Quarantine

[Rhubarbgarden]

My friend has just flown in her cat from Pakistan on a pet passport, only to find on arrival that there has been a major cock up with the paperwork, and not enough time was left between the rabies vaccination and the blood test. As a result, instead of settling into her new British home, the poor cat is tonight starting four months in quarantine. My friend is devastated.

Please can anyone report anything good about quarantine for a bit of reassurance?

Oh no that's awful. Sorry I don't know anyone who has used quarantine. I thought it used to be 6 months - at least it's not that long. Your poor friend and her poor cat ...

I spent 7 years working as a quarantine vet. Cats settle in really quickly. They usually have a nice cosy bed and an outdoor area to play. Usually the quarantine staff give the cats toys, but your friend can take in even more. Some cats mostly lounged in their beds others, would jump up and come and play with you the moment you entered the pen - pretty much similar to the way cats are at home. In 7 years with up to 90 cats at any one time quick maths that tells me about 1200 cats in total we only had one cat in all that time who was terrified the entire time. However, we very quickly realised this and covered all the windows on her pen so she felt safer.
Quaratine pens are considerably bigger than regular cat pens so lot more room for stuff. We all had our favourites I loved the camikazi cat who came back from Sebia with an army cat, the mad morrocan cat who entered the country illegally in the back of a film crews fan he was feral when he arrived after 6 months he was a darling. I could go on and on. That actually tells you quite a bit that even nearly 7 years later I still remember lots of them.

That's a lovely story about the Moroccan stowaway cat. Morocco is such a god-awful place to be a cat that was one lucky/clever boy. Out of interest, who would have paid his quarantine bill?

The film crew paid his quarantine bills and then he went to live with one of them. As they had illegally imported him they were responsible for his fees- a little known piece of customs law. They were a bit of serial cat snatchers as another cat came back from Paris with them too.

Thank you so much for this. It's immensely reassuring. I shall forward this thread to my friend, I'm sure it will help. Good on that film crew!