One of the shocking realizations of a global move is the cost of moving your animals, versus the cost of moving your belongings. In our case, we fit our ’stuff’ sans cars into a 20′ shipping container.
The container contents wrapped, packed like an intricate puzzle, either scanned or unpacked by customs, then finally unloaded and unpacked at your door. With the exception of cost and overall time to ship (10-12 weeks via ocean freight), just about like any other move, assuming you don’t have to have your golf clubs fumigated for dirt/grass debris at 800 per item!
The cats have to go through a battery of rabies tests and certifications even to qualify for shipment to Aus, and the only way to get them port to port is via certified animal handlers and air-cargo shipments. This would explain the absence of poodles and toy-dogs on your long-haul flights from LAX->SYD. And only after that, they get to enjoy 60 days of quarantine in a government run facility.
All up, your relative weight and space ratios to cost are orders of magnitude higher for cats versus goods. Now if you could just put your cats in a container with some bulk quantities of food and litter, you could ship about 4oo cats and turn a mean profit!
Exactly why we left our kitty in the States…plus the quarantine area is WAAAY the heck outside of town, a 45 minute drive at least.
Lee and I are dying to know where in Sydney you are settling, wondering whether it is near our old digs in McMahons Point and our favorite little cafe, Delicato Deli.
It’s the only irrational part of the move indeed! Right now we are camped out with family in the Sutherland shire, we may live anywhere between here and the eastern suburbs. Got digs, do tell!