CrazyCat

I brought my cat with me to the US (from Melbourne) and I spoke to a few of the pet transport companies before I left. I ended up going with Jetpets because of a) price and b) total travel time for kitty. It seemed to me that the different companies use different airlines and so flight time, stopovers etc varied (in my case, total travel time varied by almost 24 hours between companies). It might be something for you to keep in mind, especially as there are so many flights/routes that you can take to get to Amsterdam. Jetpets were great, very professional and we had no problems at all.

I moved to the US a year ago under similar circumstances career-wise and I had the same fears about bringing my cat with me. For me, it was never an issue of whether I would stay or go (I was always going to go), but more about whether I would leave the cat with my parents or bring her with me. This is a cat who was so scared of the carrier she would pee and howl the entire time she was in there. I thought there was no way she would handle a 24+ hour flight, let alone 30 days quarantine in Australia if/when I come back. After much anxiety, though, I decided I wanted her with me and she would be happier with me than with anyone else. To cut a long story short, we did some crate desensitization, she made the trip and although I'm sure she hated every second of it, she was perfectly fine and I'm very happy she's here. As raz said, plenty of anxious animals fly, your dog would probably cope better than you expect. Just something to think about....

My cat and I moved to the US about 6 months ago. She went with Jetpets, total cost from Melbourne to Atlanta was just on $2000. It was really very easy. My advice would be to call as many companies as you can for quotes - I found prices varied quite a bit. It also seemed that as with human airline tickets, cost for pets goes up with the number of connecting flights, so it will be cheaper if you can pick your dog up from a major airport. My kitty has never liked being in the crate, but handled the trip really well. She was tired, and a bit smelly, but otherwise fine when I picked her up. The US is very pet friendly, especially if you are renting. I'm sure it varies by location, but I found about 80% of rental properties in my area to be pet friendly, which is WAY more than I would ever find in Melbourne. Good luck!

I just moved with my cat to the US. Her regular vaccinations had to be up to date, plus she had to have a Rabies vaccination ($80), and she had the RNATT (rabies titre test - about $200) which is an AQIS requirement as I'm planning on returning to Australia in a few years. If your pets are definitely not coming back you won't need the RNATT. There's no quarantine entering the US - it really was very easy. You have to use one of the pet transport companies - Jetpets and Dogtainers are the two largest (I think), but there are others. Call around for quotes - I fond a big difference in price between companies. Transport cost for my 4kg cat was just over $2000 ( - it didn't even cost that much for ME to fly here!) Good luck!

A doctor once told me that (in humans, at least) cancerous lumps have irregular edges so they feel 'bumpy' - they are also hard and will not move. Cysts and other non-cancerous lumps are supposed to have smoother edges and feel softer, so they will move if you press on them

The companies test the efficacy by vaccinating animals, then exposing them to the virus and see how their body responds. When they get to the dose of vaccine that stops animals developing clinical disease they know what dose to put in the vaccine vials. Then the company examines the immune response further - part of this is measuring antibody titres, because even though antibodies aren't always the component responsible for killing the virus/bacteria, they are a very good measure of the strength and persistance of the immune response. After measuring antibody levels, companies can then say 'XX level of specific antibody can be correlated with protection' In humans they are useful because the level of antibody that is correlated with protection against certain diseases (rubella, mumps, HepB, Chicken Pox, among others) is well defined and accepted by health authorities, so if your antibody titre is below the required level you get another vaccine - it's fairly straight forward. I assume (but I could be wrong) that the problem for animals is that while required antibody levels are probably known by vaccine companies, there is no government (or other) authority that will set the official standards for acceptance of these antibody levels. Which means that a titre test will measure specific antibodies but won't actually mean anything unless the 'level correlated with protection' is known. I hope that makes sense?

When I was younger we had two beagles. Both would eat their dinner in a matter of seconds but the younger dog was slightly faster (10 seconds compared to 15? ) and once finished would try and steal the older dog's food. We ended up feeding one outside and one inside with no problem. After they had both finished we let the younger dog back inside and it was funny to see her run at the speed of light around the corner to where the other dog had been eating to see if there were any scraps left. Being beagles, of course, there were never any leftovers, but she did it every night for YEARS and never gave up hope!