Pet Travel Story: Going Home to Australia
Incredible Experiences: Whiskey the Cat Comes Home
Having dinner in Soho, NYC, a week before Christmas, I received a call from work. The Australian office wants to send my wife and I back home to Australia, departing NYC on the 1st of February. This left us with a frantic six weeks to pack up our house in Hoboken, NJ for the eventual move to our homeland: Melbourne, Australia.
The move was made complicated as my wife was six months pregnant and we had our Birman cat Whiskey that needed to pass through tough Australian Quarantine standards.
As time was not on our side, pet relocation companies was a priority of ours to input in the google search bar! After some quotes and discussions with various companies that provided these services, we decided to entrust our full faith in PetRelocation to assist us with Whiskey's move.
We know how crazy the Australian quarantine measures are, and we certainly did not want to risk missing any steps in the relocation process. That was something that we felt PetRelocation had a full grasp on, as their global 'pet shipping' experience and overall knowledge in the process seemed a class above the rest.
After we left the USA in early February, Whiskey was being taken care of by her caretakers for a number of months (as the vet shots needed their time to soak in before her move in late June).
As June arrived, Whiskey was chauffeured from her caretaker's house and was given a first class plane ticket for her trip to L.A. "Sipping on fine Champagne," I'm sure she didn't mind the six-hour flight from Newark airport to LAX. She then spent the night in LA for final checks, where I'm sure she partied hard given it was her final night in the USA.
All hungover from the previous night's festivities, she once again found herself sitting pretty flying first class, for which was this time a 14-hour flight to Melbourne. Upon arrival in Australia she was brought to Melbourne quarantine facilities to be checked in for her final 30 days of quarantine (UPDATE: View Australia's new 10-day quarantine rules here).
After Whiskey's 30 day stay in her Five Star hotel in Melbourne quarantine, we picked her up and brought her home. There was some adjusting on her behalf to the new environment, but after only two days she is back to her normal self. As you can see from the pictures, she has taken a liking to 4-month-old Jackson's feeding stool.
The best part of all of this was that PetRelocation arranged virtually everything for us. A heavily pregnant wife and the overall stress of our move was made that much easier with PetRelocation simply taking the reigns on Whiskey's move - and they did it without any hiccups.
Special thanks to Mandy, the rest of the PetRelocation team, and Austin and Rob (the two caretakers).
Pet Travel Details:
Name: Toon and Lisa
Pet's Name: Whiskey
From: New Jersey, USA
To: Melbourne, Australia