Cats, the Chaos they Create and the Case of the Disappearing Felines.

In one of my last posts, I talked about moving cats internationally. Well, I've done it again. Twice.

We left China at the end of June, but my husband didn't start his new job until the beginning of August in Kazakhstan,

We wanted to go to Latvia to visit family and friends first. The plan was to take the cats to Latvia then to Kazakhstan.

While still in China, we hired someone to help us with the cat transportation. China is not the least bit foreigner friendly and we really needed to help of a local to facilitate our exit. Translating all Chinese papers, exit permits, etc. Aside from the usual worry and stress, it went fairly smoothly.

We arrived in Latvia, our papers were scrutinized, and we were free to go,

We had a lovely stay in Old Town Riga in a beautiful apartment.

As time approached for us to leave Latvia we began our exit process. I gathered up my stacks of paper and headed to the vet for a health certificate stating they were fit to travel. Cats went home and I proceeded to the export office. When I arrived I was informed they needed a specific vaccine, the name escapes me at the moment. I had researched online and it was not required. In fact, this vaccine was "recommended, but not required". But the woman at the export office has a print out on the wall from 2019 that was written in Russian that said I needed it. Off I ran back to get the cats, run to the vet office and then run back to the export office. The woman then processed all my papers and even did them in Russian for me. I was thankful to have all this completed, but it took ALL DAY.

Then we began our travel day. When I booked the flights there was only room for 1 cat in cargo and 1 cat in the cabin. Fine, we made the necessary crate adjustments.

We arrived at check in and were told, "We have a problem" The first leg of our flight didn't have room for a cat in Cargo, but they had made arrangements. One of us (my husband) would have to sit in the last row with the giant cargo crate. I asked if we would have any issues with taking him through security, "NO, of course not!"

Going through security, everyone freaked out! We looked like a couple of idiots that thought we could bring a cat into the cabin with a giant plastic pet carrier. Larger than any carry-on ever.

We tried to explain the situation to them, they didn't believe us. Lots of phone calls were made. Much anxiety was had. Finally we were let through, but we still look like dumbasses carrying this loud meowing cat box through the airport.

We arrive at our layover and have to take the cat to a special services counter on the far side of the airport. When I explained the situation to her, she looked skeptical. Clearly we were just a couple of dumb Americans trying to pull a fast one. I tried to assure here this was not our idea. I don't know if she believed me but then we had to leave the airport and enter back in at the departures desk, recheck-in. Another mystified agent had a hard time believing us but checked the cat in. Now we had to wait 1 1/2 hours before we could hand him off the the oversize cargo department.

We did manage to find a restaurant where we could leave the cats nearby and wait.

Finally drop off the 1 cat and make our way to the gate.

The flight was uneventful and we arrive in Astana. I now have both cats and head to the red "SOMETHING TO DECLARE" lane. A guy shoos me to the green "NOTHING TO DECLARE" lane. I told him that I have cats. He could not care less, annoyed, shoos my into the green lane.

NO ONE EVEN LOOKED AT THE CAT'S PAPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are not even close to done with the chaos the cats create.

Before arriving, the school was to send us some housing options, we would pick one and then go directly to the new apartment upon arrival. They sent us 1 option while driving to the airport and 1 while we were in the air and unable to receive emails.

When we arrived a lovely man named Yerlan explained it was very difficult to find apartments with pets. (It's nearly impossible) He took us directly to the second apartment, the one we had not seen because we had been flying. It was pretty old. The flooring had big gaps, it smelled kind of strange. the furniture was old and unattractive, but we were kind of told, that there was no other option. So we resigned our selves to stay.

The first night was ok, but we didn't have any bed sheets or blankets. We just kind of tried to lay some towels on the bed and make do. My son slept on the sofa.

In the morning I went to get coffee........COCKROACHES. About 15 scuttled away when I opened the cupboard.

AW HELL NO.

We began talking with Yerlan and the landlord, they were going to send an exterminator.

The exterminator looked around the kitchen and said "Wow! You have a lot of roaches!" and he also told us this was not the first time he had been called to this apartment. We had to leave for 5 hours, Yerlan babysat our cats at his home while we killed time at the mall.

I did not want to live there, but we had been told several times that this was the ONLY option.

After the mall, we returned and there were even more roaches. Now crawling on the walls and the carpet.

NOPE. That was it. I was not living there. Either we find a new apartment or I am taking my son and we are going home.

Early in my husband's career, we lived in less desirable places. I have put up with a lot, but I am not doing it anymore. All I asked was a decent kitchen so I might enjoy cooking again. I was not going to live like this.

We left the cats but stayed in a hotel that night.

The next morning, Yerlan worked some magic and found another place. We went to see it, it was PERFECT!!!!! But it wouldn't be ready until the following evening.

We returned to the original roach apartment to pack up our belongings and cats. We found a pet friendly hotel for 1 night.

The cats were happy to see us as we began to pack and shove things into bags. We waited until we were all done packing our things before putting the cats back into their boxes.

The cats were gone.

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We could not find the cats. We meticulously searched each room and lifted each piece of furniture. After we searched a room, we shut the door. We did this for each and every room.

No cats.

We searched for hours, overturning every piece of furniture, looking in every cupboard, wardrobe, and drawer.

No cats.

There was 1 open window. Did they jump out the 5th floor window? Some kind of weird cat suicide pact?

I went outside to look below the window to see if they had jumped, if they were hurt, hiding under a car?

No cats.

After a few hours, we decided my son and I would head to the hotel. My husband would stay behind and wait. We really didn't know what we were supposed to do in this situation.

This was my first experience with disappearing pets.

I was also thinking of all the hard work Yerlan had done to find us a pet friendly apartment and now we were going to have to tell him the cats had vanished.

My son and I get to the hotel and settle. We had not had lunch so I got my son a Mars bar for lunch. (Mother of the year here!)

After a few more hours my husband calls and says 1 cat showed up. Just appeared in the hallway. A short while after that the second cat appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

This is truly the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to us.

We think they must have have found a small opening in the bathroom wall, but it was full of plumbing and it certainly didn't seem large enough for a cat, especially our extra large fat boy Dexter.

But that seems more plausible than the cats vanishing

Dexter and Vanilla

into an alternate universe for a few hours.

Also, many thanks to Yerlan and his hard work finding us a nice apartment!