I have three cats: Marble, Dapper and Thumper. When I leave for the US next week Marble is going to be coming with me, while the other two remain in the Philippines to keep my wife company. Obviously, you can’t just show up at the airport with your cat and expect to hop on the plane. It takes some preparation and that preparation began today. The process for taking a cat out of the Philippines and into the US is mercifully painless compared to how hard it was to bring my cats here from Singapore. I’m going to write up another comprehensive guide to exporting cats from the Philippines to the US later, but for now I thought I’d share this.
Part of getting Marble ready for her trip was getting her clean and presentable to minimize the chances of her being deemed unhealthy during the inspection at the vet for a health certificate. She was overdue for a bath anyway. In fact, all three of my cats were overdue, so yesterday we forced them to endure a good scrubbing.
Marble gave us the least trouble with her bath, though she was the only one to inflict damage. I have a nice new scratch on my left foot from her trying desperately to evade the water we were pouring on her from a dipper.
Thumper never stopped struggling during her bath and wound up looking like a drowned rat by the end of it.
Dapper wasn’t too bad during her bath, but she was the noisiest. She made sure we knew how pissed she was by continuously growling. She even hissed at us once. I thought for sure she was going to turn into a whirling ball of claws and shred our legs, but we escaped without injury. The cats kept jumping up onto the bed while they were still wet. They usually do that, so we decided this would be a good day to wash our sheets and just left the new sheets off the bed until after they were dry.
I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the horror of giving their cats a bath, but ours aren’t too bad. I think the reason for that is that we’ve gotten them accustomed to it. We typically give them baths about once every two or three months, sometimes more often depending on how quickly they get that nasty greasy feeling on their fur.
Today, Marble went on a big adventure. She didn’t seem too thrilled about being in the carrier again, after the fiasco that happened at Changi Airport a few months ago.
Overall, she was pretty behaved as long as she could see us, though she didn’t care for the tricycle ride. I don’t blame her. Sometimes riding those tricycles can be a little stressful for me too. At first, she kept looking around to try to find a way out of the carrier, but eventually settled into a corner and just looked at us with pleading eyes.
The actual visit at the vet wasn’t too hard on her at all. We took her to the Our Lady of Assumption Dog and Cat Clinic in Antipolo. Ya… like I’ve said before, religious terms and phrases are everywhere in the Philippines. Her booster shot was pretty quick and didn’t seem to bother her too much. I was surprised at how behaved she was.
Something that concerned me about our visit there was the type of shots they had available. In Singapore, our cats got a Fort Dodge Felovax 4 in 1 shot and a rabies vaccination. The next shot they were supposed to get was a booster for the 4 in 1. The vet didn’t recognize it though and after placing a call found out that the 4 in 1 isn’t supplied in the Philippines at all. He said it’s because those types of problems aren’t present in cats here. I don’t know about that for sure. Maybe they’re just not treated here. Hopefully this won’t cause me to run into a problem of her having to be quarantined in NYC until she gets a proper booster shot.
Regardless, she got her panleucopenia booster and we’ll be picking up her health certificate tomorrow to take to the BAI in Manila for her export permit. They do 1 hour processing on the export permit and it’s supposedly free. Not bad! So far, from what I can see, the total cost for exporting a cat from the Philippines to the US is about 230 USD. Of course, I have to stay in a hotel in Manila the night before my flight and I’ll need to find one that will allow me to have her there, so the price difference might up my total cost. We’ll see how that goes. I need to start calling around to hotels tomorrow.
Bradley Farless 
Your cats are hilarious.
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Thanks for giving me a break from work! Keep some good things to read. thanks for the post .
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Thanks. They are very entertaining!
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Club memberships are something I miss about Singapore. That country has everything you could ever want in pet stores as far as goods for cats go. The Philippines doesn't have crap. We had a hard time finding decent litter and the only cat food available is the cheap kind. We used to give our cats Science Diet.The comment I left on your post went into moderation. You'll have to check your Blogger Dashboard to find it. They recently redid how they handle the comments moderation. I think it might be under Edit Posts somewhere as a tab near the top.
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Thanks.Also, thanks for the tip on the tuna. You are correct – wet food for her only, and luckily we have a wholesale club membership, so it works out.My blog seems to be eating comments because yours did not post. No worries though. Thanks, regardless!Pumpkin cannot see an open suitcase and leave well enough alone. He's a ham, that one. Despite that bit of cat-like behaviour, I often ask him if he's pretending to be a cat. He's generally not very cat like. He's more dog than cat. I love it.
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I've never heard of that. I'm sorry to hear Jasmine is having problems. I'm sure you have her eating wet food so it's softer on her gums, but in case you haven't discovered it and it's cheaper where you live, my cats like eating tuna in spring water too, the kind that's made for humans and I think that's cheaper than canned cat food here.Interesting posts. I left a comment on the one about Pumpkin hiding in bags. It reminds me of my cats.
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I sure hope so re Delta.I have two cats (originally my brother's but his son developed severe allergies to cats) – Jasmine (the girl) and Pumpkin (the boy). Pumpkin's about 9 – 10 years old now and Jazzie's 8.Unfortunately, Jazz developed plasma cell stomatitis (sp?) recently. All her back teeth had to be removed earlier this year but the inflammation of the gums and swelling just won't go away. I'm told this is something that is a life long disease. It's a very difficult thing to get under control and every so often, her gums would bother her – except she still has not had any of it get really under control. I do think she has had some improvement – she isn't drooling as much and it's a clear drool, not infected like before and she no longer smells due to the dental but you can still tell she is in some pain when she eats.Doing the best I can with her, the poor girl.Thanks for asking though. I'm trying to make her as comfortable as possible.Here are some posts if you care to read on them:http://hochies.blogspot.com/2009/07/hunting-our-uncle.html Here's a Jazz storyhttp://hochies.blogspot.com/2009/05/not-going-on-trip.html And a Pumpkin story
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Oh, and… pictures! Cats are great for blog material.
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It's kind of troublesome, especially having to clean the litter box every day, but it's also very rewarding. Thumper sometimes has a bad dream, wakes up crying and then runs to me to be held and comforted. Never thought cats could be so emotionally complex.Some quick tips:(1) get a scratch post so the cat doesn't tear up your furniture.(2) feathers or something dangly on the end of a stick will be the cats favorite toy.(3) Since you're a guy, get a female cat. It'll bond with you more. Male cats prefer to bond with female owners. That's just from personal experience b/t me and my wife.(4) If a cat can reach it, it's a toy. Put your figures in a glass case, put your important papers on high shelves or in cabinets, etc.(5) If you can afford it, after the kitten is 1 year old, gradually switch it to premium food with odor / hairball control. Especially odor control. It's pricier, but cats will actually eat less of the premium food because it's more nutritious (go by the label, ex. Science Diet says 1 cup per day, but we often had leftovers). They'll crap less and it won't smell as bad, which will also save you money on cat litter in the long run.Enjoy your cat! They make for fine companions.
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Thanks. They can be very entertaining! I know what you mean about that look. Jazzie is your cat then? How come she (?) had to go to the vet? Shots? Or is she not feeling well?Thanks for the well wishes. I'm flying Delta this time, and I just have a feeling that they'll do a good job with caring for a pet.
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I should b getting a kitten in a week or two, can't wait! haven't had a pet in 10 years!
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Your cats are hilarious. I love the look of death Marble gave you in the first picture. I got it worst today when I took my Jazzie cat to the vet. Man, if looks could kill I would not be writing this right now…Good luck with the travels and hopefully no more crate incidents!
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Before having cats of my own, I didn't realize just how different they are from each other. Each one of my cats has a very noticeable personality. Dapper is very vocal and she likes to be everybody's friend. Whenever she sees a new cat she's the first of the three to warm up to them. She's also demanding and pushy. In the morning she'll literally jump up and down on us in the bed if we oversleep and miss her breakfast time. She likes being held, but pretends not to by making loud meowing noises, and if I go in the bathroom she panics and starts meowing outside the door. Sometimes she'll even push it open if it's not latched so she can check to see that I'm still around.All of my cats are pretty cool, but out of the three I think Marble is the most stereotypical.
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Dapper looks like she has an interesting personality
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Thumper isn't what you'd call a pretty cat even at the best of times, but she has a weird cuteness to her that makes me love her.That airport disaster did have me freaking out. I literally ran off the plane and back into the terminal to demand to know what was going on and then I tried to argue them into letting me go onto the tarmac and under the plane to get her and put her back in the carrier. They refused for security reasons. If they hadn't got her back in her carrier I think I would have flipped out right there on the plane and wound up in a Singaporean jail for causing a disturbance.
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HA!, you black cat looks like a demon in that picture! Also read about what happened to your cat/ cat carrier in the last airport! Don't know how I would have coped with that I would have been freaking out!!
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