Portugal Update: I’ve Got Pets!
A picture of me RIGHT NOW writing this newsletter!
The Entire Pet Shipping Process!
TL;DR: It was FUCKING EXPENSIVE, and I knew I wasn’t up for the stress of figuring it out myself so I hired a company to handle it for me, and thank god I did. Everything worked out well and the pets arrived safe and sound last night!
First of all, thank you so much for all your kind words of encouragement for Shane after my newsletter from yesterday! It really was so nice to hear from so many of you wishing us well and sending your thoughts, vibes, prayers, etc etc up to the universe for us! There is SO much pain in the world right now, our little dramas feel very small, so for you to add us to your list is so kind! Thank you thank you.
Royal already making himself comfortable on our freshly delivered purple couch!
And now for a complete history of what it took to get my baby monsters from Chicago to Porto!
Like I mentioned previously, I did about 12 minutes of research about flying pets over and knew that I was not up for it! Heath certificates, perfectly sizes crates, EU Pet Passports, customs docs, etc etc! Maybe if that was the only thing I was worried about I could figure that out, but I knew that that would only be part of the shit I would be dealing with at the time of our move (having no idea even that Shane would get fucking cancer), so I outsourced.
Continuing from my newsletter? Start reading here!
$10,270 was the quote from Starwood Pet Travel, and after getting quotes from a few other places I quickly realized that that is just how much it costs! Which feels WILD to me but what do I know? The quotes included handing all the paperwork, flights for all 3 animals, crates and accessories, door to door service, and, most importantly, a guarantee everything would be handled and I didn’t have to worry about anything. It worked out really well - when I needed a vet appointment my coordinator at Starwood, Sarah, would email me and tell me exactly what to do. When I needed paperwork filled out Sarah would email me and tell me to fill out paperwork, and when that paperwork was in Portuguese she had an example in English to make sure I did it correctly. Sarah worked with my vet to make sure everything was clear on their end, too.
Lord Bullingdon making himself at home, too! Already belly up! Probably just very happy to be out of his crate!
The more I learned about this process the worse it got. When you had a travel date - we finally decided the pets would fly as close to my flight as possible after very briefly thinking we’d cancel the entire thing because of Shane’s diagnosis - you put in a request with the airline and they’d let you know 5-10 days before your departure if your request had been accepted. Umm ok? ALSO the pets to travel with pet health certificates that need to be filled out by your vet and certified by the US government no more than 10 days before the flight. Yeah, you do the math on that!
Luckily, Lufthansa accepted our flight request and the pets had a flight for Tuesday, November 11th, and Sarah said to get a vet appointment to upload the docs on Friday, October 31st. And with the government shut down let’s just pray the certificates are approved, authenticated, and shipped to the Chicago coordinator in time!
Again, luckily, they were!
So when I left for our Harvest Dream Retreat on Thursday November 6th we were all kinda laughing about some snow in the forecast for Southwest Michigan where our retreats take place, and very cold temps in Chicago over the weekend. Then, over the course of 48 hours, those flurries turned to 1-3”, turned to 6-10”, turned to 12-18”! All due to hit SW Michigan Sunday afternoon and Chicago Sunday night-Monday. Lake effect snow is no fucking joke!
And I’m staring down the barrel of my flight trying to get out on Monday night and the pets, and their EXTREMELY REGULATED health certificate/departure date/flight request situation trying to get out on Tuesday.
We woke up on Sunday morning to about 3” of snow AHEAD of the Winter Storm Warning due to hit at 11am, so we pulled the plug on the last day of our retreat and sent everyone home early. It was just too dangerous to wait and see if what they said was coming actually came (about half of what they said would come did come, which was enough for me to be glad we called it!), and I got back to Chicago about 24 hrs earlier than I thought I would.
Which worked out! Shane needed help labeling our boxes for pick up on Monday (MAYBE?? BLIZZARD??), and needed help cleaning and finishing our move out.
Monday morning we woke up to maybe 5-6” on the ground and it REALLY came down int he morning! But the farther you got away from the lake the less and less snow there was, so I was feeling good about getting out!
And it was due to end Monday afternoon, so I was feeling good about the pets getting out, too!
And get picked up they did! The man who came to pick them up sent Shane some nice messages about how they did through customs at Ohare (he PICKED UP THE CATS, and Royal sat next to him and got some snuggles!), and these are the pics we got of them when they got to their layover in Frankfort!
There is some kind of pet regulation that they need at least 6 hrs of break time between flights, so they ended up staying in Germany for about 18 hrs before getting their connection to Porto yesterday morning.
I was contacted by the pet coordinator for Portugal and given updates about how they moved through customs here in Portugal, and when they were on the truck to get dropped off with me!
Last night around 5pm 3 very nice men rang my doorbell to tell me they had my pets in the truck! So I ran down to great them in the truck and see them unloaded. They carried Royal’s GIANT crate inside the building where he popped out and started exploring the small lobby of our building before getting tons of pets from the three men who were taking care of him! I think he was just overwhelmed because when he noticed me he was like OMG YOU ARE HERE! And we hugged! He ran right onto the elevator and started exploring our VERY empty apartment while the men brought Rosie and LB upstairs and let them out of their crates, too.
Make it stand out
Poor Roosevelt was the one I was most worried about, actually! The pics they sent of Royal looked like he was doing great, but Rosie looked awful. Just stressed and sad and scared! But here she is on my lap last night relaxing!
Overall, they were in a lot better shape than I thought they would be in. Rosie needed a half bath (mainly I think because she is too fat to clean herself!), but Bullingdon and Royal were clean and pretty happy! They were obviously really well taken care of, despite barely eating for 48 hrs, they’re in recovery mode today so far. The kitties are using their new litter box and eating a little. Royal and I have been out a couple times but haven’t gone far.
Things I was nervous about with Royal:
The stairs in our apartment - RIGHT ABOUT THAT! He can’t do it. I’ve carried him up and down like 3 times. Something to work on today!
The elevator - not really a problem! Last night he wasn’t registering it, but this morning he seemed a little scared so I gave him a pull and he was fine.
Walking in a new environment/peeing not in grass or on trees - not AT ALL a problem! He’s peeing on cobblestones like he was born here, and feels fine on leash in the streets. A little nervous, but he’s always a little nervous! Nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t think it’s helping that I’m taking him a new way each time we’ve been out to try to find the best path, and it’s also not helping that IT WILL NOT STOP RAINING! Seriously. It hasn’t really stopped raining since I got here on Tuesday.
And now I’m just waiting on my boxes to be delivered so I’m pretty homebound, hanging with my pets, doing some more cleaning, dipping my toes back into working, and waiting for all hell to break lose when all our stuff gets here! If they have to be alone it won’t be long at all - quick trip to the grocery store for more wine food, etc.
FINAL NUMBERS?? I’ve been telling people it cost about $15K to get the pets over, so let’s look at it:
Starwood Pet Travel: $10,270
Vet Prep Visit (everyone needed new rabies shots, and cats needed microchips): $1,267.84
Pet Health Certificates Vet Visit: $2,010.26
Grand Total: $13,548.10
WOOF! lol
But like I had a choice? I could have done it for cheaper, but like, I could not have done it for cheaper and kept my sanity and slept at night. I made the choice to move, and I took these animals into my family so there was not a single moment where I would have abandoned them or tried to rehome them. My decision to move has negatively impacted them enough!
And thinking about all the people being disappeared out of this country (OH HEY) out of the US, being forced to deport, and being forced to leave their pets behind. All the people in the US unable to financially support their families right now and making the impossible decision to give up their pets because they can’t afford them.
I’m in a privileged position where I can choose to afford this. Oh, they will for sure die here because we won’t be doing this again! And YEAH that was like twice as much as I thought it would be? And yeah that’s HARD! But we’ll figure it out because again, we can and are able to choose to do that.
The entire move was about twice as much as I thought it would be! More on that later.
Yesterday I shared a pic of my VERY empty living room and today I will do it again! We’ve got a couch and a TV! And some rags haha we’re being REAL ok? I figure since no one is around to keep me honest you’ll all need to! Every time I post an update I’ll share a pic just like this.
Plenty of room for my boxes whenever they show up! More soon!
