We brought two cats and one dog with us from England and will start their stories with the oldest 'Horrace' who aged 20 years flew to a new life in Turkey, three months after we were advised to have him put to sleep.
Meet Horrace |
Horrace stayed around for many years, although every summer he used to disappear for a few weeks. David always thought he used to stay away when there were a lot of rabbits about to catch. Each year he would return again around September time and stay until the following year, although he preferred to be outside for most of the time, he would appear morning and evening for food. But in his latter years spent more time in the house in the winter months.
The years passed by and when we were preparing to move to Turkey, Horrace was a concern to us as he was assessed by the veterinary surgeon as being twenty years old, and we were worried how he would handle the flight and also how he would cope with the heat as he is a long haired cat.
Loving the Turkish summer |
All I can say is that Horrace must have heard because he got out of the basket and for the first time in several days joined the queue to be fed. Over the weekend he continued to eat and seemed to improve somewhat. On Monday morning we both went with him to the vets and explained that he seemed to be trying and that we did not feel the time was right to make the decision. More blood tests were taken and he was put on a renal diet, and the vet agreed that he was not in pain so to wait awhile.
We had already negotiated the cost to transport them to Turkey and we also had all the paperwork from DEFRA to complete. I rang both the shipping agent and DEFRA and asked for the absolute final date for a decision to be made as to whether we would take him or not. We only had about three weeks grace.
The vet visited us and commenced the rabies vaccinations and paperwork for our other cat and our dog, while we waited to see how Horrace responded to treatment and his new diet. Horrace seemed to slightly improve and when it came to D Day for our decision, it was very much a borderline call. We both felt that Horrace deserved the chance to try and the vet agreed with us, so his paperwork, micro chipping and rabies vaccinations commenced at the eleventh hour. I contacted the shipping agent and told them to go ahead with preparing flight crates for all three.
On the day of transportation, Horrace quite happily came in his basket in the car. We had to fly from Birmingham as the only airport that could accommodate the animals other than Gatwick. When we reached the cargo offices and had to transfer the animals to the flight boxes, Horrace went in his with no fuss whatsoever, and was looking around the warehouse at the forklift trucks and people with more interest than we had seen him show for weeks.
We had never flown with our animals before and I was very uncertain about the whole thing, as I don't like flying myself, and if I am honest I wondered whether Horrace would stand up to the flight at all.
Horrace newly arrived in Turkey and off out to meet the neighbours |
We all arrived safely, and all three ate well and looked around their new home. After a day inside we opened the doors and Horrace was the first cat out to look about. He loved the Turkish summer, and his condition improved so fast that we think someone must have served him the elixir of life on the plane. Horrace has continued to flourish and is currently on a normal diet and in better condition than he has been for a long time,but even more incredibly he can now make sounds!
Horrace today - alive and well and living in Turkey |
Ah bless him! Great story....Go Horace!! :-) Jo x
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo x
DeleteWhat a beautiful cat and obviously a fighter, great story. This story is very encouraging to me. We have two dogs 6 and 8,we plan to relocate to Turkey in 5 years time but thought we might have to postpone our plans if our dogs were still with us as they would be too old to travel. Your story gives me hope, we'll be in Turkey in 5 years time. Carol x
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that Horrace's story has inspired hope for your move with your animals to Turkey Carol. I think animals are more resilient and adaptable than we give them credit for sometimes. x
DeleteThankyou so much for sharing Horrace's story. What a happy ending and good for you and David having the courage to give him a chance of a new life. Looking forward to the other stories!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ayak. We'll be adding the stories of the others weekly over the next few weeks.
ReplyDelete