Our furry family

Now that the temporary crisis about entering the country is apparently resolved, we return to the regularly scheduled broadcast.

One of the top five questions that I get asked about the relocation is, “How will you move your pets? Won’t they have to be quarantined for months?”

This is a lot simpler than most people think. There are actually only a few places where pets have to go into quarantine. The UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii have pretty strict regulations. For most of Europe, all that’s needed is a veterinarian’s certificate of health & a record of shots.

That’s not to say there aren’t complications – and in our case, extra twists and turns caused by the virus messing with our timetable.

Original plan: when we traveled in early April, we were going to take care of all of our business and financial stuff, plus find and lease an apartment. We allowed a little extra time for furniture buying, too. Our thought was we could arrange to have stuff delivered as soon as possible, and probably be able to get into the apartment to live within a couple of days in-country.

This meant that if we wanted to have the kids with us, we’d have to find a pet-friendly apartment for a few days. It also meant that we’d have to manage their crates along with extra luggage.

What we decided to do instead was to use a service to help coordinate the animal travel. There are companies that do this – some of which have been in business for decades with very high satisfaction rates.

The way it was going to work – we would check them into a kennel near the airport the day before we left. Two days after we arrived, the service would pick them up at the kennel and take them to the airport and make sure they were all checked in. They would then arrive in Porto the next day, where we would pick them up at the airport and take them immediately to their new home, dog bed and litter box already installed and in place.

One thing – there is no direct flight from Portland to Porto; the only flight from the US to Porto leaves out of Newark. This was a good thing, since the pet facilities at Newark are inside the airport. The horror stories that you hear about the wrong pet being put onto the plane always happen when the animal leaves the airport and is returned later – the transporting company will mix things up at the off-site boarding facility.

Yes, there is a fee for all this, but we figured it was acceptable for the luxury of having it handled. I started setting up the preliminaries back in 2019, because I’m an early planner.And then, Corona …

The April trip cancelled, which means that when we show up in Portugal we have to stop first in Lisbon for some business and banking stuff that would be more complicated to do in Porto. We then head up north a few days before the lease starts August 1 – we’ll use the extra time to buy a bed and some things to be delivered ASAP, but we figured it was going to be a few days before we could move the pets in.

This creates a two-week gap between when we leave and when the pets leave, which caused some interesting complications.

The biggest item – if you and your pets fly more than five days apart from each other, they have an entirely different cargo classification, which requires an FDA approval obtained within five days of their departure, plus another vet certificate within five days as well.

The good news – the pet transport service we’re using was able to come up with solutions (for a fee) for everything. The new plan:

• On July 16, I take Keiko and Lexie to the vet and get a health certificate (we’ve already visited a couple of weeks ago and I’ve made sure they have all their shots and are in good health, so there should be no surprises).
• We leave July 20, but the pets leave the day before us – on July 19th, they’re flying to Los Angeles, where the pet transport company’s headquarters are.
• The pet service will pick them up at the airport and take them directly to their private kennel.
• On July 26 we arrive in Porto; on the 27th we formally sign the lease agreement, then start shopping for furniture. A piece of REALLY good news – we should be able to get access to the apartment at least a couple of days early, so we’ll move out of the hotel as soon as possible.
• On about August 1, the kids will go to the pet service’s vet to get their health and FDA certificates.
• Since the pet service doesn’t like shipping pets on weekends, they won’t leave LA until August 5. Their exact route is still pending, but they will have a lay-over in Newark, Amsterdam, or Frankfort – all airports that have pet facilities on-premises. From there, they’ll proceed to Porto, where we will pick them up August 6.

So, are we stressed about this? Yes, of course we are. But given the circumstances and the timing of everything, this seemed like the best option – and, quite frankly, I’ll be less stressed than I would be if they were traveling with us and staying in multiple temporary lodgings with us.

Will the pets be happy with the arrangement? Doubtful, but they didn’t have any better suggestions, so I have to go with what I’ve got.

Lexie is sitting in my lap purring while I’m writing this – my expectation is that she will make me pay when we get her home in Porto, but I’m willing myself to believe that she’ll forget about it fairly quickly and forgive me.

Final note: The Bird Brothers, Jake and Lloyd, will not be joining us in Portugal. They will shortly be moving to take up residence with their new human companion.

Next episode: How many details can YOU think of in advance?