Hi there! If you remember me, my name is Coco. I am a 3 years old French Bulldog and as you may now know my humans love to do crazy experiments with bacteria in the lab. For this reason, we have moved a lot during the last couple of years. My hoomans wrote a guide about how they dealt with the move from Valdivia, Chile to Boston, USA. But now, I want to tell you the story of how I traveled from Chile to the USA.
Me at Santiago Airport
The first important detail is that since I am a brachycephalic dog I am banned from flying in the cabin of most airlines. Also, I am not allowed in the cargo compartment either. That complicated everything! How was I going to follow my family? So we had to start looking for companies that could do that.
My humans were not willing to take any risk with their baby (aka me). They looked for agencies that were members of the IPATA "International Pet and Animal Transportation Association". That's how we found Interfamily (http://www.interfamily.cl/en/live.html). They took care of everything related to my trip (plane tickets, care during the entire trip and paperwork).
My parents took me from Valdivia to Santiago. Then, on day one of the international trip, the agency picked me up in Santiago early in the morning and took me to the airport, where they did all the paperwork and got me onto the plane.
Me in my carrier
I traveled in the cargo area in my extra large carrier since they required that I got plenty of space (seriously, a great Dane could fit in there!) and after around 6 h, I got to Bogota, Colombia. I spent the night there, they fed me, walked me and took care of all my needs. They were very nice!. Meanwhile they sent pictures to my parents so they wouldn’t worry about me. They knew what was happening in real time. The next day, I traveled to New York. My human dad received me there, I was so happy to finally meet him!! We spent another night in NY and the next day he got me into a truck and we drove from New York to Boston. It was an amazing road trip! We enjoyed being together so much!! However, I was missing something… my human mom was not with us. But that's another story.
Me saying hi at New York Airport
To deal with the paperwork was kind of painful but this agency took care of most of it. They asked my humans to provide:
Copy of my human´s personal documentation (passport, flight reservation)
Certification of full vaccination (specially rabies. I needed this shot at least a month before traveling)
Certification of exportation pedigree (provided by Kennel Club Chile)
Certification of ownership (provided by the breeder)
Proof of presence of microchip
License of animal registry (issued by the Chilean government)
Owner´s value declaration to customs
Power of attorney (for the Department of Homeland Security)
Power of attorney (allowing Interfamily to transport me from Chile to the US)
Signed letter of release of liability in case something happened to me during the flight. This was what scared my parents the most 🙁. But I’m OK! They were a very responsible agency so nothing happened to me.
My vet in Chile and Interfamily suggested avoiding water and food 24 h before the departure so I wouldn’t feel bad during the trip. Because of my flat nose I can´t be sedated so my hoomans just tried to play with me and get me used to the carrier during the previous 2 weeks. They tried different games with me and I ended up loving it. That carrier was huge! As a requirement for brachycephalic dogs flying, we need to have lots of space to minimize chances of suffocation. I used the Bracco Travel 6 Pet Carrier..
The total cost of the service with Interfamily was ~USD$4100. OUCH but every penny was worth it for my parents. To be all together doesn’t have a price tag.
We made it!
If you are interested in my adventures, follow me on Instagram (@_coco_el_frenchie_). Also, here you can see a summary of this adventure.
Until the next one!
Cheers,
Coco
Yorumlar