But What About the Cats? (Picking Them Up)

Aweh, guys!

So, if you read Part 1: But What About the Cats? (The Paperwork), I detailed the procedure and how my beloved cattos were to enter the Netherlands. Part 2 is about what we did to collect them.

We got up bright and early and headed for Schiphol Airport via the Hilversum train station as the babies were landing at 10:30AM. Once there we were a little lost as we had to find the animal hotel… luckily there were people at information who were able to direct us. The animal hotel is located outside of Schiphol and we actually passed the I Amsterdam letters on the way.

It was a little bit of a walk and it was difficult due to construction to figure out where we were meant to be, but luckily security were able to direct us and it was on Google Maps.

Once we found where we needed to be, we entered the security office and we had to scan our passports to get a security clearance. We made our way to reception where I handed over the copies of all the documents that were accompanying the cats as well as the airway bill and my passport. We didn’t initially have hard copies of the airway bill that was emailed to me by Keringa after we left, so we had to print them at the airport before we arrived. They informed us that their flight was delayed so we were in for quite a wait. Luckily there were other people there to talk to, including a USA Equestrian Team who were flying over 20 horses! That’s a lot of money.

Eventually, about two hours later, the lady in reception told us that the cats had landed, and we were allowed to go and see them. They were in their own cages and while a little dirty they didn’t seem any worse for wear. Hubby wanted to go and find a pet shop to go get crates for them as we had nothing for them, but the lovely lady gave us two free crates to take them home. It really was a nice gesture.

Before we could leave, we needed to go to customs to clear them and the same lady who was helping us offered to drive me there as we didn’t have a car at this point. I took all my documents and passport and we drove for about 15 minutes. The lady (sorry I didn’t get her name) was telling about all the animals they get coming through their hotel including giraffes, beluga whales and hyenas… it really is a menagerie. Once at the customs office (similar set up to a post office), I handed over everything and the gentleman behind the counter wanted my date of entry, which was in my passport. I was nervous that I would have to pay extra, but since they are pet cats who are fully grown, there were no additional fees. The lady drove me back, she packaged up the babies in their new crates and we were allowed to go.

poor buggalugs

I would like to say that this was the hard part, but to be honest, leaving was more difficult. It had been raining all day and we now had two very grumpy kits we needed to evacuate as we were carless. We had to walk in the freezing wind and rain with them to the bus stop (luckily not too far) and thankfully the bus driver didn’t say anything about our cargo. As it turned out, dogs would need a ticket on the train but since cats were considered luggage, they were freebies. We made it back to the airport and caught the train back to Hilversum station. However, we did a booboo and did not scan out of the airport with our train cards once we arrived. The lady scanned our cards and noted our mistake and we were very apologetic, but once she saw the babies she beamed and told us that she wouldn’t hold it against us because of the cats… we never made that mistake again! We finally got back to Hilversum and we ordered an uber as we were in the middle of East Jesus Nowhere with a kilometre long dirt road from the main road. While we were waiting, an inquisitive drunk started speaking to us and was very interested in the cats… especially where they would go to the toilet. Thankfully our uber arrived and we were able to load up finally and head back to our AirBnB…

We still didn’t have anything for the cats except their food bowls, so we turned one of their crates into a temporary litter box (we got cat litter on our first trip to the grocery store) and gave them a can of wet food that they turned their noses up at. However, once they were finally settled, they were ultra-cuddly purr machines exploring their new environment and giving me heart attacks. It was definitely worth the mission.

Mama, look!