Kitty

I've had Kitty for about 15 years now, and I left her with my parents when I moved to London. We were originally planning on being in London for only 1 1/2 years, and it didn't seem reasonable to put my cat through the whole process for her to be with me while I was in London.

Now that it looks like I'm probably going to be in London for the foreseeable future, I've researched and researched bringing my cat overseas. It's a complicated process that's even more complicated by the fact that the organization overseeing animal imports into the UK is changing its rules in January 2012. Luckily, the rules are being relaxed so that mandatory quarantine or a 6 month waiting period after the rabies shot is no longer the norm. Instead, the waiting period has been shortened to a mere 21 weeks.

Starting January 2012, the new procedure of getting my cat into the UK goes something like this:

1. Rabies shot
2. Microchipped (with an international chip)
3. Obtain paperwork from the vet affirming the rabies shot and the microchip
4. Purchase IATA approved carrier with attached food and water dishes
5. Purchase absorbent material for the carrier (newspaper is not approved)
6. 24-28 hours before the flight, tick and tapeworm treatment administered by the vet and affirmed in writing (this requirement is under consideration and may no longer be required as of January 2012)
7. 21 days after the rabies shot, Kitty can fly

I spoke with a pet agent at Virgin Atlantic, one of the airlines approved to transport animals into the UK, and this is what I found out about bringing a cat from LA to London:

1. Pets fly Sunday through Friday on flights VS008.
2. The airfare starts at $526 (but can go up based on the size of the carrier) and admittance fees imposed by the UK authorities are 260 GBP.
3. Pets need to be brought to the airport 4 hours before the time of the flight.
4. After landing, the animals are brought into pet reception, and the cats are put into a cat run and given food and water.

With the total travel time clocking in at around 18 hours, it's got me questioning whether I should bring Kitty over at all. I miss Kitty lots, but I don't want her to suffer for so long, especially when she's pretty old. She's always been extremely frightened of pretty much all people, and these days, she just seems interested in laying around and eating. She's just not that frantic kitty that I remember - she's mellowed out, and I feel like it's due to old age.

My parents are happy to have Kitty staying with them in their big old house where Kitty can look out the window, and she has her own room. It also doesn't help that my mom said that if Kitty could talk, she'd say "don't make me go to London!"

I don't want to bring her over for selfish reasons, but at the same time, I think she'd be happier with me, and I don't want her to think that I abandoned her.

What to do, what to do...