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Taking my cat to Germany by train

Reno said:
Lufthansa are known for carrying pets on planes from the UK and I've got it on my ticket that I'm travelling with a cat. I don't really know what else I can do, I've got all the documentation which is required. There is no law to prohibit it, the UK changed their strict quarantine laws in 2000. It's most of the airlines who dig in their heels.
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Most airlines let you take cats and small dogs in the cabin, but none for flights departing the UK (AFAIK) except Delta for 'emotional support animals' only. Please do double check, (as shit does change), you may find yourself up shit creek.
 
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trabuquera said:
What an odyssey - and not even travelling yet. I would honestly never have thought this would be so difficult! Makes me wonder what those mad people who spend their lives touting their poor cats & dogs around shows do - how do they manage it? (i.e. all those Belgian dog breeders who always do well in the medals at Crufts.)
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Drive over, it's a piece off piss to take them in a car through the tunnel.
 
trabuquera said:
What an odyssey - and not even travelling yet. I would honestly never have thought this would be so difficult! Makes me wonder what those mad people who spend their lives touting their poor cats & dogs around shows do - how do they manage it? (i.e. all those Belgian dog breeders who always do well in the medals at Crufts.)
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Most europeans coming to Crufts as exhibitors will probably drive and ferry over. I know some that do.

eta. oh yes, forgot the tunnel
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Most airlines let you take cats and small dogs in the cabin, but none for flights departing the UK (AFAIK) except Delta for 'emotional support animals' only. Please do double check, (as shit does change), you may find yourself up shit creek.
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What else can I do but plenty of research and five phone calls to Lufthansa confirming that they actually do this? Sourcing your information would help.
 
Reno said:
What else can I do but plenty of research and five phone calls to Lufthansa confirming that they actually do this? Sourcing your information would help.
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Did you get the name/date/time of the person who OK'd it? That's as much as you can do...
 
As far as I know some airlines will let you take cabin pets out of the UK but none will let you bring them in.
 
Can't he go in the hold? Most airlines allow it, and I know BA have a specialist team at Heathrow to ship animals in the hold.
 
bi0boy said:
As far as I know some airlines will let you take cabin pets out of the UK but none will let you bring them in.
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Im not bringing my cat in, I'm taking him out of the UK. Lufthansa is the one major airline known to let you travel out of the U.K. with a pet in the cabin. The mistake I made the last time was that I booked a flight through their website which wasn't actually a Lufthansa flight because a lot of airlines work with other airlines. The mistake they made was to tell me that I can travel with a cat before I booked. That booking failed at the confirmation stage and after I complained I got my money back. This time I booked an actual Lufthansa flight, I've got confirmation and a ticket which says that I have permission to travel with an animal for which I paid an extra €50. So I hope that should do it.
 
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Hope you get Alfie to Berlin ok, the advice about gloves, poop bags and wipes is good. I brought a cat back from Wales years ago and she was ok after the first wee while but she did poo in the carrier(bagged and binned post haste!! and car windows opened) You might want to have a very small air freshener with you too :)
 
geminisnake said:
Hope you get Alfie to Berlin ok, the advice about gloves, poop bags and wipes is good. I brought a cat back from Wales years ago and she was ok after the first wee while but she did poo in the carrier(bagged and binned post haste!! and car windows opened) You might want to have a very small air freshener with you too :)
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He is quite good holding it in and the advice is not to feed cats the morning on which they travel.

I hope he won't poop on the plane but even more, I hope he won't get too horribly stressed out.
 
Wishing you and Alfie all the very best of luck. I'd be a mess of stress by this point. My last cat and current cat absolutely abhorred (and abhor) travel of any kind. I marvel at those cats who take it with a pinch of salt, and let's hope Alfie is one of those once the time comes.

As for zylkene, I would start it a good week or so in advance, because sometimes 2 tablets are needed instead of 1. It'll take a while to work out if Alfie needs 2 or if 1 suffices, so getting your friends to start dosing him up ahead of time will ensure he's got the best chance of it helping him.

Zylkene is entirely safe, btw. It's just a protein that's meant to make them a bit dopey (think having a hot milky drink before bed). I don't know if there's a problem with a too-large dose, but I suspect you'd have to go pretty far over the recommended limit for that to happen. The instructions do, themselves, say that for some cats 1 capsule isn't enough, though, so 2 is perfectly acceptable. No struggling to get a tablet into them either - the capsule breaks open and it's a fine white tasteless powder that can be mixed in with their food. Both my ridiculously food-fussy cats had it no problem.
 
That's good to hear about the Zylkene. Alfie is absolutely not a relaxed traveller, he tends to be hugely stressed the whole time. It's odd because otherwise he's a rather chilled cat. So far I've never been in transit with him for longer than an hour, I hope he settles down after a while on a longer trip.
 
It took three bookings thanks to wrong information given by train operators and airlines and the whole thing was almost as stressful for me as it was for him but today Alfie has finally made it to Berlin. I went to London for the weekend and we flew back this morning via some idiotically expensive and early Lufthansa flight. I'm not sure how much the Zylkene helped, he was pretty stressed out but a little while ago he's crawled out from under the sofa and he has started to explore his new home.IMG_0155.JPG
 
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YES! So glad to hear that you both made it through this odyssey and are now sharing a nest in Berlin. Handsome Alfie is now officially a Eurocat:cool:
 
It seems to be relatively rare that people take pets on planes because even with the airlines who accept animals on board, most of the staff don't know what the rules are. In the end I nearly wasn't allowed on the plane with Alfie because the measurements for the pet carrier I'd given by Lufthansa were wrong. I called them so many times since I've started my move to get everything right and they still managed to give me the wrong information at every stage. In the end it took me turning on the waterworks at the airport and he was accepted to travel in the hold, which wasn't ideal but we got there.

And one last thing about Alfie. I've had other cats who of course I loved, but he truly is a very special cat. He is all that's great about cats with none of the naughtiness. He's affectionate and purry but he never bites or scratches me, never weed or pood where he shouldn't and he always uses a a scratchpost instead of furniture. He's incredibly gentle and good natured, he is a true friend to me and I know I'll never have a cat like him again.

I may post a few more times here, but on the whole this is my farewell from Urban. I got myself to Germany and by getting Alfie here, my move is complete. Now my headspace has to go there as well, so I can truly make Berlin my home. I've got a lot to get on with and there have been times when I've been here too much, wasting my time on Urban as an avoidance tactic, when I should have done more important real world stuff. I've got to make this Berlin thing work.

Thanks to all who were supportive over the years and all the best. :)

IMG_0015.JPG
 
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