Posted on

Importing a Cat to the UK in 77 (not so) Simple Steps

Unhappy Harper on the way to the airport

Bringing an animal to the UK isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. We did it and lived to tell about it. Just follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you like the cat and want to keep it regardless of the time, money, and hassle this will take. This conviction will be tested.
  2. Google “taking a pet to the UK” and “traveling with your cat.”
  3. Skim UK website about bringing a pet into the UK, click link after link through the maze.
  4. Naively think this won’t be difficult.
  5. Research, read, and listen to 382 different opinions about the “correct” way to travel with a cat.
  6. Decide to listen to the trained experts over the self-appointed experts and stop talking to anyone about it.
  7. Ask your vet’s office if they can provide the required veterinary certificate of health.
  8. Forget about it for a while since nothing else can be done until closer to the actual move.
  9. When your relocation consultant offers a referral to a company that handles pet relocation (for a fee), accept the referral.
  10. Don’t respond to the friendly email from the pet relocation service right away; you’ve got this.
  11. After a busy day, go ahead and respond to that email because you might as well find out how much they charge—how bad could it be?
  12. Try not to feel overwhelmed at the volume of information the pet relocation company sent as you search the email for the cost.
  13. Open your eyes wider and move your head closer to the screen to re-read the amount.
  14. Do your best Tom Hanks’ laugh.
  15. Double-down on your conviction that you can do this yourself. You don’t need no stinkin’ pet relocation company.
  16. Read the information the pet relocation company sent, though.
  17. Nervously consider paying the $3,500 fee. Wonder if that’s why they sent so much information.
  18. Feel overwhelmed, so forget about it for a while.
  19. A month before you leave, decide it’s time to start checking boxes on the pet relocation.
  20. Realize you’ve forgotten almost everything you read.
  21. Read it again, noticing things you missed before. There are different kinds of microchips? Microchips go bad and sometimes can’t be read? What?
  22. Don’t panic—or do.
  23. Wrangle the cat into its carrier and stop by the vet to confirm the microchip is readable. If not, she’ll have to be re-microchipped and re-vaccinated at least 21 days before entering the UK.
  24. Breathe a sigh of relief when it’s successfully read.
  25. When you get your plane tickets (after paying $XXX for the cat to fly with you), make an appointment with the vet for five days before your flight.
  26. Ask again if the vet can provide the needed certificate. Try not to freak out when the vet assistant’s answer inspires zero confidence that she even understood the question.
  27. Print out the form for the vet to complete, realizing only then that it needs an endorsement from the USDA.
  28. Check the USDA website and resign yourself to a trip to the nearest (nearest, not nearby) USDA office the day after the vet appointment.
  29. Call to make the recommended appointment. Learn from the automated system that you can’t make an appointment more than five days before you’re leaving the country. And by the way, appointments aren’t just recommended as the website says; don’t bother showing up without one.
  30. Re-arrange your schedule and request a day off work for that excursion, even though you can’t make an appointment yet.
  31. Call back the morning of the first day you can make an appointment. Try to keep your blood pressure in check when they’re not sure there are any left that day. Feel only a little relief when they offer an appointment time, at 8:30 am. Explain that you’re driving 130 miles there, so you’re not sure you can make an 8:30 am appointment with LA rush hour traffic.
  32. Feel muscles you didn’t realize you were tensing relax when you’re given a 10:30 am appointment instead.
  33. The day before the vet appointment, review the form again and realize that it asks for information your vet won’t have. They didn’t administer the rabies vaccine; it was done before the adoption. You need the manufacturer’s name, lot number, and lot expiration date. You don’t have it.
  34. Console yourself that it says you can do a blood test to show immunity to rabies instead.
  35. Call the vet to see if you should bring the cat in that day for a blood draw so they’ll have the results for the appointment. Learn the results of the blood test will take 21 days. Your flight is in a week.
  36. Panic and tell your partner who thinks you have this all under control.
  37. Drive to the animal shelter while praying that they have the needed information on file.
  38. Appreciate the friendly people at San Diego Department of Animal Control as they quickly provide what you need.
  39. Laugh at yourself just a little for panicking earlier.
  40. Bring everything you’ve accumulated to the vet appointment. Don’t forget the cat.
  41. At the appointment, mention the different kinds of microchips and how the UK government website says one thing, but the pet relocation company’s information says something else. Decide to allow the vet to re-microchip the cat to be sure it has the right kind because the consequences of it being wrong are severe. Thankfully, the first microchip can be read, so the cat won’t have to be re-vaccinated.
  42. The vet doesn’t need the form you printed out because she can complete it on her computer and print it out to sign.
  43. Smugly leave the vet’s office thinking you have this all under control—$3,500 for pet relocation? I don’t think so.
  44. Drive to the USDA office. Congratulate yourself for arriving early and treat yourself to a refreshing beverage at a nearby convenience store to kill some time.
  45. Walk into the USDA office and immediately lose all confidence.
  46. There’s no one at the closed window to check in with. Stand there wondering if you should take a number since you have an appointment until one of the many waiting people asks if you have an appointment. When you say you do, they tell you to wait and you’ll be called when it’s your turn.

    USDA lobby in LA – That number never changes and those windows are soundproof.
  47. Wait while your appointment time comes and goes and no one has been called.
  48. Watch a few people called to the window only to be told that their paperwork is wrong and they need to go back to their vet. Realize one of those people is from a pet relocation service.
  49. Try and fail to remain confident, but at least you can sit down now since there are a few empty chairs.
  50. When your name is finally called, take your paperwork to the window.
  51. Watch the employee look it over, walk to their desk, grab a pen, mark a big red X across it, staple a nasty note on it, come back to the window and tell you to go back to your vet and come back with the correct form. They won’t say what the correct form is or where to get it, but you don’t have to make another appointment if you come back the same day.
  52. Point out that it’s a 260-mile round trip, so you can’t come back the same day. Ask for another appointment and repeat the bit about not being able to make an 8:30 am appointment because of how far you have to drive and, you know, LA traffic is a nightmare!
  53. Call the vet’s office while you’re driving home (use Bluetooth, of course), and tell them they gave you the wrong form.
  54. Drive straight to the vet’s office to get there before they close. Calling your partner to rant and rave during this drive is optional but recommended.
  55. Give the vet the nasty note from the USDA and appreciate that the vet is apologetic and as horrified by the note as you were.
  56. Agree to come back the next day.
  57. Go to the vet’s office to pick up the form and spend an hour conferring with the vet on how to complete portions of it. Listen as the vet explains the numerous calls made and emails sent to the USDA with no helpful response, but at least she found the correct form hidden on the website.
  58. Agree to take multiple copies of the form filled out in different ways so that if one is wrong, you can give them a different one. As the vet prepares these, a helpful email response finally comes in from the USDA.
  59. Take the correct form correctly filled out and the vet’s business card so you can call if there are any problems.
  60. Drive back to the USDA. Don’t congratulate yourself for arriving early and don’t stop for a refreshing beverage.
  61. Wait in the lobby and be the helpful person who tells confused new arrivals how things work around here.
  62. Go to the window when called and hand over the form.
  63. Watch nervously as the employee looks it over. Feel relief flood over you when she keeps it and asks for a rabies certificate.
  64. Pull the rabies certificate out of your folder and hand it over while thanking your lucky stars that the animal shelter gave it to you. And that you brought it with because nothing and no one said that you needed to provide one.
  65. Hand over your debit card for the processing fee, and sit down to wait as directed.
  66. When called, go back to the window and accept the newly-endorsed form along with your debit card and a receipt. Save the celebration for the privacy of your car as you drive home.
  67. Use the airline’s website to figure out where you’re supposed to take your pet and how long before the flight it needs to be there.
  68. Show up then and there and be told you’re too early.
  69. Leave your partner with the cat until it can be checked in, while you go to the passenger terminal with the luggage because the car service has another pick-up they need to get to and can’t wait.
  70. At pet check-in, your partner will pay another $XXX fee, leave the cat and the paperwork with the airline, and get a Lyft to join you at the passenger terminal.
  71. Relax and enjoy your flight.
  72. Upon arrival, proceed to your accommodations because it will take four to six hours for the cat to be processed through customs.
  73. Begin fielding phone calls asking for more money for handling the cat. They don’t use the word ransom, but it crosses your mind. Give them your credit card number and wonder (again) what you were thinking.
  74. When it’s time to go get the cat, call a cab and pay a small fortune for the round trip.

    Credit: Berkeley Breathed
  75. Pick up your cat who now resembles Bill the Cat. The Heathrow Animal Reception Center officer will reassure you that she is a sweetheart and they took good care of her.
  76. Listen to her meow-yell at you the entire ride back.
  77. Don’t worry, she’ll only ignore you for a few days.
Harper eventually settled in and relaxed.
Posted on

Harrow-on-the-Hill

Our first six weeks here, we stayed in a small, functional-but-not-comfortable flat in Harrow. One Tuesday, I went for a walk and explored the area while Kurt was working. I put on my walking shoes and headed in a new direction, away from the shops and Tube station. I crossed the bridge over the train tracks, passed the police station, and crossed a busy road to go up the nearby hill.

Walking up that hill was like entering another world. The tree-lined street was far less busy, and the sounds of the city faded away. I passed a house built in 1863 and then a letterbox with the royal cypher of King George V. It felt like going back in time. I continued up the hill and realized I was walking through Harrow School. Coming around a bend in the road, a statue of Elizabeth I on the side of a building almost seemed to greet me.

An Adorable Village

I kept walking and admiring the architecture when suddenly school boys in uniforms and boater hats flooded the street as they hurried to class. I couldn’t help but smile. They quickly sorted themselves into the various buildings, and the sidewalks were clear once again.

There was a pillar-style postbox, and curious, I checked its royal cypher—Queen Victoria. I already regretted not bringing my camera, now this! The buildings were beautiful, and there’s a little village beyond before crossing the main street and heading down a smaller street. I admired the façade of an old pub, The Castle, but didn’t stop. I knew Kurt and I would be back for a visit. Continuing down the narrow street, I realized the doors to the homes I was passing were shorter than me. Some of the houses had names; the Hatmaker’s House, the Coalkeeper’s Cottage. Oh, why didn’t I at least bring my phone to take pictures? Spying another pillar box on the other side of the road, I crossed to check the royal cypher—Edward VII. Three different cyphers in one village!

Adventure and Exploration

About the time I decided it was time to turn around, I noticed a sign for a footpath. I couldn’t see where it went, but since this was an adventure walk, I followed the sign. It wound through houses and opened onto a grassy hill. I noticed benches near the top, so I followed a path worn in the grass to a bench and sat down, huffing and puffing. It’s quite a hill (and I’m out of shape). I could see for miles to the west: fields, houses, buildings, roads, cranes towering over construction sites, and multiple church steeples.

After catching my breath and taking in the view, I saw an opening in the trees and bushes behind the bench. I wondered where it went, so I walked over and saw that it leads to the church at the top of the hill. So, up I went. The steep walkway runs along the southern boundary of the church graveyard. Reading headstones as I walked up, I felt the love and grief expressed in the epitaphs.

At the top, stairs lead to the main churchyard. Just to the right of those stairs is a bench and a plaque. Curious, I walked over and read that this was Lord Byron’s favorite spot to write poetry when he was a student at Harrow School. One of his poems is etched in stone next to the plaque. There’s a grave covered with a metal cage to protect it—we learned later that people had taken to breaking pieces off the headstone as souvenirs of their visit.

Byron’s poetry place, St. Mary’s Church, Harrow-on-the-Hill

I walked by the church, its steeple covered in scaffolding, and out the main entrance of the churchyard, which led me right back into the heart of the school. In front of me was a spectacular view of the library with Wembley Stadium and central London in the background. I knew I would be back with a camera the next day.

Harrow School

Walking back to our little flat, I thought about all the pictures I wanted to take. On the website for Harrow School, I learned that Elizabeth I issued the school’s charter, which explained the statue. I also saw that they do public tours three times a year. To my delight, the next public tour was in a few days on Saturday. I bought tickets immediately.

I repeated my walk the next day, and several other days, with camera in hand. But, the real treat was the school tour that Saturday. We can’t recommend it highly enough. On the day of the tour, there was snow on the ground and frigid wind blowing. However, our tour guide gave us such a warm welcome that we forgot about the weather and enjoyed every minute of the tour.

Vaughan Library in the snow
Fourth Form Room at Harrow School
Students traditionally carved their names carved on the wood paneling of the fourth form room, including some famous former students like Byron and Churchill.

Starting in the Fourth Form Room in the original school building, we saw where Lord Byron, Winston Churchill, and many other students carved their names in the wood paneling.

Harry Potter at Harrow School
Fourth Form Room window. Do you recognize it from Harry Potter?

More recently, this was the filming location for a Harry Potter scene. You may recall the students learning to levitate a feather and Hermione saying, “You’re saying it wrong. It’s leviOsa, not leviosA!”

We toured the magnificent D-shaped Speech Room where assemblies, events, and performances are held. There are seven plaques commemorating prime ministers who attended the school.

There are also paintings of famous Old Harrovians including Sir Winston Churchill, King Hussein of Jordan, Sir Robert Peel (founder of the Metropolitan Police), and Anthony Trollope (novelist and inventor of the pillar box). This beautiful room has also been used as a filming location. We recognized it in an episode of The Crown (where it was portrayed as Eton, a rival school).

The Speech Room

The tour took us on a solemn walk through memorials for the many former students lost in military service, particularly in the World Wars. Finally, we crossed the street and visited the church and library, two beautiful examples of Victorian-era architecture. The rear windows of the library sport an even more stunning view to central London, which we learned is preserved by the lands adjacent to the school having been purchased by faculty and staff and gifted to the school in order to preserve the school’s country feel and view.

Worth a Visit

It’s a remarkable school in a remarkable location next to a charming village amid the hustle and bustle of a busy borough of London. It’s off the regular path of where most tourists go, but easily accessible by Tube or bus. If you’re looking for something a little different than the typical tourist fare, whether you like art, architecture, history, or literature, this may be just the thing. If you go, have lunch at The Castle or afternoon tea at The Doll’s House on the Hill.