How to bring a kitty to Germany!

 

I have a new kitty!! He is a sweet orange tabby and answers to the name of Messerschmitt! Messer for short! Messer is the creamy one. He was born on April 9th and is now 15 weeks old and still as cute as can be! My friend saw an advertisement on the Next Door app for two tabby male kitties and suggested we should both have a baby kitty. It did not take much to convince me although I had already booked my flight back to Germany in January and was going to fly British Airways. Not the best airline for traveling with pets. I contacted the organization that booked my flight and they claimed it was no problem to change my flight to Lufthansa (much better for traveling with pets)! Yeah!! 
We knew our kitties needed German names; at least mine did! My friend's mom suggested Heinkel and Messerschmitt and it was perfect! 
What I have below are the steps I took in bring Messerschmitt to Germany with me! In case anyone is interested...might be kind of interesting! 

Step 1: Book a flight to Germany with Lufthansa so that one does not land in the UK. That just makes things complicated. The UK is an island, does not have rabies and does not want rabies. Booking with British Airways requires a pet passport (about $500) and the flight ticket itself for the pet is around the same when I checked 6 years ago. For traveling to different countries, there are different requirements. 

Step 2: Get on the Aphis website with the USDA to check the requirements for bringing a cat to Germany. I am pasting the site below in case you want to take a peek. Also check with the airline to see what they require! I called ahead to reserve a spot for Messer and downloaded and printed two forms to fill out. That was easy. 
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet-travel/by-country/eu/pettravel-germany

Step 3: Messer needs a microchip, an international microchip! Then a rabies shot AFTER the microchip and not before. Not sure why so I just follow the rules. There needs to be at least 21 days after the rabies shot before leaving the country, a waiting period. I had to schedule things out just right! 

Step 4: There is a health certificate that needs to be filled out by the vet (usually by a technician?) and brought to the USDA office which used to be in Denver (did this once before with Susie). The Aphis part of this office is not longer in Denver but in Sacramento, CA! So......that means calling Aphis to make sure I understand all the details of the certificate that need to be filled out. It has to be written in blue pen (for the one half page document signed by the vet), the 8 page document has to be filled out online (typed), printed and signed by the vet. As the certificate is only good for 10 days after signed by Aphis, I called Aphis again to make sure I had my timeline right. I was flying out on July 20th so they suggested I have the form filled out and signed on July 11th, Thursday then drive it straight to FedEx to ship it overnight to Sacramento. If they get it before 10am on Friday, they can (usually) have it checked, signed and on its way back by that afternoon. I received it back the following Monday morning. Yeah! Whew! 

Step 5: Gather supplies that the kitty will need while traveling. My friend's mom purchased a wonderful kitty carrier when I traveled with Susie 6 years ago so I already had an airline approved carrier. The airline asked for the weight of kitty and carrier and I explained as the kitty was still a kitten, I don't think he will be over the limit of 8 kilos! No problem there! I found a small plastic container to put some dry food in for traveling and two small foldable containers for water and food. Lufthansa requires the cat to wear a collar or halter and to bring a leash. When going through security, I had to take Messer out of his carrier (which he loved!!) and carry him through the sensor. His carrier went through the dark tunnel with the rest of my things. I also brought a small bag of kitty litter, potty training pads for dogs and two small tin trays I found at Wal-mart in case he needed to potty. He wasn't interested as there was too much commotion going on. I did not do any medication as I read up on it last time and it was suggested it could be harmful to the kitty. They have the ability to calm themselves and usually will just sleep on the flight. 

Step 6: I was able to place the carrier under the seat in front of me like last time which is nice! He gets to ride in the cabin along with me. It was about a 10 hour flight to Frankfort and by the time we were a few hours out, Messer was so done with the whole traveling thing!! He would cry for a bit here and there and I would place my hand down in front of his carrier so he could smell me and calm himself. A few times, I put my hand inside to pet him, that is when the flight attendants are not around just in case. When we arrived in Frankfort, we had to walk through security again and get to our next gate. Our flight to Basel was only 50 minutes, nice and short but not short enough for Messer! We were picked up by friends and I took him out for our 30 minute drive to Kandern and he purred!!! He was so happy to be out of his carrier! 

I think I have shared most of what I needed to prepare for as Messer and I got ready to travel to Germany! Go ahead and comment if you have questions about our trip! When we arrived, he ran from room to room like crazy and was so excited to be free!! 

A friend here purchased some kitty litter for me and brought if over on Saturday so I would be set when I arrived on Sunday. Stores are closed on Sundays in Germany which is nice! Planning ahead is required for Sundays and holidays here. :)