Monday, May 19, 2008

How To Get Two Cats Out of Uganda

Anyone know?

It looks so easy on paper…because there doesn’t seem to be anything on paper.

It’s one of those things where you have to know the right questions to ask, but are not sure where you find out which are the right questions. For example, it recently came to our attention that we need an exit permit from some ministry to get the cats out of Uganda. Now we’ve talked to a whole bunch of people about what we need to get the cats out of Uganda, but it was only on, like, the fourth conversation that someone mentioned this exit permit. So unless you know to ask, “Hey, is there some sort of exit permit we need to get from some random ministry (that our vet couldn’t even remember the name of) in Entebbe, for which we also need health certificates?” then I’m not sure how it really comes up. But why would you know to ask that specific question?

Our mobile vet seemed to have everything under control for us as of 4:39 PM last Wednesday, but I have this horrible feeling we’re going to show up at the airport and poor Bea and poor Sarge, all sweet in their little carriers, are going to get turned away – and if they get turned away, I guess that means we get turned away, too, which would not be good. Which would, in fact, be very very bad.

5 comments:

the antipop said...

in the meantime, you can arrange for a good family to have them, just incase...
but to be honest with you i do not understand the whole obssession with animals...cant you just get another cat when you get there?
good luck tho

hannah said...

well, we sort of fell in love with these particular cats. that's it, really.

but to get more serious about it: i believe that with pet ownership you take on a certain responsibility to care for the animals and while we could find them a nice family here, it doesn't necessarily guarantee them any stability, which i think animals need and deserve. i just don't think pets are accessories to acquire and then discard at will; we adopted these two cats with the inherent promise that we would take care of them, so that's what we're going to do.

it helps that they're insanely cute.

the antipop said...

wow. weel in that case, i hope u manage to bundle those poor things out of here. good luck.

Anonymous said...

Taking animals out of Uganda is a painful experience to say the least. My boss sent 2 cats out and I took a dog out with me. Make sure you cross all your ts and dot your i's. My boss' cats were stranded in Amsterdam alone for 3 days because at the airport they couldn't read the Ugandan doctor's handwriting!!! So do EVERYTHING they tell you to do. Also make sure you put a blanket in the kennel. It sounds ridiculous, but another coworker just had news paper and they made him pay 100$ at the airport to add a blanket! Which he could have bought the same blanket from any market in Kampala for 10$!

hannah said...

whoa. thanks, kelly. i remember your posts about bringing your friend's dog into the states. hectic. i'm grateful to report the legibility of our exit permit seems pretty good. the rest might just be luck. we'll know for certain in 24 hours.