Lost Luggage and the Art of Traveling Light

Oh, the bureau-cat-cy!

If you ever thought moving cats to Italy would be easy, you’ve never had cats! Here I’ll share the whirlwind of preparations and bureaucratic hurdles involved in relocating my cats, Shinx and Oreo, from Seattle to Rome. From ensuring they met all health requirements to tackling unexpected vaccination gaps, it was a journey marked by meticulous planning and unforeseen challenges.

I have had a bug in my ear my whole life about living in Europe; reclaiming Luxembourgish citizenship only amplified the buzz. This was something I took into careful consideration when I was thinking about adopting Shinx and Oreo back in 2020. I wanted to make sure that that if I adopted cats that I could take them anywhere I wanted to live since they were going to be a forever part of my family. I did some research, and it didn’t seem to be too big of an ordeal as no quarantine is needed, so all adoptions and plans proceeded.

I’ll share my experience with relocating my pets to Italy and the process I went through in early 2023 when I moved from Seattle to Rome. Please consult the proper authorities if you are considering moving your pets abroad!

Good kitties Shinx and Oreo get a kitten cup from the drive-through coffee stand after the vet appointment for their health check.

Navigating Pet Export Regulations

Moving a pet is technically exporting a live animal in the world of bureaucracy, so you bet there were plenty of hoops to hop through. The pet travel and entry requirements are:

• An ISO 11784/11785 compliant 15-digit pet microchip
• An up-to-date rabies vaccination at least 21 days before travel
• A health check by an accredited veterinarian no more than 10 days before arrival in Italy
• A Health Certificate stamped by the USDA office in Olympia

The kitties got their microchip from the shelter, so that was easy to cross off the list. When Shinx had her yearly appointment in the preceding September, I asked my vet if she was an accredited veterinarian and she said she was and that her office even has an admin person to help with all the paperwork. Great! I got the kitties appointments on the calendar for March 2023. I emailed in January to make sure everything was looking okay and got the green light.

Dealing with Unexpected Vaccination Hurdles

Now, what happened next was not the plan, but it’s something that everyone needs to be watchful of when they go through this process. And I will try to explain the timeline as succinctly as possible.

We were scheduled to arrive in Italy Tue. March 21. This meant the earliest the kitties could get their health check was Sat. March 11. On Fri. morning March 10, the admin at the vet’s office called me and said there was a problem. She was pulling together their paperwork and had noticed that there was a gap in both of their rabies shots by just a few days, and this meant they could not travel on the date we had scheduled.

When I adopted the kitties in July 2020, they both had their primary rabies shot which are only good for one year. The coordinator told me that I needed to get their booster as close to the data of their primary as possible. Since this was Pandemic Times, and wait times were long, I couldn’t get them in for boosters until a few days past year anniversary of their primary. The vet didn’t care, it wasn’t a big deal, they’re indoor kitties, so no one thought of it again – until it was time to put their export paperwork together.

The admin called the USDA and asked if there was anything that could be done, but they would not stamp the Health Certificate with this lapse between primary and booster.

So I wrangled them into their little travel sacks and took them to the vet so they could get a primary rabies shot. This meant that they couldn’t travel until March 31, which meant we were not moving on March 21 like planned.

Unexpected Delays and Their Hidden Blessings

It sucked, but this snafu gave me more time before making such a life-changing move that I’m sort of grateful for it. And I went to Rome without the kitties on March 20 and found us a wonderful apartment, so they didn’t have to live in vacation rentals for a month like planned, which I’m also grateful for!

Health Checks and Paperwork Completion

Our new travel date was April 20, so we had our checkup on April 10. The vet’s office waived the paperwork fee for me, so that saved me some money. I took their papers to FedEx and overnighted them to the USDA office. They stamped and returned them the next day. I had two USDA Prime kitty cats!

On the travel day, I had to show the check-in agent their Health Certificate. They didn’t really seem to know what to look for, but after everything I went through, people were going to look at it and care!

Same when I got Italy, I went to customs and made them look at the papers. The customs agent found a blank sheet of paper and wrote down their microchip numbers, I think to make me feel like something official was happening. I feel like I could have walked straight through without declaring them.

To Be Continued!

I’m going to paws here… Come back for Part 2 where I’ll tell you more about the flight details and how Shinx becomes a gremlin at 30,000 feet!