Summer Schlep 2018: Packing for cats

July 16, 2018 Solana Joy

We are going on holiday, my kitty and I. Or on a mission, you might say. A big ol’ schlep, that’s for sure.

I wasn’t certain whether or not to bring her. At first, I had a clear vision of her and I exploring London in sunshine and rad-ness. But over the weeks, wary of actually throwing down my credit card and committing to an actual itinerary, I started wavering. I questioned my motives, her safety, the money. Would it all be for the best? Was I just making everyone’s life difficult? I agonized indecisively for so long that all of my travel options, with or without her, starting to disappear, or rise in price beyond decency.

But she’s coming alright. I haven’t spent three summers in a row rewriting my damn cat-schlepping book to just crap out now. And depending on how the Brexit shit-show plays out over the next eight months, the PETS travel scheme that lets Aífe into the UK with an EU pet passport may no longer be an option. So we’re going while the going’s good. I think she’ll enjoy a lot of it. Not all of it, but neither will I. That’s not how adventure works. No uncertainty, no adventure.

Pets aren’t allowed onto flights into the UK, unless they are sent by outrageously expensive cargo services that aren’t reliably safe. I can’t carry Aífe onto a plane to London, as I would to Berlin or Portland. Islands, huh? So in a couple days, we’ll be riding the rails to Rotterdam, Netherlands; riding the waves to Harwich, UK, and then on another train journey into London. A couple days to explore my favorite metropolis, then up to Oxford for the animal ethics conference, then back to London for several days of exploring, then the long trek home to Berlin again. We’re not doing the 184 Thames River Walk I blogged about in spring, because a) that would be really expensive, b) I’ve got knee problems c) I’ve needed to focus on getting ready for Oxford, and d) just getting to the UK and back is quite a quest in itself. I’m tired just thinking about it – partly because I’ve been too excited to sleep.

So let’s talk packing. How do you pack for a two week, multipurpose schlep with a cat?

Mewsic for Airports: Flying with cats, part 2

June 12, 2018 Solana Joy

Part 2: International flights

If you are flying internationally with your cat, you have all of the same concerns as in the prior post, but more so. You will still be able to find airlines that let you carry your cat on with you, but you will need to check that they accept them on the particular route you want to travel. Yep. The airline might take pets in general, but not to the specific place you are headed to, depending on the length of the route and the rules of the country you’ll land in.

For example, I’ve had excellent experiences flying with Aífe on Lufthansa between Seattle and Berlin. So when I needed to move from Germany to Ireland, I was looking forward to booking a flight with them. However, even though they take pets on flights all over the world, it turns out that they won’t take animals on flights to Ireland or the UK. It doesn’t say that on their website, and the first representative I spoke to said it would be fine for her to join me on the flight I was planning to book. But then several other airlines I was comparing said you couldn’t bring cats onto their flights into Ireland or the UK, so I called Lufthansa back to double-check. It took my talking to several representatives before I could confirm that there was a restriction on flights to those islands.

I called the Irish Department of Agriculture to ask why all of the airlines I’d talked to said the Irish government wouldn’t let them carry pets into Ireland.

Summer Cat Quest Across England. Your Advice Needed!

May 15, 2018 Solana Joy

Summer hiking fun in Oregon, 2017. Best face ever.

Last spring, I became aware of a very cool entity called the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. When I saw they had a call out for papers for their Summer School this coming July, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. I haven’t been remotely involved in academia since turning in my dissertation at the LSE in 2010, and am not part of any institution, so I figured it was a long shot. However, I am excited to say that they got back saying that they loved my proposal, and hoped I would be able to come give a presentation in July!

Needless to say, I’m flipping thrilled. Worried that I’m out of my league and going to shame myself in front of a room of seasoned professionals, but thrilled.

After much deliberation, I’ve decided that if I’m going to travel all the way to Oxford, it would be silly not to tag on some other adventures in the area. And if I’m going to go on adventures, I of course ought to bring along my #1 adventuring companion, aka my cat, Aífe.

I’ve thought about where we might go. There are loads of famously gorgeous places I would like to see in the UK (many of which have glorious Instagram accounts). However, my trip over there hinges on Oxford, so it probably makes sense to look for something in that area. And there happens to be one quest I know I would like to tackle there: The Thames Path. It’s a National Trail that runs 184 miles from the edge of the Cotswolds and through Oxford to Greenwich in London (you know, the place where Time began).

If you’re familiar with our adventures, you’ll know that they’ve got everything: trees! flowers! birds! ice cream! bunnies! bicycles! trains! mountains! castles! boats! planes! rivers! hikes! seasickness! books! naps! art! dentistry! graveyards! cheese! This adventure would be pretty much all of those things rolled into one massive pilgrimage of radness (though hopefully we can give seasickness and dentistry a miss).

The thing is, there’s a few quandaries that need solving if I’m going to make it work. And I only have a couple months to either get a plan sorted, or scrap it. And meanwhile, I have to get together a presentation good enough to impress a room full of experts and lawyers in flipping Oxford. So I’d really appreciate your two cents in figuring this out. If you’re interested, please read on.

#11: A Long Ass Way to Tipperary

February 23, 2017 Solana Joy

I just moved from Germany to Ireland with my cat. I had thought it would be a lot easier than when I moved to Germany from Oregon with my cat. But, actually, it was quicker, and in some ways easier, to cross 5177 miles from Portland to Berlin than it was to get the 1189 miles from Berlin to Dublin. This is because I was able to fly from the US to Germany with my cat on board, but couldn’t find any airline that would take pets on flights into Ireland or the UK. Even Lufthansa, with whom I have flown trans-Atlantic with my cat, twice, and who has a whole ‘we’re pet friendly’ page on their website, does not book pets on flights into Ireland or the UK. I spoke with the Irish Department of Agriculture, and no, they don’t have any prohibition about pets entering the country. The flights just won’t take them.

Long story short, I was left with a choice:

Pay a freight company to take my cat and ship her for me. One recommended company gave me a quote for nearly €800! When the flight I was planning to book for myself was only €57!
Spend three days but only about €300 taking trains and ferries across Europe with my cat.

I went with the second option. Partly because it was far less expensive, partly because it sounded like an interesting adventure, and partly because I really didn’t like the idea of letting strangers put my cat in a box and take her away from me and overseas. And I’m glad that I did go this route: even though I was weeping by the end of it.

#10: A Year of Island-Schlepping, Literary Promise, and Bureaucratic Mystery

December 15, 2016 Solana Joy

All the important packing is pretty much done already. Yay!

Almost immediately after I’d launched my Kickstarter on November 15, my husband was offered a really great teaching job. In Ireland. Starting in two months. Julian was actually in Ireland for work when he found out, while I was en route to Portland for Thanksgiving. Suddenly, we had less than two months to pack up our lives in Germany, clear out of our flat, find accommodation in Ireland, get ready for the holidays, deal with insurance and utilities and doctors appointments and landlords, make arrangements for my husband’s daughter to visit us, and try to stay on top of our actual work.

Oh, and most importantly: figure out how to get a cat to Ireland.

This has turned out to be a weirdly difficult thing to manage...