Thread: Very Long Journeys with Puss

Hi Dave

I agree with everybody else, it's a very difficult decision to make and I think that it depends very much on your circumstances as to whether you fly or drive Hank to Spain.

Apologies for the long message, but when we moved to France some 10 plus years ago we left our boys (Ben and Tigs, no MCs then) at our usual cattery for 2 weeks – we had sold our house in the UK and needed to take delivery of our UK furniture etc & organise the rented place a bit before the Boys could join us. We arranged a specialist small animal transporter to collect them from the cattery and take them to the airport … we were then meeting them at the other end - but as you say, it's not cheap and of course we didn't know what went on at the airports.

Sadly we didn't have any other option as we no longer had access to any transport. Unfortunately after having booked everything the rules and regs changed and the direct flight was no longer available, therefore the poor Boys had to fly to Paris and then have another flight on to Bordeaux. They travelled together in the same cage so they at least had each other. When we arrived at the airport they were flat out in their travelling cage looking rather stressed, but were obviously so delighted to see us. If there had only been one flight I think that they would have been OK, but poor Ben (RIP) was terrified of any aircraft noise after that. We ended up having to move 3 times in quick succession before we managed to find the right 'cat friendly' house and they were absolutely fantastic, they both settled in to the new houses literally within hours – I think just the fact that they were with us was enough.

Having said all that, if Hank could be flown direct then that could be good – I'm thinking of the temperatures in Southern/ Eastern Spain … not good for animals in cars.

But ... if at all possible I think I would drive Hank down … do you have air conditioning in your car? As long as 'Dad' is with him I'm sure he would be fine. It is a very long way, but there are motels enroute that take animals, so perhaps you could arrange to stop overnight a couple of times?

A very difficult decision to have to make, but the most important thing is that Hank is going with you