Bringing Your Pet to Japan Part I: Decision Making

I’m planning on writing a series of posts about how we decided to bring Nola with us to Japan, the requirements, and actual travel with her. I was very nervous when we were making these decisions for ourselves, and I hope the posts will give others thinking of moving their animals abroad some perspective from the other side.

As many of you know, Michael and I have a darling cat, Nola. Before we adopted her, we sat down and had a long discussion about the pros and cons of pet-ownership. One of the issues that we discussed was what we would do with the cat if we were to move abroad. Michael and I have always wanted to live abroad, and, thanks to our jobs, we knew that it was a real possibility. At the time (pre-cat), the answer was simple – the cat would move with us!

Nola was happily adopted, and became a beloved part of our family.

Fast forward one year - Michael and I were in the throws of deciding whether or not to move to Tokyo. The house was in a constant state of flux, tensions between the household humans was high, and the stress was starting to show for Miss Nola. She had a rough summer (as did we all!), and as the decision to move became more concrete, we started to question our decision to simply move the cat with us. First of all, the requirements to bring an animal into Japan, a rabies-free island nation, are onerous. Second, what sort of travel arrangements were we willing to subject Miss Nola to?

On the other hand, if Nola didn’t come with us, where would she go? Taking her back to the shelter was the option of last resort for us. Nola is a loner – unhappy around other cats – and the shelter was hard on her. We had lots of offers to adopt Nola, but most already had a cat, a situation that we knew would be less than ideal for our one and only.

Finally, we came to a decision – we would jump through all the Japan-required hoops, find a “foster family” for Nola (for the required 6 month wait), and play travel arrangements by ear. If at any time we thought the move would be too strenuous for her, we would pull the plug. Our (OK, my) top requirements were: 1) NO quarantine – ever; 2) Nola flies in the cabin; and 3) Nola is accompanied on the flight by human beings who truly care for her well-being. Here is my reasoning:

1. NO quarantine – ever. Quarantine is a nasty place, and in Japan it sounds even worse. Quarantine consists of many many animals in small cages in a confined space. Germs run rampant. Furthermore, in Japan quarantined animals are not routinely cared for (food, water, litter box), so it would have required us to either (a) make the 1.5 hour trip to the airport daily, or (b) hire someone to feed and water the cat and clean out her cage. This is way more stress than any animal should have to endure.

2. Nola flies in the cabin. This may be my own bias, but I am wary of the “cargo hold” for animals. Sure, it is pressurized so that the animals won’t die, but I worry about the temperature, not to mention the effect of having lots of other animals around. My Nola is a petal (despite what Michael says), and would be totally traumatized to be subjected to the sounds/smells of other animals for 12+ hours.

3. Nola is accompanied by a human being who truly cares for her well-being. Because one of my biggest fears is “something could happen,” it was important for me to ensure that the people in charge (should “something happen”) will treat Nola with all the loving care that Michael or I would. Airports and airplanes are not animal-friendly places. If Nola were to have an accident in her carrier or somehow escape in the cabin, I wanted the humans in charge of her to care about her well being at least as much as they cared about cleaning up any mess. Originally, I considered flying back to bring Nola myself, but happily my parents volunteered for kitty travel duty. It was amazingly generous of them to do so, and we feel that Nola could not be in better hands. (Because, let’s face it, I would be such a wreck that Nola would probably end up much more stressed out than necessary.)

More coming up – the next installment will be “Requirements.”