My cat, Georgia, is now a real traveler having successfully made the trip from Seattle to Shenzhen. Bringing her was a hard decision actually because everyone who has a pet can imagine the difficulty of traveling with them. Kris tells me that it’s not as bad as Kris traveling alone with two toddlers, but I believe each has it’s own challenges. Preparing the logistics for this trip was what made this so challenging. The actual journey, however, though a little tough for both of us, wasn’t all that bad. I know Georgia couldn’t have been comfortable cooped up in the travel bag, and I was on edge most of the time knowing that she might unleash cat urine. That would have been almost unrecoverable, for if she’d done that in, say, my lap when I took her out of the bag in Tokyo, I would have probably either had to buy new pants in the airport (good luck trying to find a Westerner’s size that quickly in Japan) or just made the final leg in my underwear. Fortunately, the only time she decided she had to “use the restroom” was, in fact, on my lap when I secretly took her out of her travel bag in a dark corner of the Northwest Lounge in Tokyo. Thankfully, it wasn’t cat urine. That simple mess was easy to surreptitiously dispose of and both of us were happier.

Three months earlier: I first had to find out what I needed from the US to board an international flight: A domestic health certificate, an international health certificate signed by the US Department of Agriculture APHIS division, and certificates of rabies and feline leukemia. The trick with the certificates was that they could only done within certain time frames, like no older than ten and thirty days. To get the health certificate signed, most folks just FedEx it down to Olympia, WA, but because of my schedule, I had to drive (thanks, Pavan, for letting me use your car after mine sold!). That part was easily solved; the US government, for all of our complaints, is at least consistent in the requirements.

Speaking of consistency, let’s talk about China now. I could not get a straight answer or information anywhere. I got conflicting information from Chinese websites and even my relocation company. To quarantine or not to quarantine? Many resources said, yes, China has a 30-day quarantine, others said no. What vaccinations were required? There were all sorts of different lists. Then there was Hong Kong. I received information from the relocation company (the same one I had hard time communicating with) that indicated bringing in pets was done through Hong Kong and there was a well-established though draconian policy: 1) pets must fly as cargo, 2) pets must be accompanied by a quarantine officer to the border, 3) there’s a ton of paperwork so the relocation company offered to outsource the paperwork for…$700!

Well, having to fly a pet as cargo was the deal breaker but the $700 seemed exhorbitant. I asked one of the relocation representatives why it was so expensive and he just said something like, “Oh. There are many many papers. Many papers. Very difficult.”

So, after more digging and realizing that Hong Kong just wasn’t going to work, I asked, “Well, what if I didn’t go to Hong Kong? What if I fly to Shenzhen or Guangzhou? What’s the policy?”

“Oh, China is very easy. No quarantine, no paperwork.”

Baahh!!! Why didn’t you tell me this about a month ago when I was confused and concerned about the entire notion of bringing my cat through Hong Kong?! Well, at least I’d asked so I started concentrating on finding out the rules about China. In this regard, the relocation company was pretty accurate. They said that there was no quarantine and had a simple list of vaccinations required. However, there were other sources that I was given that said that I should get my certificates translated (forget that…I’ll just play dumb), make photocopies of my passport (done), and other small requirements. Still others said that there was a quarantine or that it depended on which city you landed in. In Beijing, there was a quarantine sometimes, in Shanghai there wasn’t, in Guangzhou, who knows? I never got a straight answer on the vaccines. I just decided to get what the US suggested and go with that.

So, having settle on flying direclty to China, I got my ticket from Seattle to San Francisco to Beijing to Shenzhen, but then, just a few days before I was to travel, someone in China Southern Airlines shut down my idea of traveling from Beijing to Shenzhen with Georgia in the cabin with me. OK, dealbreaker. No way am I trusting her to Chinese baggage handlers. So, I changed my ticket to Northwest flying from Seattle to Tokyo to Guangzhou (about 1.5 hours from Shenzhen by car). But suddenly, Northwest tried to kill the deal saying that I couldnt’ bring Georgia on board the cabin in business class from Seattle to Tokyo. “Why is that?”, I asked the cantankerous US Northwest operator. “Because people who pay that kind of money don’t want to put up with cats or children! Don’t get me started on traveling with pets!” Uh huh. Well, what about the people who pay good money to travel business not to mention the children I’ve seen in business class? Well, some minutes later she came back and said that it was because of the airplane make, an Airbus, that they did not allow pets in business class – there’s not enough space under the seats, apparently. “BS”, I thought and I asked my US relocation agent (not to be confused with the incompetent Chinese one) to go ahead and book the ticket and I’ll risk it. If I have to downgrade my ticket to coach, so be it, but I thought I could make it work. (It turns out this is mostly true – some of the business class seats have what looks like a metal suitcase in the middle of the seat in front of you, so putting a bag “under the seat in front of you” is not possible. The seats along the wings, however, do have room!)

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that the pet with the travel bag must not exceed 15 pounds. At her checkup, Georgia checked in at 13.6 pounds (she’s gotten fat…and is now on a diet). So, that cemented my idea of buying a lightweight flexible travel bag and not a plastic “kennel”. Also, I thought that that would give me a little more leverage since I didn’t have an “alternative” kennel available. Out of curiousity, when Pavan and I were at the airport, we weighed her on our own with the travel bag at one of the unattended check in counters. I removed the shoulder strap for good measure. The weight came in at exactly 15 pounds. Time to board the plane.

Well, that’s the story. Though I had it, NO ONE asked me once for any documentation. I basically smuggled a cat into China.

Oh! One more thing: when I was on the final leg from Tokyo to Guangzhou, I got a bit of a jolt of worry when the purser announced that all pets had to be quarantined in Guangzhou for 30 days or risk a 50,000 RMB fine. Because I wanted to forgo a ridiculous $700 fee, I could just see myself getting busted in Guangzhou (no way was I going to allow her to be quarantined after the relocation company said there was no quarantine) and paying seven THOUSAND dollars in fines. Well, I decided to go up and speak to the purser who simply replied, “Oh, I have to say that. They don’t care.” OK, well, time to put my trust in the flaky relocation company and hope for the best.

I waited forever to get my bags: my guitar and little suitcase. When they came, I started walking casually towards customs (I have no poker face; I’m sure I looked pretty guilty). I handed in my customs declaration that indeed declared I had a pet, but offered up no more information. I was thankful that the travel bag was black because it was hard to notice that there was an animal inside unless you looked closely at the mesh. I continued on, making no eye contact, and walking slowly. Within a few moments, I saw Xiao Liu waiting for me to the left. So I kept walking. No one stopped me.

(above) Georgia on the window sill of the 19th floor of San Dong Jia Ri Wan.