My Life in Cebu: Our Feline Friends

I don’t know if you’re a dog person or a cat person or a “Get those beasts out of here; they make me sneeze,” person; I have been all of the above. But in the last 20 years or so, it’s been all cats. When I came to Cebu, I again succumbed to the, “Oh…aren’t these kittens cute.” It is the thinking of a moron.

Zumba and Jose. They follow us everywhere. You know my thinking. “Cats are so much easier; you can go away for a few days and they’ll take care of themselves.” And it’s true, mostly. You can’t do that with a dog. But little did I know when I came here in 2011, that we’d be traveling to Japan and Austria for 3 years. “We can’t leave the Boys here; they’re part of the family,” Rachel pleaded. “No, we can’t; I’ll look into how much it will cost to take them with us.”

You know when your 16-year-old daughter has a fender-bender and you look at the damage and say, “Well, that will be about $700,” and you get the bill and it’s $4500, and then there’s the other car….

That’s how it is with taking “The Boys” to Japan followed by a year in Vienna. You see, the Philippines is a “sort of” Third World country and Japan and Austria are among the most organized, most regulated countries in the world.

Japan has been free of rabies since the early 1950’s; Austria, almost as long, and to say that these are two countries that “Dot their i’s and Cross their t’s” would be an understatement. They dot the i’s and cross the t’s that aren’t even there.

So the first thing you have to do is find a good Cebu Vet; Dr. Gilley at Animal Wellness in Banilad is such a guy. He told us what we had to do.

1. Forms, forms, forms
2. Have cats micro chipped for identification.
3. Have rabies vaccinations. (new ones after the microchips).
4. 1 month later have blood drawn.
5. Send blood samples to Atlanta, Georgia because Japan or Austria won’t accept a Philippines test.
6. Get results.
7. Forms Forms Forms in English, Japanese and German
8. Uh Oh. Japan and Austria won’t accept any Philippines documents because they don’t have an Apostille agreement with the Philippines.
9. Go to Manila and have the documents authenticated with “Red Ribbons.”
10. Then have Red Ribbon documents authenticated by Japanese and Austrian Embassies because they don’t accept Philippines Red Ribbon Authentication.
11. Have the documents translated to Japanese and German.
12. Contact appropriate airline and schedule.
13. Pay Everybody.
14. Pay Everybody Some More.
15. When the cats arrive in Tokyo or Vienna arrange to pick them up at the Quarantine Office.
16. Stand there while the Japanese government official says, “Um, um, and shakes his head.” “Veterinary in Cebu put date by his signature on page 1 and 2, but not Page 3.” (Signature was there and it’s the same date). “Um, Um,”and shakes his head some more.
17. Call Cebu Vet using Skype on my laptop. Tell him there’s no date on Page 3 by his signature. He fills out new forms, goes to Cebu government office has them stamped. Faxes them to Tokyo. “Tokyo Guy,” shakes his head, “Um, Um. Must have original documents.”
18. Rachel cries.
19. Japanese official talks to three people and they decide to release the cats but I must forward Original Documents immediately.
20. I start to cry: I promise.
21. Take cats on train 2 hours north of Tokyo.
22. Home at last.
23. Repeat all steps for Vienna.
24. Vienna Official at Quarantine, “Um, Um” (German Version). Entry is supposed to be after 90 days from Rabies titer test. It’s only been 88 days.”
25. Rachel cries again.
26. I can see my cats in their approved travel container.
27. I talk to them, “Meow, meow,” like the moron I am.
28. After 4 hours of conversation, they let the cats come home with us but we have to take a private car, not the train, because it’s only been 88 days instead of 90.
29. Reverse process; come home to Cebu

Total cost for all this…you don’t want to know. Really, you don’t. But it cost a lot more to send “The Boys” to these places than for Rachel and I to travel there, including the necessary visas that my “Wife with a Philippines Passport” needed. And the pet documents were far more elaborate.

So our two cats have lived in Japan, Vienna Austria and now they are home in Cebu. They don’t know the difference and they still scratch the furniture and walk on my face at 5 am so I’ll wake up and feed them. But, you gotta love them; “They’re part of the family,” I guess.

And by the way, bringing your dog or cat to The Philippines from a 1st World country is quite a bit simpler. There are some similar steps, but no Rabies titer blood tests, just a Vaccination Certificate, and some forms and notifying the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) when they will arrive. Here’s a good site that explains it all.

When we arrived in Cebu with our two cats from Japan, with my stack full of documents (because Japan requires all the same stuff to leave Japan too) the guy at the Cebu/Mactan airport, just waved me through. You know how it is, eh?