Haser Happenings: Pets in Hong Kong

PART 2 - read Dogs first....

I won't lie...

Relocating a precious, and rare baby bird to ASIA

where they have Avian INFLUENZA precautions

is not an EASY, uncomplicated process....

There is red tape on BOTH Sides.

My baby birds are Appendix II on the Cities list, as well.

Meaning they have to have a special export permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wild Life.

Besides all the OTHER permits and health requirements.

To obtain the permit, well, lets just say I submitted 50 pages of documentation.

Which could take up to 90 days to process it said on the paperwork.

We didn't have 90 days. It would be too hot to ship them. :(

They must have liked my paperwork, because we had the permit in under 3 weeks.

(Ok, maybe I was a little over the top and included baby pics and everything.)

Then, there are the Health requirements.

They are nothing Less than confusing and frustrating.

Even our Vet was very confused and she specializes in relocation of dogs to Japan.

I know dogs are not the same as birds, but she specializes in birds in her practice too.

I mean really, how many relocation's of birds would someone see, and to Hong Kong?

Anyhow, Just to list a few crazy requirements.

28 days Quarantine, before leaving, if you don't want quarantine on arrival.

We spoke with the HK government and got permission for HOME quarantine!

THANKFULLY.. As that probably would have been a deal breaker for me.

Then the birds were to be on medication, even though they were not sick, for over a month...

Vet wanted to do daily shots.. I made sure to get it from the HK government that at home by beak was just fine, and it was. Daily shots would have been another DEAL BREAKER for me....

And they had to have an Avian flu test (dropping would suffice for the test, but the vet insisted on doing a swab to make sure sample was good, poor bird butts)... But, time was limited temperatures were rising, and there is ONLY ONE lab in the US that does the TEST and it takes 2 weeks. It took some convincing to get the vet to do it before the birds completed the meds (that had nothing to do wtih the test)...

But, I KNEW the window that we could send them was quickly closing, as the temperatures were lingering in the mid 80's and within a few days it would be in the 90's and then we wouldn't be able to send them until September, which with the dogs already there would be a problem...

Todd had to apply for their Special permit to import in HK as well, usually takes 5 days. No fuss. With the dogs fast no problems. With the birds, they had to verify their Cities Export Permit with the U.S. took an extra week. It basically was insane. Birds were to leave on Tuesday (they have to fly out within 5 days of Health Certificate being signed and the cert has to be signed within 5 days of Avian flu result)... and then there was the weather. Oh my crazy...

Essentially, I got the bird paper work Monday by noon from HK,

had the last Vet check Monday afternoon.

Tuesday Morning, at 630am, Krystin went with me to take them, to help..

We had to go to the USDA Vet to get the Vet paper work signed off.

For birds they have a special person do it,

she looked at me as she was taking the paperwork,

like it was going to be rejected.

Went away for about 20 mins, came back

and said it looked perfect!

Thank GOD!

Then we had to go to the Cities government office

to have them inspect the birds and their crates

and sign officially to clear them to Go!

-By the way, everyone under the sun was in LOVE with the birds and had to come out and talk to them.

They are such charmers...

Thankfully, that all went smoothly.

Plane was to leave at 12:55pm..

Then we were off to the scary warehouse....

I Love my baby Blue-streak...

Sending her was probably one of the hardest things I have done.

I literally cried for almost 24 hours, ok maybe more....

The idea of my sensitive, sweet girl being in a little box,

in the dark for 16 hours PLUS, with no fresh FRUIT!

MADE ME SO SICK...

At least she had Xia with her.

Z, is our little jester. Super outgoing and chatty!

She wasn't alone.

Z, usually just goes with things and lives in the moment.

Happy little girl.

How could Indy be sad with such a cute, charming travel companion.

At the warehouse,

After they took the girls back they placed them in the warehouse.

I could HEAR my Indy crying...

I started to panic.

She was terrified of the forklifts...

I couldn't take it.

-I was two seconds from saying FORGET it. I can't DO THIS!--

I spoke to the VERY nice lady who was helping us

(and had helped us with the dogs previously).

I explained how my baby was scared.

What could we do?

She said, "Oh, no worries. I will bring them in the office, and she said birds are driven over to the airplane in an air conditioned van." She said she just put the birds on the other side of the door in the warehouse for ease of the van picking them up, but they are more than welcome to wait in the office. Indy and Z were so happy to come back in. Ok, Mommy was too...

Pics from the morning...

Xia, getting ready to go.

Indy, enjoying a snack, before leaving.

Waiting at the warehouse.

On arrival, we knew they would have to spend 1-3 days at the pet hostel awaiting yet another Avian flu test, verifying that they didn't magically get it in the last day. Parents (owners) are welcome any time to hang with them.

Since, they landed at 7pm, yes 4am CA time again, they couldn't run the lab test til the next morning.

Oh, and to make me worry just that much more...

It was predicted to be around 84-85 degrees, originally when we booked them to fly.

Cutting the temp restriction close, but landing at night, so it should be ok.

The day the birds landed was the hottest of the year - 93!!

88 degrees when they landed!

GRRRRRRR!!!

I was already panicked about them dehydrating.

No. I did NOT sleep at all.

(I mean yes I packed a LOT of water on their kennels, but what if?)

The HK government seems to genuinely love animals,

and had an air conditioned van waiting for them.