difficult, how much does it cost and to all you people who have taken pets, how is pet life at the other side ?

I know it may sound like a trivial matter but this has made me feel ill over the past few days, but now I feel like a massive weight has been lifted because we have decided we cannot give him back, regardless of the problems we might face.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
D.
x

Timber Floor Au

Good post D

I personally think, you have to be utterly selfish to move to Australia. In so doing so, you can be pardoned for doing selfish things in the uk, for unselfish reasons.

The flight is 22 hrs, and really isnt that stressful to the dog.. by comparison to not seeing his loving family ever again.

Its a hard decision not least of all thwarted by Australias weird stance on dogs, and dogs in society attitudes..

Whatever you choose, you have to live with that decision..

We brought 4 of our dogs, and crippled us financially.. but when we decided on our Australian Big Adventure, from the outset.. we never compromised on our initial decisions.. one of which was to bring our furry friends..

So good luck with what you do eventually decide, from your post.. i gather you are still in doubt as to what you should do, as opposed to what you could do !

Steve

Funkey Monkey

They're like members of the family so you want to take, you take.

Btw Steve, like the avatar, much less scarey than the last

Sally Simpson

We had decided we would not take our dog as she was quite old, in fact we have had to have her put down since so thankfully decision no longer ours. But if I had a young dog, would def take it. Wouldn't leave member of family behind!
Good luck

Nu-Shooz

On the other side of things, i am returning to UK and debating whether to take my two cats that i bought here in Perth. They cost me $1000 and we love them to bits

But it is going to cost a fortune to take them. We thought long and hard about it, as to be honest, we could buy a new cat in UK which would be a hell of alot cheaper than bringing over our cats from OZ.

But no way could we get rid of them. I have just paid out hundreds of dollars to have rabies jabs, blood tests and micro-chips done, to get them back home with us. Best decision made yet

moneypenny20

It's not a trivial matter. Just because you didn't give birth to him doesn't mean he's not a member of your family. We chose to leave our cat behind for many reasons. One was her age and how she was. I couldn't have put her through the flight, we had no idea if we would be renting and if we would have found a place that took her happily. The other big reason was the lovely lady who bought our house asked if she could please have her. It was perfect, we didn't have to worry about her and she gets to spend the rest of her life with a fab family who adore her in her lifelong home.

If you can afford it, bring him. If you can't then giving him back to his breeder has to be a best outcome.

Sheff_Sparky

agreee with the other posters. They are not just dogs they are members of the family. if you want to take him then do so. He will be just fine.

Ours had to be put down in June but he was 14 and there was no way he would have survived the flight as well as being a rescue dog, he had a hard enough time when we moved form one side of sheffield to another, there was no way we could have done that to him.

I have also had to give a dog away due to moving when i was younger and it is heartbreaking. If you have the money to bring him over then do it.

Donna&Neil

Hi D yeah we went thru the same months of debating, making the decision and some more debating before we finally decided to bring our 3 year old cocker spaniel. Like you we were concerned about the flight/quarantine etc. We could have left him with my parents but we brought him with us, as we could not imagine our life without him. We managed the trip and is so settled into his new life. We used pettravel, a Scottish based company, could not fault them. Hope this helps.

Donna

Timber Floor Au

Thanks !!!

I put on a avatar of a fella dressed as a woman, as opposed to my MANLYNESS !! and you congratulate me you FILLYSTYNE !!! lol

DEEDEE01

Thanks everyone, I'm glad other people understand what we are going through.

I am going to wait for the phone call on Monday and tell them that I am not bringing him back and that when I got him, I promised to look after him and I will.

Even the thought of taking him back has made me ill, so god nows what I would be like actually taking him back !!!

My only thoughts were for him and what would be best for him, that all. I know it's going to be expensive to take him, but that is something that wasn't even an issue, after all, I took that responsibility on when I agreed to take him.

Thanks to you all for responding, you know how to make people feel normal and welcome.

Now, any recommendations for pet travel would be great !!!!!!!

Thanks for your recommendations Donna, gonna give them a call.

Steve, you are an absolute star taking on 4 dogs, 1 is enought for me !!!!!

Thanks to everybody for helping me make sense of my thoughts.

Donna.
x

Sleeping Beauty

have a look at my post about the same thing some months back.....

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...&highlight=dog

....we have been here 15 months now, brought over the dog, so glad we did, that is ALL of us!!

Timber Floor Au

We used Golden Arrow. Based somewhere in Herefordshire..

Actually, wasnt impressed with them, attached foto, for your perusal of their DOG VEHICLE !!!!

I kicked up such a fuss, they wanted to throw 4 70 kilo dogs in the back of this van!

In the end, due to the fact we had everything booked etc.. i allowed them to take 2 dogs, and we took the other 2 in our vehicle.

They are a shed with a crappy office, in the middle of nowhere.. purporting to be some kind of International Pet Shipping...

Bull.. they are blaggers, avoid at all costs

See in 1st foto, they have a dog mat, and they tie the dogs by dog leash to the frame behind drivers seat.
No cargo area, or protection in accident to either dog or driver.
3rd foto shows the security system, for preventing dog flying thru windscreen, a piece of chipboard !!!

Asked the question, what prevents dog from jumping over and licking you biting you, or trying to climb in front seat?

Answer.. i nudge the brakes, or tap it on the nose..

SERIOUSLY DODGY OUTFIT !!!!!! if you dont trust the info, do a plate check with DVLA

Sleeping Beauty

aawwwhhh, we used them, thought they were really good. we took the dog down to their office/house from lancashire. we would throughly recommend them. horses for courses i suppose and peoples different experiences.

Timber Floor Au

Yep.. have to admit, one mans poison is another mans pleasure...

But if they turned up in that truck, ( sorry Vannette ) to take your pooches.. would you be impressed ??

My missus bought a dog trailer here from Trek.. 6 dog trailer, and she uses it occasionaly for vet visits etc...

Surely a PET transport company, could rig their truck up to at least RSPCA standards..

Sleeping Beauty

mmm, we took the dog down there so didnt see their transport (vannette type thingy ). cant imagine fitting 4 NF dogs in the back of that!