.
This question was for us not much of an issue. Our Cassy is in such a way part of our lives that it was obvious that he would come with us. The thought of leaving him behind never occurred to us. But what will you be facing? The New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) website comprises a large number of web pages containing a number of conditions a pet has to face before being allowed to be imported. We knew on before hand that at least 6 months ahead of the import a titer test had to be done on rabies antibodies in Cassy's blood. So, when we decided to take the chance we visited the vet early November 2004. Should we decide not to immigrate this titer test was needed anyway to be able to travel to the UK with Cassy.
The outcome of the blood test was positive, so we could start planning our immigration from that moment on. For 6 months after the blood test Cassy would be allowed to migrate to New Zealand. Well, uhm..... that's what we thought.
After we downloaded, printed and read a 14 page document from MAF's website it turned out there was a bit more to be done.
First we needed to find a quarantine kennel. That was a challenge by it's self. Cause, how do you know that a kennel on the other side of the world you never heard of, let alone never visited, would take good care of your pet? Internet and email are the ultimate communication media for these issues. Fortunately we had good contacts with dog fanciers in New Zealand who warned us for the quarantine kennel in Auckland. They had terrible experiences with that kennel. Staff would make lots of noise with iron bars on kennel's balusters to silence the dogs if they were barking too much. In an other occasion dogs coats were ruined cleaning the kennels with a water blaster without removing the dogs. This way droppings and other dirt was blown in their coat causing all kind of filthy mats. The dogs started scratching which caused skin irritation and bold spots. In brief: not really a place for our Cassy with his sheep-like coat. Fortunately these cyber friends knew of the existence of a brand new quarantine kennel, appr. 90 km's north of Wellington. They passed internet details so that the initial contact could be made.
Meanwhile time went by and 5 months later all of a sudden our house was sold. And on top of that we had to put it at the new owners disposal within 8 weeks.
As soon as the quarantine kennel was found we had to apply for an import permit by interference of the quarantine kennel. They had to privide a statement that they had room for our woof. Together with the import permit application we had to provide:
During his preparatory stay in New Zealand Guus visited the quarantine kennel and spoke with the owners and managers of the kennel. The people involved turned out to be real doggy people. They not only own the quarantine kennel, they also breed Kerryblue Terriers and run a boarding kennel for dogs. And on top of that both man and wife are all-breeds judges at dog shows.
While Guus was in New Zealand the import permit was dropped in our mailbox. Now the entire caravan could start rolling, albeit that Cassy's arrival date in the kennel was not the hoped-for 8 October, but with lots of mind juggling and complex mathematics on 16 October. This was not only a bit of a disappointment but it also threw the shit in the fan regarding planning and schedule. The disappointment had to do with the fact that we wouldn't arrive at the same date in New Zealand and it put extra pressure because of MAF's demands. Whilst Guus was down under, Cilia ran the first few veterinarian duties so that our champ was permitted to enter New Zealand.
Well, and when you're flying in advance of your pet, your dog has to stay a while in an animal hostel and meanwhile you'll have to accept other people's whims. The day Guus arrived from New Zealand at Schiphol airport he met an acquaintance whom he saw some time while exercising the dog in Maarssen's Vechtenstein park. The lady moved home several weeks before to Singapore with husband and dog. At Schiphol airport she told about the bas experience she had with Exel Freight - an animal freight agent. After receiving positive critiques from a large international removal firm we asked for a quotation, but this was something to reconsider our plans. So we asked for another quotation with another animal freighter. That one turned out to be a little more expensive. After that we approached both organisations with the remark that Cassy had to travel to Wellington instead of Auckland. Both freighters answered that this was impossible. It was either Auckland or Christchurch. Dilemma. What now? Time progressed. First we sought an animal hostel. Because of positive feed back in our neighbourhood we decided it would be Animal Boarding Kennel "Marijke" in Kamerik. Finally we decided to proceed with Exel. This company seemed bigger and made us feel slightly more confident. Finally it turned out that Cassy was to be picked up at 6 AM. And that was too much for Marijke. "Could Cassy be sent to Schiphol a day earlier", was the question. Sure, no problem. Exel would drop him for one night at Hoogendam's Animal Hotel in Amsterdam - Osdorp. So much hustling with a dog, who had to experience so much more, was outrageous. So we decided to shelter him directly with Hoogendam. It even turned out to be cheaper.
Having decided to ship (or in this case better: plane) our dog with Exel the question turned up whether Cassy's crate was big enough. The distance between the tip of the nose and the backside is taken as a rule of thumb. In our case 94 cm (37 inches). Our bench turned out to be not big enough, so we had to purchase another crate at the last possible moment. With the help of our friends in Landsmeer, where we were lodged, and the Marktplaats.nl internetsite we acquired a decent bench for Cassy overnight. A few days earlier - after a bit of brainstorming on the question how the documents and Cassy could be transported - Cilia had an glorious idea: Secure a cardboard folder (in this case a sheet music folder) with an elastic some way on top of the bench. Guus invented the fixing: double sided adhesive tape used to attach linoleum, of which we had some left in the garage. On top of the folder a plastic envelope, in which a sheet of paper with important information on the content of the bench, the destination, the way to contact the owners, contact details of the quarantine kennel and the content of the folder.
Everything was well prepared and - some in the last possible moments - provided. On 5 October we would fly, so on 4 October (indeed: World Animals Day; how could one do this to his beloved pet) Cassy was delivered at Hoogendam's Animal Hotel. While we were drawn into a small office, our boy was taken away from us. And: no, we were not allowed to accompany him to his temporary home and hug him for the last time before our departure. Well, this is quite a cold turkey kick. With tears in our eyes and a lump in our throats we left our woof's temporary home. Hoogendam Animal Hotel staff were really fantastic with their help, support and escort of our dog. Their cooperation with Exel was terrific. Whenever Cassy was allowed to leave earlier, refunding would take place. And if he had to stay longer, an additional invoice would be sent. Trusting Cassy was in good hands we left the premises in order to return to Hans and Mary to spend our last night in Holland.
During the 38 hour journey, we often thought aloud how our Cassy would be doing and what would happen to him. Fortunately we didn't know.....
There was still one more issue demanding our attention: on 30 September we received an email that Cassy couldn't be transported to Wellington. It was either Auckland or Christchurch. From that moment on we were in contact with both the animal freight agency at Schiphol and the quarantine kennel. The kennel (Shado Lans) stated with enormous resoluteness that dogs could easily be transferred to a domestic flight from Auckland to Wellington. That happened many times before with pets. Dogs from Finland, Germany, where-ever in Europe without any disruption. After a while Exel told us that it was caused by the fact that - according to the original traveling schedule - Cassy would arrive on a Saturday in Kuala Lumpur where he would be transfered to the flight to Auckland. Well, on Saturday there would be no attending staff in the airport animal hotel in Malaysia. On our request Shado Lans called with Malaysian Airlines animal freight agent in Auckland in order to find confirmation of this fairy tale. Reply: humbug, manifest nonsense.
Meanwhile we were in Auckland for some days and we had phone contact with Shado Lans on a regular basis. Contact with Exel went by email, and as time went by it got more and more difficult to stay friendly. We asked Exel to make their agent with Malaysian Airlines at Schiphol contact his colleague in Kuala Lumpur. In that way we hoped to be assured of Cassy's transfer. And because of the difference in time with Holland and our limited Internet access, following-up emails happened with intervals of approximately 12 hours. After having dealt with it, Exel finally admitted that Kuala Lumpur was not the issue. It was Auckland. The quarantine facility would be closed on Saturday. So Cassy had to stay longer in his hostel. Also this statement was disabled and nothing seemed to be in the way to transport our dog to Wellington. Nothing seemed less true. We have an email from Exel sent to Hoogendam's stating that the quarantine kennel doesn't accept animals in the weekend. Also this was denied by Shado Lans owner John Clarke. And time progressed. Cilia and I were in Wellington for some time when we received the redeeming message that Cassy would fly on the 18th in stead of the 14th of October. The ultimate reason for it was that it was impossible to treat Cassy against external parasites between 48 and 24 hours in advance of departure and finally to have all the veterinary treatments legislated by the Government Agency for Cattle and Meat (RVV) in Leidschendam. Because of the hustle and delay, the quarantine kennel asked MAF for dispensation regarding the delayed arrival, and requated to agree with the treatments. Fortunately this request was accepted, otherwise we would have had a tremendously larger problem.
Now that everything looked okay, the end would probably be okay. Yeah, right..... That's what we hoped for.... Because of all the fuzz with extra cost regarding Cassy's flight from Auckland to Wellington, which was not calculated in the quotation, the courier cost to have the documents legislated by the RVV we asked Exel on Friday to quote us the extra cost. Exel's reply to our request arrived on Monday. They demanded an additional € 722. So we sent a bank draft. But sometimes things are not always as one hopes. Our Internet connection wasn't great. So the payment wasn't taking place as we would like. In brief: Tuesday morning at 10 New Zealand time - Dutch time 11 PM - the money was finally transferred. Our contact with Exel was fluffing that the money hadn't arrived and that Cassy wouldn't be boarding the plane. He demanded us to send a fax with the bank statement as proof of payment. We went out of our minds with anger. We were helpless against so much bureaucracy. We, Guus and Cilia, would never ever leave our beloved pet in an animal hostel waiting for a flight to New Zealand without paying for the cost? And we did pay a large amount in advance, didn't we? How could it be that Exel staff have no faith in people?!? Do they still have pets not paid for "on stock"? An animal is not a disposable, is it? Everyone wants to have his pet! We, at least, do in a good and as fast as possible way; all for Cassy's importance. Right now we are too far away from where it happens. Indeed we feel delivered to Exel's gods. And once again with clawing toes and bottled up anger we friendly and politely informed that that we were unable to fulfill their demand (faxing a bank statement). Exel's amounts payable team had to deal with this. For people like us, employed in IT and used to considering solutions instead of problems, such an attitude is incomprehensible.
After the message that Cassy would be shipped finally the counting of the hours started. It was in the original estimation that Cassy would land in Auckland by mid day and arrive in Wellington by 2:30 PM. After being released by the Wellington Airport veterinary service Cassy would arrive in the quarantine kennel by 4 PM so that we could caress him that same day. Based on those thoughts we rang Shado Lans by noon to ask them if they we aware of the current situation of our boy. "Unfortunately not", was the answer. They would ring with Air New Zealand. A half hour later they called us back. "Wellington was unaware of anything. And the guy in Auckland was not available." Asking if they had the shipping data they answered negative. Flight number and air waybill number (a kind of consignment-note for freight transport by airplane) was copied down by Shado Lans's Denise, so that she could inquire about Cassy's whereabouts more closely. An hour later we received the liberating phone call: Cassy was on his way from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland and he would touch down soon. They would call us as soon as they went to Wellington to pick him up. But we had to keep in mind that it could take a bit.
4 PM: no phone call. 5 PM: still no phone call. Did they write down our number correctly? 6 PM: still no phone call. Cilia wanted me to ring. "No", I said "they will ring us. No news, good news". 7 PM: Still no phone call. I started to worry. Could there have been arisen any problem in the ultimate moment? 8 PM: still no phone call. Our resilience had been tested too long. Ring! Denise Clark told us that John was on his way home from Wellington to Levin with Cassy. The eruption of anger that we had no phone call as promised was instantly tempered by the happiness that we could finally, FINALLY,
F-I-N-A-L-L-Y visit and hug our boy. After 13 days in an animal hostel, 48 hours in airplanes and at airports and taken care of by unknown we could finally have him a little with us. A little, yes, because he had to stay in a quarantine kennel for the next 30 days, before we could take him home.
At one of our visits to other dog fanciers, during which we received very much information on canine matters in New Zealand, our host told us that dogs get in some kind of hibernation over an altitude of 13,000 foot (4,000 m). Guus would be himself if he would want to know when and how that was established. David told that in the propeller era people used to drug dogs on long distance flights. And when the jet planes, flying on a much higher altitude, took off it turned out that drugged dogs in many occasions arrived dead. (This is the source of the IT jargon DOA [dead on arrival]). Research after this phenomenon learned that between 11,000 and 13,000 foot the heart beat, blood pressure and respiration diminishes. Therefore dogs arrive on their destination without jetlag. Had we known this before, we would have worried at lot less about his well-being during the long journey.
Cassy's stay is a five star hotel in quarantine world. John and Denise Clark started in 2004 with their venture, which turned out to be a tremendous success in the region. The animal kennels are new and because there is so much demand for this service a second building with new kennels has been built. Like all buildings this consists of a timber frame with panelling. The panelling consists of synthetic laths. The floors are laid with linoleum. Each kennel is divided in an inner and an outer room, separated by a sliding door. In each compartment is an off-floor doggy bed. The outer room has a concrete floor with a sewer outlet. Chicken wire prohibits the dog to leave his outer room. That way Cassy can choose whether he wants to stay in or out. In his inner room stands a table and two chairs. On the table a small transistor radio gives the animal a bit of a cosy feeling.
Everyone who wants to visit one or more animals, has to register and mention the reason of his visit. The visitor gets a pair of synthetic galoshes to pull over his shoes. Visitors are allowed to visit their pets as often and as long as they like. We are most of the time 45 minutes with our boy, taking the two times 75 minutes drive for granted. As soon as we arrive he is mad with happiness. He jumps up against us, licks our faces, seizes his toy (a chewing rope) and is the first half hour restless. We visit him 3 times a week. The first time we left him, Cassy cried and whined for more than an hour after we went, but right now he knows that when we leave that we'll return after some time. And that's okay with him. The last 21 days of his immigration prison will pass rapidly. Our bad experiences regarding his transport will get worn out.
