Granted, our cat Isabella is an indoor cat. She won't prowl outside. She won't fight (or heaven help us all - mate) with the other cats in the neighborhood. She won't stay up all night howling. The truth is, at 14 years old, Isabella doesn't do much of anything other than take up space on the sofa and occasionally trigger allergy attacks in our house guests.
That is fine as far as I am concerned. I will admit to having at best an ambivalent relationship with cats, and the less I have to interact with Isabella the better. My wife and daughter provide her with all the love that she needs, and I have never been one to provide anybody or anything with more than the customarily required amount of overt affection.
But despite the fact that Isabella is a fairly benign indoor cat, we were warned that finding an apartment that accepts cats might be a challenge. From what I understand, landlords are often reluctant to allow dander producing pets into their apartments because once that gets into the ventilation system, it's there forever. We might be able to reassure any potential landlords that we will cover any cleaning costs associated with Isabella if or when we eventually move out.
Of course, this all assumes we can get Isabella into Germany in the first place.
In theory, this shouldn't be difficult. Unlike Great Britain, Germany has a relatively open door policy toward the importation of house pets. With its history of fighting rabies, Britain requires the long-term quarantine of animals coming into the country from certain parts of the world. .
Germany is somewhat more welcoming to cats. As there are essentially three requirements for humans to gain residency status in Germany (which I will discuss at some point in the future), there are basically three requirements to get a cat into Germany. First, the cat has to be implanted with an RFID microchip. This is essentially the modern equivalent of an ID tag that pets wear around their necks. If Isabella gets lost, she can be identified and connected to us by anybody with an RFID scanner. This chip also contains information about all vaccinations. Isabella had her chip implanted a couple of weeks ago, and she doesn't even notice it. Second, the cat has to be up to date with vaccinations. That box is checked too. Third, within 10 days of entering Germany, Isabella's veterinarian needs to fill out an international transport form that indicates that she is in good health.
Of course, this all assumes we can get Isabella over the Atlantic Ocean in the first place.
Here is where moving with a cat can get really tricky. Some airlines (like British Airways, for example) won't let us on board with a cat at all. Other airlines, if they do allow cats, require them to be stowed with baggage. This option was strongly discouraged by many people we have spoken to who relate horrible stories of pets that have died in transit due to airline neglect. Not wanting to face that danger, we have opted to carry Isabella into the passenger cabin with us. Fortunately, some airlines allow this.
But. . . you have to have the correct type of carrier, and you need to reserve a space and pay extra to bring the cat on board with you.
After jumping through all of these hoops, my wife candidly told me yesterday morning, "I was kind of hoping Isabella would be dead by the time we made this move." She loves Isabella, but she has a point. Unlike our previous cat who had been knocking insistently on Death's door from the age of 8 to when we finally gently nudged him through at 16, Isabella remains in remarkably good health considering her age. We are hoping to have many more years with her, and we are hoping that she enjoys living in Germany and getting used to eating Katzenfutter ("cat food"). We just have to get her over there. . .
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