Nov 27, 2005 Seattle,
Washington
When we left almost five years ago we decided to take our
cat, Katmandu, with us on our
Adventure across the Pacific on Windarra. Here are some of the things we did
and what we found out about traveling with a cat.
6/08/01, Seattle,
Washington
Before we left Seattle to circumnavigate Vancouver Island and check out the systems on
Windarra we also prepared to take Katmandu on the trip. We went to the City
of Seattle
Pet Licensing and had an AVID microchip imbedded in Katmandu’s shoulder. This is done with a
hypodermic needle and seemed to be a painless process. The chip is encoded
with a unique identification number which can be read with a scanner. We also
took Katmandu to the vet and got an “Official
Small Animal Health Certificate”. This certificate has a description of the
cat, rabies immunization data as well. It is typically used for shipping a
pet. We thought that taking a cat on a sailboat was close enough.
I made multiple copies of the AVID microchip, the health
certificate, rabies certificate and the cat’s vaccination records to take
with us. At the pet store we purchased a tag for Katmandu’s collar that had his name, our
boat’s name and our friend’s phone number in the United States engraved on the tag. Hindsight,
I wished I had added the international country code on the phone number as
well.
I thought we were all set with Katmandu’s paperwork. We left Seattle and sailed to Canada and checked in. Canadian customs
did not seem very concerned about the cat entering the country and did not
even look at the paperwork. The same was when we entered Mexico.
3/28/02, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
Before departing for the Marquesas, French Polynesia, we took Katmandu to a vet and had him checked.
The vet was able to scan his microchip and verify the number with our
paperwork. She issued us a “Certificate de Salud”
which included the microchip identification, a description of the cat, his
vaccination record and an indication that he has a ‘clean bill of health’. We
got this paperwork because we needed a health certificate dated within 6
months of entering French Polynesia and it was past that for the certificate from Seattle.
4/12/02, Nuka
Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
After 23 days we finally arrived in Nuka
Hiva. After a bit of sleep we explored and checked
into the country. As Nuka Hiva
is not a major port of entry we had to wait until Tahiti to check in Katmandu. He would have to stay on board
Windarra.
5/31/02, Arue,
Tahiti, French Polynesia
While in Tahiti we had a mooring buoy at the Tahiti Yacht Club in Arue, just outside of Papeete. Gilles and Marie Concordel of Saperlipopette,
helped arrange for a vet from the Ministry of Agriculture to visit Windarra and
check in Katmandu. Dr Valerie Antras was very nice and
spoke English well and was able to help us with Katmandu. She issued a “Mise En Quarantaine A Bord D’un Bateau”, a certificate indicating we would keep
Katmandu on board Windarra for a period
of 180 days starting from the date we left Mexico.
She checked the cat and tried to read his microchip with her
scanner. It turns out that the AVID chip we had implanted in the United States is not an ISO standard. For a
small fee (cost?) she implanted another microchip into Katmandu. This one was an ISO 11784
microchip. Now Katmandu is dual standard! But I think he still meows in English. I also
found out that having an official tattoo on the cat will suffice though I do
not have any details on this.
Dr. Antras gave Katmandu a rabies booster shot. She also
dusted him with a type of flea powder to kill ‘external’ parasites. Katmandu did not appreciated being held
up by the scruff of his neck and dusted with powder and rewarded her with a
hiss and a quick exit from the cockpit.
She also gave us information in French and English about a
permit for “unboarding” an animal in French Polynesia. This information indicated that
you need the following documents to end the quarantine.
v
An
official document establishing your day of departure from the last country
infected with rabies you visited (all
continental American countries including USA are infected)
v
An
official document establishing your date of entry in French Polynesia.
v
An
official document establishing your animal has been implanted with an ISO
11784 microchip or has an official tattoo.
v
A
document establishing your animal was immunized against panleucopenia
and rhinotracheitis
v
A
certificate by a veterinary of French Polynesia establishing your animal has been subjected to a treatment
against internal parasites with praziquantel 5mg/kg
v
A
certificate by a veterinary of French Polynesia establishing your animal was subjected to a treatment against
external parasites.
According to the information, after six months exclusively on
board in countries free of rabies, the animals that have been treated
according to the above mentioned procedure will be granted a permit to unboard. The animal is consigned on board as long as the
permit is not issued. In case of contravention the animal will be treated
according to articles 14 and 15 of the 77-93 deliberation which implies
confiscation and destruction of the animal. It also says that the unboarding of the animal after 30 days can occur if in
addition you supply the following documents:
§
A
veterinary certificate bearing the animal identification number, attesting
that the animal was immunized against rabies more than 6 months before the
date of planned unboarding and less than 1 year.
§
The
result of a titration of rabies antibodies performed in an officially agreed
laboratory, at least 3 months after vaccination and 3 months before the
planned date of unboarding and superior to 0.5 IU.
This document includes contact information on the Veterinary
Department of the Ministry of Agriculture for French Polynesia. Phone: 689-42-81-44, Fax:
689-42-08-31, and email: sdevrural@mail.p.f.
You may try this site also: Ministry
of Agriculture - French Polynesia.
Dr. Antras was very helpful. She put
us in touch with another vet who would come to the boat and perform the blood
test as part of the rabies titration check.
Dr. Pierre Raynal came to Windarra a
few days later to do the blood test. Katmandu was not going to have anything
to do with any more vets after the dusting. Rich and I tried wrapping him in
a towel, hoping to keep him immobile for the blood draw. The cat saw through
our plan and was not going to give up with out a fight, what are claws and
teeth for anyway. So we had to go to plan B. Dr. Raynal
gave the cat a quick injection of a sedative. Katmandu went from attack cat to sleeping
pussycat in less than 5 minutes. The blood draw was made, the paperwork
signed and the sample was sent to Paris, France for evaluation. Katmandu was limp as a wet noodle for
over 8 hours. We kept him down below deck and away from his food and water
dish so he would not choke or drown. He looked very pitiful and he tried to
drag himself drunkenly across the floor.
At this point I started contacting the Ministry of Agriculture
and Forestry (MAF) in New Zealand about importing Katmandu into the country. We had decided
to spend cyclone season in New Zealand and would be there for several
months. I needed to learn what I could about quarantine for Katmandu. Some of the information I found
out through the MAF website.
I also emailed Dr. Kerry Mulqueen of MAF at mulqueenk@maf.govt.nz. I found Dr. Mulqueen very helpful. The website also has information
about what you can and can not bring into New Zealand.
Via the web,
email and fax, I located the Pussy Cat Lodge in Auckland, New Zealand. Gary Burch is the owner and he
helped me arrange for Katmandu to do his quarantine time at the Pussy Cat Lodge. His phone
number is 0-9-828-3410, fax 0-9-828-0455. The cost of Katmandu’s quarantine at the Pussy Cat
Lodge for 30 days was $1064NZ. This includes a $300NZ charge for
transportation from Opua to Auckland. Opua
was our port of entry into New Zealand and we were able to arrange for Gary’s son and a friend to come up to
Opua and pick up Katmandu and drive him back to Auckland so he could begin his quarantine
as soon as possible. This is a whole story in itself. Look in the New Zealand landfalls position updates for
more of the story.
The typical quarantine time for cats varies from 30 days to 6
months which must be at an approved quarantine facility. If you do all of
your homework and have all of the needed paperwork, shots, certificates, etc
you can get it down to only 30 days. We were able to do this with Katmandu and the Pussy Cat Lodge but it
required some work before we even arrived in New Zealand.
I recommend you check the website to verify their requirements
which may have changed since we were in New Zealand (November 2002 to May 2003).
For Katmandu we needed the following:
§
Confirmed
booking form for a quarantine facility in New Zealand. The Pussy Cat Lodge required a
$500NZ deposit to hold the booking. I did this using a VISA card.
§
Completed
Application form to import live animals into New Zealand transitional facility.
§
Payment
form for application, $225NZ via VISA card.
§
Copy
of the results of the rabies titration test taken at least 6 months before
but within a year. This is the results of the blood draw made in French Polynesia and sent to Paris for analysis.
§
Copy
of the certificate of the rabies booster shot received in French Polynesia
§
Zoo-Sanitary
Certificate which includes the identification of the animal, name of
owner/importer, origin of the vessel and name of the master, list of
countries the vessel visited in the previous six months and destination of
the animal.
§
Importer’s
declaration
§
Signed
Veterinary Certificate.
Between our time French Polynesia and arriving in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands I was able to make all of the
above arrangements except for one. In hindsight, I should have obtained a
signed veterinary certificate for Katmandu before we left French Polynesia. I just assumed that each place
along the way would have an official vet.
7/02, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Our next stop after French Polynesia was Rarotonga, which is in the southern
portion of the Cook
Islands.
Realizing I did not have the signed vet certificate, I tried to obtain one
here. Unfortunately the chief vet of the Cook Island had recently quit and had left
the island.
8/02, Niue
Niue was the next country after the Cook Islands. It is a protectorate of New Zealand and has its own government but
not its own veterinary. Since there is no indigenous
animals in Niue and very few cats or dogs and no rabies, I guess they don’t need
one. I was starting to get a little worried at this point.
9/02, Kingdom of Tonga
Tonga was my last chance before New Zealand to get a signed vet certificate.
I was able to get in touch with Dr. Siosifa T. Fifita, the chief veterinary of the Kingdom of Tonga. His email address is: tongavet@kalianet.to. We corresponded
via email while we were in Neiafu, Vava’u, in the northern island group of Tonga. Dr. Fifita
was in Tongatapu, Nuku’alofa, in the southern island
group of Tonga. Luckily Nuku’alofa was between Neiafu and New Zealand so we would not have to go out
of our way to get there.
In October we sailed from Vava’u,
stopping in the Ha’api group of islands and then on
to Nuku’alofa. Dr. Fifita came out to Windarra and
checked on Katmandu. A few days later we went to his office to pick up the signed,
dated, stamped International Animal Health Certificate for Cat. It looks very
impressive with the Kingdom of Tonga seal on it.
11/02, Opua, New Zealand
We arrived in Opua, North Island of
New Zealand. We checked into customs, immigration and the port authority. We
contacted the Pussy Cat Lodge and they came up to pick up Katmandu. During the next 30 days we
would visit him at quarantine. It was sad when we could not take him with us
back to Windarra but soon the time came and he became a Kiwi cat. (see Landfalls in New Zealand for more details of quarantine.)
Pussy Cat Lodge,
Quarantine is the building in the background
4/03, Opua, New Zealand
We decided to go from New Zealand directly to Australia. We were all a bit ‘island out’
and since it was getting close to the time when Jesse would be applying to
college we thought it would be easier from Australia than Fiji. Another advantage is since Katmandu was now a ‘Kiwi cat’ if he
traveled from New Zealand directly to Australia he would not have to serve
another quarantine period. This was a plus since the only quarantine centers
are in Sydney and if Sydney is not your port of entry you
have to pay airfare for the cat’s transportation to the quarantine center.
The Australian
Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) website is a good place to check
out for details.
Before leaving New Zealand we needed to get a export certificate from the MAF in New Zealand. This required a visit to an
approved vet in Whangarei for Katmandu and a visit to the Justice of
the Peace to sign the certificate. This has to be done within 24 hours of
departure and checking out of the country. Again, check with the MAF to find
out the current guidelines and which vets are approved for this process.
5/03, Scarborough, Queensland, Australia
We arrived late at night and tied up to the quarantine dock.
Since we keep Katmandu on the boat at all times and the quarantine dock is closed off
from the other docks by a locked door we did not worry about tying up.
In the morning we called in to clear into the country and we
were quickly informed we had to leave the dock and anchor in the harbor since
we had a cat on board. We complied and waiting for the visits from the
officials. The official from the ministry of agriculture was more interested
in confiscating the meat we bought in New Zealand than in Katmandu. He signed the export
certificate and Katmandu became an ‘Aussie Cat’.
8/04, Scarborough, Queensland, Australia
Prior to loading Windarra on the Dockwise
ship we arranged for Katmandu to stay at the Brisbane Pet Motel. Here he would stay until we
were settled on Windarra in Seattle. In addition to his stay we
arranged for Jet Pets to pick him up
at the Brisbane Pet Motel , process
all of the necessary paperwork and send Katmandu from Brisbane to Seattle.
10/04, Seattle, Washington
Windarra is finally back in Seattle and we have returned from
setting Jesse up in college. We made a call of Kelly Traynor
of Jet Pets to send our last crew member back to the boat. You can contact
Jet Pets at 1300-668-309, fax +613-9335-1206 or transport@jetpets.com.au. She gave
us the flight number and time to pick up Katmandu at Sea-Tac
airport.
He flew from Brisbane to Sydney with and overnight stay in Sydney and a vet check. Then from Sydney he flew non-stop to Los Angeles with an overnight there as well.
The next day he flew from Los Angeles to Seattle where we picked him up at the
United Airlines freight office, just north of the main terminal area.
Unfortunately it was raining when he arrived and the poor cat caught a cold
from his experience.
You would have to ask him whether sailing across the Pacific was
easier than flying back.
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