Links: How Expats Move with Their Cat or Dog

A cat and dog, the two most popular animals kept as pets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My son and his family just moved from Shanghai, China to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and not only did the children and wife come with...so did two dogs! Only a few years ago I would have thought it was impossible to move the dog from the house to the back yard. It had never occurred to me that animals could follow a family half way around the world.

In the case of my son and his wife, the moving of pets just did not seem to be a problem. When they left the Middle East 8 years ago, they brought a cat named Lester and a dog named Jake with them. The dog was a given I suppose but the cat was...well just a cat. (I'm sorry RV, my cat, and all the other cats in the world. That is just mean I suppose.)

But, you see, Lester was an Arabian cat that had gone through a terrorist attack on their compound in Saudi Arabia. He got himself locked out of the compound for several months and turned up one afternoon sunburned, bald and generally unrecognizable. The thinking was that any cat that was that brave needed to be taken care of for the rest of his life. He was not "just a cat". Not at all.

While there are many websites that offer information, I thought that Mary Richardson over at Matador Network had the best information I had seen. She said:

Moving abroad can take a lot of preparation and planning ahead, especially if you hope to bring your pet with you.

She decided to leave her cat behind when she moved to Japan...a choice she regretted. In the list below her's is the 7 Tips for Moving Overseas with Pets.

So, want to take the cat/dog with you when you leave the states or even fly across country? It requires some jumping through hoops and not a little expense is involved. There are vets, consulates, and airlines to be dealt with. Start a long time ahead to get all the information you need. Here are a few websites that will help you:

• 4 Tips for Moving Overseas With Pets
• Moving: What about My Pet?
• Tips for Moving With Pets
• Moving With Pet (pictures too)
• 7 Tips for Moving Overseas with Pets

We plan on flying with our cat when we do not take our car to Arizona anymore. He is a stinker so I suppose I will need to do a little reading and make a visit to the vet for tranquilizers for him and my doctor for tranquilizers for me.

Have a wonderful day.

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Aging: Seriously, a pet is a good thing!

When I wrote the article the other day about needing a dog, I did so with tongue in cheek. However, there is a serious issue here. See, I really do believe that those of us that are older still need to nurture and care for something. Nurturing is probably a basic human need.

It wasn't until I came to realize that those people I had fussed over in the past didn't want me to do that anymore that I began to understand why the little old lady down the street not only loved her darling dog but truly needed it.

Cat kiev (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My children are not mean spirited and love me a great deal. For that reason, they do not want me to worry. They are trying to shield me from what is bad in their lives. I understand that feeling well. After all I am a daughter of a mother. The truth of the matter is I don't want to worry either. It sort of makes me feel sick.

But in a world without worry and control, there is a void of sorts. People of my age and older like to look and see someone gazing at us adoringly and an animal becomes the surrogate for grandchildren and children or a missing companion. A pet's complete dependence on us makes our lives complete somehow.

The fact is that the research agrees. Evidence shows that pet ownership is one of the real components needed to treat depression in older people. But that is only part of the picture. Stress, heart disease and anxiety disorders also fall into that group of conditions alleviated by pet ownership.

In an article written by Stanley Coren for Psychology Today titled The Health and Psychological Benefits of Bonding with a Pet Dog,  Coren talked about the conditions eased by the ownership of a pet. Coren is the author of several books about dogs and professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. In the segment dealing with aging he said:

Research looked at [people] 60 years of age and older, who were not living with human companions, but were living with a pet. The likelihood that the non-pet owners would end up being diagnosed as clinically depressed was four times higher than that found in the pet owning people of the same age. There was also evidence that the pet owners required fewer medical services and were much more satisfied with their lives.

So, see I could be onto something here. A dog, cat or even a parrot may be the solution to all kinds of problems. I think I am fine. But for you or someone you know, it may be something to think about. 

FYI: My husband and I cannot have a dog in our park model in Arizona...rules you know. So until we move or the rules change, we will not be having a dog. RV the Cat and I will just have to learn how to love each other!

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Related articles

• The Need to Nurture in Retirement
• I live with a cat....sigh!

Aging: Why do I need a dog?

Oh my gosh I need a dog! My life is not perfect.

My son had his 50th birthday yesterday and that is reason enough to need something warm to snuggle.  Besides that my daughter had a little surgery last week and she just "wanted to be left alone!" Then to top it off my youngest son was in the hospital with a severe infection and his beautiful wife took care of him.

The perfect dog! (Photo credit: Alex Balan)

I am not allowed to boss my children or
grandchildren around and I am not allowed to give advice and stuff like that. The grandchildren don't like it when I smooch them in public. Children remind me that "Grandmother is not in control."

We own a cat but it doesn't like me much. So I may be buying a dog. I need something to boss around, take care of and control. A dog won't correct me when I use the wrong word or make fun of me because I am...well me. And I don't think a dog would mind if I smooched it in public. Yes, it appears only a dog will fit the bill. I will let you know how it goes.

Have a wonderful day!

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RV the cat...he prefers my husband and disdains me.