sallysimmons

I didn't answer the first time because although I brought cats back, they are indoor cats and therefore I can't really answer your specific question.

When adopting cats from a shelter in NY state, you are asked to swear that you won't let them outside, which we did. By the time we got back they were 11 and 12 and we decided it was too late and they were too freaked out for the new experience. Our new house is out in the countryside, so pretty safe, but the neighbours have a greyhound and another neighbour has a cat who's pretty territorial, so basically we decided to keep them in. They never even try to go outside when the door is left open.

As far as how our cats did, they're happy as Larry Here's a blog post that shows them 'in action' http://fingerrollsandfoldingchairs.w...ack-to-the-uk/

Cardienscarf

Summer wasn't eating and had diarrhea which are also signs of kidney disease. My sister didn't take any chances as I'd told her to look out for this. My dog has always loved her food so I know there's something wrong when she doesn't eat. The vet did a full blood work and her kidneys were fine. She had some antacid pills and that sorted her out.

She's much more her usual self today. I think, had I been able to fly with her and meet her at Heathrow, she wouldn't have been so out of sorts. She hasn't lacked in love and care but everything was so strange. I would have been surprised if it hadn't affected her at all.

Almo

We brought two cats back from Australia in December 2012. I won't lie, they were stressed when we picked them up at ARC Heathrow, they were both obviously reluctant to go to the toilet in their crates, although they had. Their original beds/cat sleeping bags had been taken out (and given to us in bin bags) as they were soiled, and ARC had put some old newspapers and a blanket in for them but there wasn't much for them to sit on. I put the dress I had travelled in (which I wasn't particularly attached to) into one crate and that cat immediately relieved herself on it. I think the familiar smell must have reassured her it was OK to go. We put a blanket we had nicked off the plane (with this situation in mind) in with our boy cat and he also immediately went to the toilet. We'd both used the blanket on the flights.

Our little lady always shouts in her crate but she was quite quiet. My poor little man was very distressed and cried (he never cries) the whole way to Leeds. I let him out to sit with me in the passenger seat and he stopped crying but could only do that at rest stops, it just wasn't safe driving with a loose cat in the dark on the motorway!

I was quite upset about how stressed he was.

Once we got to our holiday cottage and they could get out of their crates they perked up considerably and were fine within a day or so. Our little lady was entranced by radiators, having never seen them, so we got her a radiator bed which she adored (it's been put away for the summer). In our rental we have a gas fire which she thinks is amazing and when she's cold she sits in front of it and looks pointedly at us.

We thought quite hard about bringing one of them. They are both rescues and very attached to us, and my little man in particular is petrified of almost everything. It would have killed me to leave them behind, they really are our children, as sad as that makes me sound, and I would never have considered it for any reason other than their welfare: our Siamese has anxiety disorder and has spent months in the past pulling her own fur out etc, plus she's not in the best of health and we did wonder whether the trip would be the end of her. It was that reason only which made us consider leaving her and if we had had family in Australia we may have done so but would not contemplate putting her back in a rescue so brought her. She actually fared better than our other one.

Knowing what I know now I still would have brought them.

ElizabethK

Thank you for your answer

For the last few months while I've been making plans to get them ready to travel, all Ive been thinking of is making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed on the paperwork.
Then it suddenly dawned on me, "what if they don't settle" or if they're so badly affected by the journey, they change personality

Your post has been very helpful and I am happy to see you say at the end that you would do it again

ElizabethK

Good to hear she's more like her normal self today

ElizabethK

I'd have to have some noise reduction headphones if I were to keep mine indoors

it's funny though that you say the animal shelter made you swear to keep them indoors. All my cats have been rescued from the ASPCA and not once have I needed to say I won't let them outside. I've always found it weird that different states have differing requirements with almost everything

Editha

It's the same in Canada. The animal shelter here in Edmonton has an indoor cat policy, but I know that is not so elsewhere.

Almo

I'm glad you found it useful, I was worried it would be a bit negative but I didn't want to sugarcoat anything. One thing I would say is that the flights from Australia are MUCH longer, and involved a stopover, so our cats had had much longer in their crates than yours presumably will. Taking into account the time they were dropped off prior to flying and the time at ARC, it really was a long stretch to be cooped up.

My best piece of advice would be to take something that smells familiar that you can pop into crates for your pets once you arrive. Second best piece of advice, was sleeping bags. We had whiskas sleeping bags that we'd had for a while which we used as beds in the crates. When we put the cats in their crates in Australia both got straight into the sleeping bags; it was nice for them to have somewhere to hide.

jemima55

Same here in Yorkshire when we adopted two. We live in such a quiet place, though, that we ignored it.

Almo

Forgot to say ours are also effectively indoors. They had a roof terrace in Oz and when we buy will have an outdoor area, possibly the whole garden if we can cat proof it.

Poppy girl

I took Puss back to the UK with me last year as you already know Elizabeth and he is/was used to playing outside on a golf course and the surrounding countryside, he never went out in England for 4 months I was scared as the house was to close to the road, he seemed fine to me and is back here with me in the US none the worse for where

Poppy girl

Wonderful photos

Editha

I'm very surprised that was a requirement in Yorkshire. I"ve heard of some UK shelters where you have to agree to let your cat outside. I believe that is an RSPCA requirement.

sallysimmons

Yes, our vet told me England and America are very different in that regard. Bear in mind that in NY State the average lifespan of an outdoor cat is 5 years - less in some areas - whereas indoor cats live to an average age of 15.

Where we lived, cars weren't the only concern - although it was quite busy - there were also coyotes believe it or not. One young girl was killed in her garden and cats frequently went missing. We had no problem with the requirement to keep them indoors for that reason.

Our cats were quite stressed when they arrived, just like Alamo's, but they settled in within a couple of days. If they seem upset when you first arrive, don't worry. They will soon be fine.

ElizabethK

I thought that too when I read it, in fact I'd never heard of indoor cats until we moved to the US.