Marg1e

How can this be done?
Who's prepared to help with advice regarding the best way of transporting one very large (8.5kg) marmalade tabby to la belle France?
Please, I should've said ...
No urgency about this; but it's info. that I REALLY want to have under my belt.

Doc Savage

What in the world is a "mog?" Your title makes no sense, you might click on the little red triangle and ask a mod to change it.

AnnaBeth

A mog/moggie is a cat. The OP wants information on taking a cat from Sydney to France.

CDTraveler

Don't know what your time frame for travel might be, but some aspects of pet travel require long range planning.

Things to do, not necessarily in order:

1. Make sure the cat's rabies and other vaccinations are current, and check to see if France requires a blood test to prove immunty (http://www.pettravel.com/immigration/France.cfm)
2. Review the procedure for getting an EU "pet port" (http://pettravelstore.com/products/P...rt-France.html)
3. Get the cat microchipped it s/he isn't already
4. Finally, start putting a bit less in the supper dish every day because the weight limit for a cabin pet on most airlines is 6kg, including carrier

Alternatively, if the moggie won't diet , look into long sea voyages. As the servant of a 7 kg (on the vet's scale this morning) marmalade moggie, I know I would never trust my son's beloved companion to an airline cargo hold.

BTW I know you're in Oz and the web sites I posted are American, but I think the links to the EU guidelines should get you the right bilingual forms anyway.

Marg1e

Thank-you very much, CDTraveller - I'm obliged to you for this input, which fills me with gloom (he isn't a fat mog - he's a very BIG mog; so dieting him isn't a possibility).
Now I have somewhere to start from.

STBCypriot

Aside from checking the requirements for bringing a cat into the EU, you need to contact your airline and see if they have any specific requirements. Do not assume that you can take the cat on any flight you choose. Airlines have a limit to the number of pets they will allow in the cabin or hold. In some cases they may say that the cat is not allowed on a particular flight because there already is a dog booked on that flight (happened to me on a Bulgarian Airlines flight). There will be an additional charge for taking the cat with you - the charge is airline-specific. What you might want to do is pick your flight(s) and then contact the airline to see if the cat is allowed on that flight(s), keeping in mind that you may have to be flexible with dates.

My cats have flown on short flights - Bulgaria to Cyprus - and long flights - New York to Cyprus via Prague. Generally once they are on the plane and settled they are calm as can be - thew do not enjoy taking off. Mine always come with me in the cabin and I do not sedate them.

Marg1e

Further much-appreciated input - many thanks!
Somehow I foresee that no airline landing in Sydney and going to Europe is going to let me have a cat on-board. 'SPECIALLY not a huge cat.
I rather think I'm going to have to have him transported. For life. Just like my antecedents.

CDTraveler

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. My son's cat is much like yours - BIG but lean; he's a Maine Coon mix and small for breed! But he's still large by cat standards and could never meet the requirement that the cat must be able to stand up in the carry bag that fits under plane seats. When we travel by car with him, he rates a "medium dog" sized carrier.

One other thought for you on routing. I'm not sure what the usual route is for a Sydney to France trip, but in terms of both paperwork and temperature you might be better off flying SYD- Los Angeles - France than via India or the Middle East. Some countries have much stricter animal import rules for pets coming from those countries and I don't know if they might apply to pets just transitting there.

A1pax

Exactly a year ago, our 2 dogs arrived in LHR from SYD to live with us. They were 8 and 9 years old then. We used a pet transport company in Sydney - it cost us a fortune but a small price to pay to have our "babies" with us.

I could have do all the paperwork ourselves, but we were worried that if something was not done properly, our dogs might end up in quarantine. I did the vaccination and blood test paperwork, and paid the pet transport company to book flights and completed the quarantine at both SYD and LHR.

Someone mentioned in this thread that only approved route / flights would be allowed. In our case, it had to be Qantas from SYD, via SIN, to LHR. The pet transport company picked up our 2 babies a day before the flights, held them in "cages" (horrible!) at an airport kennel, then took them to the plane the next day. No food for more than 2 days - only water. They stayed in cages for all that time.

Not sure about the requirements for cats into France, but the various pet transport company websites will have very good information. Or, just phone a few to ask for general info. I did a lot of research via google and on the phone before hand - it took 9 months from when hubby thought he might get a job offer until we got our babies to the UK. I also phoned the Australian quarantine service. They were very helpful. If I did not understand the first time, I called again and again until I got consistent answers to my questions.

When my babies arrived in LHR, we had to wait for almost 5 hours at the quarantine office at the airport to go through their health check and paperwork, before we were reunited with babies. One thing I was very unhappy with the pet transport company, was that our babies were very smelly and their fur soiled with urine - being in cages for over 2 days. At least I thought they could have give them a quick wash. When I handed my babies to them in SYD, they were white, fluffy, no smell and clean. When I picked them up in LHR, they were yellow, smelly and fur covered in urine.

A final sad note, the older one of our 2 dogs did not last the year in London. We had to ask vet to put him to an eternal sleep 5 weeks ago. Hearts broken and devastated.