Job Discussion Forums

[RachelA_Broad]

Ok, I feel like I know the answer to this one, but I want to ask more experienced people than myself just to be sure. I am about to leave for my CELTA in Spain and then onwards to teach. I haven't decided where yet. The only glitch I have is my cat. Of course I could find him a home in the states but I would really like to take him with me. Has anyone had any luck bringing their pets with them? Does anyone feel strongly one way or another?
Appreciate any input!

[Bogazicibaby]

Hi Rachela_Broad,
When I moved to Turkey almost 3 years ago I had 2 cats. One was very old and had mouth cancer. I left him with my father (a vet) I took the other one- a 6 year old Cornish Rex.
Its fairly easy traveling with a cat. You just have to have an airline approved bag. I brought Zeus on the airline with me. Unfortunatly, when I was going from KS to NY I flew on an airlline that didn't allow pets and I had to air ship him on a seperate flight and take a bus ride to a different airport to pick him up. I had no problems on the internation flight.
You do have to have a health certificate within a certain amount of days of travel. Easy enough to get. The Turks had no idea what to do with my health certificate papers when I got here and just handed them back to me. Spain may be more interested in the health certificate.
With all the changes I made in my life, I was really happy to have Zeus with me.
If you stay in a hotel- make sure that they accept pets. My company knew that I was bringing Zeus with me and managed to book me into a hotel that did not accept pets. The manager had some nasty things to say to me because he thought I didn't know any Turkish.
Health care should be fairly easy to find but may be a little bit different than what you are used to. I used to work as a Vet Tech and I have had many interesting conversations with my vet about health care and treatments. Food is also expensive if you feed imported foods. I like Hills Science diet and I pay a fortune for it but feel its well worth it.
Zeus has since contracted an illness and died. I got a new kitten who is now a huge cat and when I go home in a few years, I will take him home with me. I have lived with cats all my life and can't imagine life without them. They have their own personalities and kind of grow on ya.
Go for it- take your kitty with you- it was well worth it for me!
Maria

[denise]

bogazicibaby,

This is a bit off the topic, but I think Zeus is a brilliant name for a cat!

d

[Glenski]

You will have a problem if you come to Japan with a pet. Most apartment managers don't allow them, even to Japanese.

Here are a couple of links that explain why it is not a good idea to travel with pets.

http://www.maff-aqs.go.jp/english/
http://workabroad.monster.com/articles/bringingfido/

[Roger]

Oh, I know you are not going to read this one, but it is an honest, if rhetorical question from someone who has spent two thirds of his life away from the country he was born in, and he has picked up numerous stray animals that he considered better friends than most of his own human friends:
Have you asked your cat whether he or she wants to be put in a cage and taken aboard a crazy flying iron bird? Let alone a FOREIGN country with foreign cats...

[jud]

I bet if given the chance to stay without someone who loves him/her or to go on a big iron bird (don't think the cat realizes it's flying!!!) and stay with them, it'd choose the latter. I'd even be willing to choose it for him.

[khmerhit]

I had a colleague who purchased a ferret. It lived in a cage and bit people.
The silly so and so left it on his porch and it escaped, but luckily the neighbours caught it before it could do any harm -- or so we hoped. My colleague also purchased parrots, fish, and a dog which he returned to the petshop. He lived alone in a flat and need the companionship, as he was wasting away from the slimming disease. I also had a girlfriend who purchased a monkey which lived in our flat. She gave him the run of the place. She treated it like a baby and called me "Daddy". I moved out.
there was another teacher in town called "Monkey Jim" whose girlfriend also had purchased a simian friend, but she didnt stop at one. They had threee monkeys. He, like me, was driven to climbing the walls, literally. He closeted himself in his bedroom to get away from the chaos but his girlfriend climbed through the roof and found him. I think the moral of this story is that cats are preferable to monkeys and ferrrets. Oh, and dont get AIDS, and above all dont let monkey lovers push you around.

[Bogazicibaby]

Hello All,
Thanks Denise Zeus was a pretty cool cat I still really miss him. My current cat is koftehor (lucky dog) Named by my husband. I'm not sure its a good name if we take her back home.

Roger- I did read your message and I disagree. When you take any animal into your house you accept responsibility for taking care of them. To me that does not mean finding a new home every time I move.
I have a girlfriend here who came from the US with TWO of her cats and for her it was also well worth it.
I had a big discussion with one of my sisters about bringing my cat with me. She felt that it was cruel to take him with me. My father - the Vet, thought that I was being quite responsible for the cat to bring him with me and thought I was doing the right thing.
I feel that having raised the cat for 6 years that it would have been cruel to leave him.
I wasn't happy about having to air ship him from KS to NY but he arrived in good condition. My father had sedated him. Zeus loved his in cabin travel bag. I always left it out for him because he liked to jump in and out.
Who said anything about being exposed to other cats??????? There are many stray cats in Turkey and there is no way I would let a house cat be exposed to the illnesses that are carried by the stray cats. Not to mention the vehicle traffic!
When you travel with pets you are more limited. As I mentioned before, if you do choose to bring your cat with you, make sure that your new housing accepts them!
My sister has been living in Japan for the last 14 years. She left her cat with our mother and got a cat while she was there. There are difficulties in Japan but its possible to have indoor cats there.
Pets are not for everyone- but for those of us who were brought up with them, they become like part of the family. I think people who have tons of cats are a bit on the weird side. After all- someone has to change those litter boxes every day
There are different ways to look at travel with pets and just like different cultures in different countries who is anyone to say that one way is completely wrong or right? (What I'm trying to say is that while I am a big cat person- I recognize that not all people are) If you choose to travel with pets, you have to make sure that you stay in places that accept pets and you have to be responsible.

[misterkodak]

Zeus is an excellant name for a Cat. I have an 18 month old Siamese named Duk (pronounced Duke)... purebred with papers. The cat's got his own kimlik for crying out loud! My kids live for this cat... even though he has a bit of an attitude. We've often opened this subject about what to do with the "Dukinator" when we leave. I wouldn't think of leaving him here in Turkey... when we could possibly be living in a house with a nice back yard later on. Turkey isn't exactly a pet friendly country. Maybe it's not comfortable for a pet to travel by air (Is it for humans?) but the alternatives are far worse.
I was a military brat growing up and my dog accompanied us to wherever my father was sent... Germany, etc. It was nice to have a "friend" along. Oh yeah Trixie passed on at the ripe age of 15. I don't think the travel did her any worse for the wear and tear.
Now.. if only we could find Duk a girlfriend.....

[jud]

Here in Italy there's a huge problem with animal abandonment during the summer because people often can't take their pets on holiday. While I couldn't imagine dumping my dog in favour of a vacation, I'm all for making hotels, planes, homes etc. more pet friendly.

I've taken my dog to New York 3 times, and she's travelled all over Germany and Italy with me. Now that she's 11 I don't bring her overseas anymore (she stays with my ex, her other owner, when I go), but she has had no bad physical or psychological effects from travelling...in fact I think it's help make her more secure as she knows she won't be left behind.

[Roger]

Yes, responsibility!

Here is a little story.
I was walking down Middle Road in Kowloon, Hong Kong, when a man dropped a cardboard box and put a discarded door on top of it. Mystified, I looked into the box, and found a kitten that was still blind.
I had a jute bag with me, so I put the kitten in there for my long journey back home on a small island. That was the beginning of a deep and loving relationship with a cat, not the first in my life, but probably the deepest.
I lived in a small house with one storey and a terrace fenced off to the outside. The cat had a large place to roam, but it was all concrete.
Right after taking it home, the cat was trying to find bodily warmth. It climbed up my leg and snuggled against me.
I was lucky as we were two guys (and our girlfriends who were not so impressed by the cat but at least did not neglect it) to take care of it.
Eventually, the cat grew so used to being with me that I could place it on my shoulder and walk the alleys of the village. Yes, after 50 meters down the path from our house, it was new territory, and the cat became tense, but it trusted me and simply sat on my shoulder.
Of course, I had to plan excursions more accurately, always thinking of the cat's needs and timing my return so that someone would feed it. A commitment is a commitment.
Maybe we overpampered the cat. It grew too dependent not so much on humans but on me and my friend!
The time came for us to pack up and leave. What to do with the cat? Taking it with us was out of question. We were going to travel to Europe via the then Soviet Union by train.
My girlfriend knew of a nice family that wanted a pet. So I put my cat on my shoulder...
It travelled with me all the way from that island to Hong Kong Island, from Hong Kong island to Kowloon, from Kowloon to a village in the New Territories by bus. The cat moved NOT ONCE, for the full 3 hours that we were travelling.
In hindsight I am tempted to say: She had an idea of what was going to happen to her.
The host family was a very friendly Chinese family, living in a large house surrounded by green areas. Ideal for a cat!
We sat in their living-room, the cat nestled against my belly, savouring the last moments of togetherness. I had to tear it off my trousers to which it clung with its claws.
Then it disappeared under the sofa and could not be made to reappear.
I returned to my little island. In a few days, we would go too.
Then the news: The cat had disappeared.

You know that some cats and dogs can trot all the way back to where they used to live - miles upon miles with no landmarks, just following their instincts.
No doubt my cat wanted to return to that little house on that island - it still grieves me!

[jud]

I appreciate the story, and absolutely, Roger, but why are they returning? For their owner.

[yaramaz]

Ah! Duk! I have the perfect girlfriend-- my cat, Yaramaz, in Kayseri is very affectionate, low-key, intelligent, and verrrry romantic-- she got pregnant twice before we could track down a vet who would fix her. None of the vets in this city have a clue what to do with domestic pets. Aside from the odd bird or fish or tiny dog, most Turks don't seem interested in pets. Agreed, Turkey is a brutal place to be a cat on her own- Yarries came to my flat one day last winter, homeless and hungry and a deep grey colour from all the winter-related soot (she's actually a tabby). I think her previous owner was a yabanci teacher from my block of flats who left town and left her behind to fend for herself. All the Turks I know fear cats. If and when I finally pack my bags and leave Turkey, I'll take her with me. She was a great companion over the long winter. I think Duk would like her relaxed and pillowlike nature.

[richard ame]

Hi Forum
I don't think that pets generally being brought to another country is a good idea . I made the delibrate decision to leave my border collie behind in the U.K, having said that ,I would have had serious misgivings about coming here in the first place without fiding a new home for Jess. That was back in 94 , I went back 2 years later to see him and well he went crazy fot the first 5 minutes than his new playmate came along (a 14 year old boy) and he forgot me I was glad that even after living with us from a puppy up to 8 years old he had adapted .
There was no way I could justify taking him with us and it would not have being fair on him or us ,I suspect he is no longer alive now and I think of him everytime I see a handsome looking dog and I have no doubt that sooner or later we will have another one ,they do make great company ,I believe I did the only responsible thing ,but others may disagree . Cats now thats a different story ,can't abide them most Turks agree with me and treat them worse than dogs ,sorry cat lovers but I think they are vermin .

[misterkodak]

Rich: I used to agree with your stance on cats. Actually, I still do. Most cats are pretty much vermin but there are a select few which have personalities I find compatible. Duk surprises me.He's a mouser and enjoys playing with the various insects we find on the porch of our yazlik.
He's also been known to mew and hiss when people we don't know come to the door of our apartment. Unlike most cat owners, I do have my boundries.... No silver bowls, a regular bath (maybe people will think bad but my cat gets a bath every 3 weeks whether he feels he needs it or not!).
From time to time, I've been known to trim his claws whenever he destroys something or he scratches a human. He really hates that.

Yaramaz: I think Duk would like to meet Yarrie. He enjoys sitting on the window ledge in the sun and birdwatching. Sometimes, he's an airborne cat. He's been known to fall out of our window and land on the neighbor's terrace. This is when we play "Find the Dukinator" . He's already had it out with the neighbor's little terrier. He was no match for the claws of Duk. As much as he is a "survivor", Duk is also a lapcat. During the winter I would come home first before the kids and we surfed the internet together. Duk doesn't sleep in any sort of pet bed. He insists on sleeping with my wife and I. Before settling in for the night, he does his "dance" on the bedspread and then lays down. He's a very cheap cat... his favorite toys include bottle caps, those cheap 1 million Tl rubber "water yoyo" things, and the catnip toy my sister sent from the states. If I was single, this cat would be a girl magnet.. my friends in college and I had a joke that the best way to meet a girl was through either a cute dog/cat or a small child). Duk says please send a pic of Yarrie!