Of course, the most important ‘person’ to consider in the move is Dott the cat – or more precisely Dott the California kitty.

Yup, Dott was part of the “Jennifer package” and came over in September 2007. She’s actually better travelled than a lot of people in this village. Anyway, when she was initially to come over to the UK there was a mix-up with the paperwork meaning she was denied boarding. This meant that Jenn (who had visited California especially to bring back Dott) had to leave her in the care of her mother and travel back to the UK alone.

Dott then was flown over by herself in the September and has lived the good life here every since. Now with the plans to move to the US, we didn’t want any similar issues with Dott’s return passage. This led Jennifer taking Dott to the vet’s this week for a check-up and chat about what we’ll need to do before she returns to California (Dott, not Jennifer).

We had done some preliminary research and it appears that taking an animal from a rabies-free area (the UK) to the USA was a lot easier than vice versa. The main issue would be getting a certificate from the vet stating that Dott was healthy enough to fly.

Jennifer had a slight scare when the vet learned that Dott was 14 years old (yes, a troublesome teenager). He initially expressed concern that she’d be *ahem* past it and not up for 11 hours in a crate in the cargo hold. However, after a good fumble of Dott’s bits, some prodding and poking and stethoscope listening, he proclaimed that she was in good nick for her age. He even predicted that she may live to 20 or 22 years!

Jennifer was pleased with the latter bit, but the very idea that Dott may have been too old got us thinking. What would we have done if she were too old to fly? Now there’s a dilemma. She’s part of the family so abandoning her by having her ‘adopted’ wouldn’t have been an option. Maybe having her taken by ship would have to be considered, but imagine the costs (although I would volunteer to take her on the Queen Mary II. It’s the least I could do for Dotty).

Anyway Dott is fit and perhaps moving now is the last chance to have her flown anywhere – perfect timing. We just need to get everything sorted ASAP and she has to stay sprightly.