Bringing home a kitten from a European holiday.

[Methe]

We are currently camping in the dordogne. On the first day we were 'adopted' by a ginger and white kitten. He's about 16 weeks old and seems in good health. There are actually two kittens here but the other one has obviously found herself another family. We've not been feeding them of anything but are always in our tent. I woke up with the g+w one curled up in the crook of my knee this morning.

This kitten is really lovely and I'm tempted to look on to what it would take to being him home. I have two cats already, what's another one? It kind of feels like fate. The site owners have said that they are "just strays" and don't seem bothered about them in the slightest. I've seen several dead kittens by the side of the roads too.

Wwyd? Am I stupid to even consider it?

I'd say you can do it but it may be costly, the below site helps, the direct gov site is plain confusing.

www.pettravel.com/immigration/England.cfm

a nice thing to do as if it is a country kitten its lucky to be honest not to have been drowned at birth.

Here are the rules about pets travelling within EU

You need to arrange a microchip and rabies vaccination asap, plus French official vet certificate (in lieu of pet passport) plus you need to check your route home is one that is approved (and change if if not).

We drove here and crossed the channel on a p&o D-C ferry. It's a long journey for a person so would be vile for a kitten. I will read both of those links and have a think.

I just keep thinking about how hard it'll be for them when the season ends and the sites shut down for the winter.

to be honest I don't mean to scare you OP but the kitten will latch onto others staying at the site too.

it will probably end up dead (roadkill) or may make it's way to a farm where it'll be a feral cat, if it is a she she will most likely have kittens young or if male father more unwanted kittens.

my parents have a holiday home in rural France and they see local farm cats, luckily they have jobs to do but as vet care is generally expensive in France I think they still sadly 'get rid' of kittens if unwanted.

Oh yes of course you're right. I know the kitten will have latched on to other people too even though it's currently lounging on my bed with a very sunburned dh! He is lovely though and I would love to take him home.

if you wanted to return you could pick it up and fly home but then extra expense, do you really want to do that?

the upside for you is the cat would travel in a carrier (ensure it's one that's a 'house' so covered as more comforting to the cat) but you would most likely have to leave it in the car on the car ferry. If you make stops for it when driving the kitten should be ok. also it being it's first time travelling as long as you research it shouldn't be too traumatic.

think about where you live now - are you near a main road? do you have DC? do you go away a lot? do you have other animals? basically think of all the things you'd think of if you were thinking of getting a kitten in UK.

you may want to consider getting a friend for him when you're in UK if you're out all day.

We've got two cats now so all that would be fine. We certainly had not planned to get another kitten through and Dh is anti.. Even though he's proper smitten.

would the other cats welcome your new kitten though? would he be ok do you think with other cats (apart from his siblings)?

he is adorable...

My small cat would be fine. The big one would be vile but she's vile to everyone

I'd give it a go if you think you can handle crying in the car (he may be fine). put it this way if he handles this trip then car trips to the vets should be a doddle!

Get some French Dreamies equivalent, ensure he has food and water and a blanket.

Firstly there is a three week wait from the microchip insertion and rabies jab till the kitten can enter the UK, are you away that long?
Secondly I would be having any feral kitten tested for FeLV and FIV before I considered bringing them into an existing cat group.
Finally if you are in southern France you need to be aware that the kitten could be carrying diseases that we don't have in the UK like leish etc.
Not saying you shouldn't do it, but you need to be aware.
Finally some campsites etc. in France keep a population of neutered semi feral cats to control the rodent population so you need to make sure he is not part of their population.

you can do it - but a more sensible use of the cash is to donate to a local neutering programme.

otherwise - happy to commit for another 15 years?

The cat will not be able to travel into the UK until after 21 days from having rabies vqccination. What will you do with it until then? Who would keep him and look after him in France until then?

Oh and you must have the microchip inserted before the rabies vacc or you'd need to have the vaccination again.

Interesting points. It's starting to sound unlikely :( we come home on the 20th.

What's Leish?

I'll update with some more photos. He's really super cute. He has orange eyes and massive feet! gonna be a big cat I think but he is absolutly soft as butter, even gentler than my nice cat.

I wonder if we could get a vet to chip and vax and pay for quarantine at Calais/Dover till the wait was up.

you could poss do as you say re the vet and quarantine.

You have to have a pet passport to take animals within the EU.

That's a possibility, and pop back over for him? My husband regularly takes animals to and from the UK (we're in Portugal) and have had several similar stories with people taking a shine to stray kittens at their rental villas. We have a local cattery who keep them during the 21 days, so if you can sort out that bit, it would be a lovely thing to do. We're always so pleased to help in these circumstances. Good luck!

I adopted 2 kittens from Romania. As stated they had rabies and were micro chipped and a passport. Also tested for the usual diseases. Quite a few hoops to jump through. Travelled with a registered rescue van over a few days and travelled fine. If you can find a local cattery who will keep him for a few weeks while you get sorted? The journey won't be so bad.

As an ex-quarantine vet you need to be aware it is a very expensive option and you will need to pre-arrange it. Nowadays the vast majority of quarantine kennels are at Heathrow, you will not be able to transport the kitten there you will need secure quarantine transport from Dover to the kennels. You will need to pay for a vetting in and for the vet fees to organise the release documents. Plus quarantine kennelling is much more expensive than regular as it has to be much more secure, the pens must be larger than regular pens and a vet has to visit to inspect 6 days out of 7. A conservative estimate quarantine will cost you £1K for this period.
Donating that kind of money to the local neutering charity will help hundreds of cats.
Leish is a very serious and expensive to treat tick borne disease that we don't have in the UK.