Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey day was spent in shorts and slippers with good friends. It was a nice change from our traditional snowboarding Thanksgivings and all the ones spent in Tahoe growing up, though all those snowy times bring fond memories too. We had turkey from the grill and lots of desserts. The dogs behaved. Overall, a great day. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

DogTravel Company begins Charters to Honolulu

In today's news:

Dog Travel company finally got it together and is going to start flights to Hawaii where your dog can ride in the cabin with you. When we first considered bringing our dogs with us to Hawaii, we felt that it was totally unacceptable to fly them underneath with the baggage. I looked into every possible alternative, including cruise ships and DogTravel company. At that time, 1-2 years ago, I posted in their forums and tried to get on an organized charter, and also kept asking for someone to share their experience flying with them, but never got much response. Therefore we elected to pursue the "normal" route.

I'm glad we moved our dogs before I saw this, or we would have felt like we HAD to book on a DogTravel charter, or else feel guilty for being bad dog parents and be worried to death over the dangers of flying them in baggage. Due to the high cost, we might not be here now because we would have decided it was cost prohibitive to move them. Only because of the complete lack of any alternatives at the time, we finally flew the dogs in baggage. Everything went fine and we are glad we did it, and it looks like we saved around $30,000. That's a lot of poke! I only wish we had come sooner. Life is short and no one should endure any more cold winters if they don't want to or have to. Life is even shorter for dogs, and our arthritic boy hasn't been stiff at all since moving. They are so happy to be here! One of them just rolled over on their back, feeling totally safe, comfortable and content by the open lanai door.

PHOTO: From DogTravel Company, copied from the StarBulletin story, which can be found at http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20081125_Dogs_travel_in_style_in_flights_to_isles.html

Avoiding Quarantine Checklist Step 1

As much as I'd like to go on and on about the food, the weather, the daily tidbits regarding life in Hawaii so far, I think I should get to some of the serious business of the pet importation requirements. After all, that is the purpose of this blog. If you are moving your pets here, you may have already printed out the list of requirements at http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/aqs-checklist-5.pdf . I noticed that there is the same checklist within the "HAWAII RABIES QUARANTINE Information Brochure" but the rev. date is 2 years older, 1/06 vs. 2/08. I didn't see any significant differences that would mess you up. The link I provided is the latest version.

Doggie weather report: it's a bit cool and windy, which is helping me to stay inside and write a blog entry. A couple of people I met on our walk this morning said, ooooh, this is just her kind of weather! Referring to my Samoyed, Tasha, who easily tolerates 20 degrees F snowy weather. She seems to prefer the weather here, partly since it means I don't mind stepping into my slippers (called flip flops on the mainland) and taking her out several times per day without having to bundle up. The dogs like having the windows open 24/7 so they can smell flowers and BBQ, hear the birds singing, mango trees and palms rustling, and other sounds of nature. Back on the mainland we called it "door TV" in the summer, Tasha would stay by the open door behind the screen and watch squirrels. It's nice that the dogs don't start panting in the wee hours of the morning anymore when the heat used to switch on to heat the house, now the temperature is fairly constant all the time. Danzig, our other dog seems much fitter. He was getting arthritis from the cold weather on the mainland, but he hasn't been stiff at all since he's been here. And he figured out not to drink seawater by the second walk. It's been "fall" here. Coconut palm fronds are falling off the trees.

Step 1 Rabies Vaccinations (refer to Dept. of Agriculture checklist)

1. Your pet must have been vaccinated at least twice for rabies in its lifetime, and the two most recent vaccinations must have been given more than 90 days apart. Remember when I said to go look in your records for original signed rabies certificates? If you didn't find any, go get your pet vaccinated right now. And SAVE the original signed certificate. Make sure the certificate is an "original signature or carbon copy" (PHOTOCOPIES NOT ACCEPTED!) and includes the vaccination date, type of vaccine, lot or serial number, booster interval, and expiration date. If you don't have any records, you will need to get the first vaccination now, then wait 90 days and get the second one. You can do the blood test, if you haven't done it already, I wouldn't wait more than 30 days from the second/most recent vaccination so the 90 and 120 day periods can end around the same time.


2. If you found one rabies vaccination certificate, check on the date of expiration and make sure the vaccine hasn't expired. Make sure you have the second vaccination done before the expiration date (and at least 90 days from the first one).


3. If you found two rabies vaccination certificates, how old is the most recent one? Having had two vaccinations alone isn't going to qualify unless the second, most recent one is still within the expiration date on the planned date of arrival in Hawaii. This means, the most recent vaccination must have been done not more than 12 months prior to the date of arrival in Hawaii for a one-year vaccine, and not more than 36 months for a three year vaccine. If it's going to expire before you fly, better get it done early to satisfy the 90 days (see 4 below in red).


4. If you need to vaccinate again, it needs to be done at least 90 days before you plan to move them to Hawaii. The exact language is "The most recent rabies vaccination was also done not less than 90 days before my pet's date of arrival in Hawaii." If you fly your pet here before 90 days has passed since the most recent vaccine, your pet will be quarantined until the 90 days is completed!

To summarize step 1 of the checklist, your pet needs two rabies vaccinations total, done over 90 days apart. The most recent one must have been done over 90 days before date of arrival in Hawaii. When your pet arrives in Hawaii the vaccine must not have expired (one-year or three-year vaccine expirations). I know, pretty simple, the checklist is quite straightforward, I thought I would explain it at length just as an extra double check for you.

Looking ahead to step 5 of the checklist, be aware that you will need to provide "original signature or carbon copy of rabies vaccination certificates for the two most recent rabies vaccinations my pet received (PHOTOCOPIES ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE)." Certificates must have vaccine name (e.g. PFIZER), lot or serial number (e.g. S606672c), booster interval (1 or 3 year), vaccination date and expiration date.

I need to comment about some of the food prices I posted earlier. I overpaid compared to the market in Chinatown, which I hit on Saturday. I found papayas for 59 cents a pound (even less for overripe ones, good for smoothies) oranges for 40 cents a pound, dollar bags of veggies just like at the farmer's market by city hall in San Francisco. There were exotic fruits such as rambutan, dragonfruit, dragon eyes, canistels, cherimoya, durian, star fruit, and mangosteen. With cash, they don't charge sales tax. I also go to the local farmer's markets around here which are comparable to the weekly specials, but Chinatown is the least expensive place for produce (and fish and meats, but I didn't have time to check those out this time).

Rainbow picture: taken from Alan Wong's restaurant in Honolulu.

Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day was widely observed today, everyone seemed to have the day off.

We started with a sunrise beach walk, had some papayas and spam and egg musubi, did some yoga, and rode our bikes wherever we needed to go. Lunch, Ahi shoyu poke and edamame poke on special $3.99 per lb. at Times. Papaya salad, spring rolls, and lemongrass chicken bun for dinner. Playstation 3, a good book, talk story, catch up with emails. We still don't have cable TV, but don't miss it. Maybe we won't have TV at all.

These pictures are from the morning walk, we are recognizing many of the same people each day, and our dogs are also greeting some of the same canine friends. Tasha is quite a social butterfly, everyone wants to pet her. She gets so excited to be at the beach that she runs and talks, woooo woooo woooo as we start out. Danzig is coming out of his shell, he approaches other dogs with his tail wagging and even starts to play. Aloha!

Lazy Sunday

Just a quick Aloha and some pics. The excitement of the move has caught up with us and we're spending a lazy Sunday lounging around with the tradewinds gently blowing through the lanai doors. Local pineapple, papaya and apple bananas for breakfast, Times fried rice with Spam and eggs, papaya salad with tofu for lunch grindz. I'm teaching a yoga class this afternoon and looking forward to it.

So far, it seems that our expenses are less than they were on the mainland. We've only used 1/4 tank of gas since we've been here, since it's easy to bike or walk everywhere. I used to commute about 6 miles each way to work and now I ride my beach cruiser. Since we prefer poke and Asian foods they are cheaper here than on the mainland as well. We don't have any heating or cooling bills. So far so good. Above, a picture I took while snorkeling.

Today's Honolulu Advertiser has a feature on places where President-elect Barack Obama used to live. I thought I'd share the pictures we took when we ran into him on the beach when he was visiting in August. He only had 3 or 4 secret service guys with him that morning, so we were able to talk to him and he was quite friendly. The first picture was when we had passed him already and it took me a while for the shock to wear off and have the sense to pull out my camera. He's in the middle in the white T shirt and shorts with his friend Marty on the left in a dark T shirt. He's flanked by the guys in slacks and dress shirts and wingtips, they sure looked strange on the beach dressed like that. Then on the way back, we saw him again, that is the second picture. Mr. Obama joked about whether I was following him. The third photo is the one that ran in the paper the next day taken by a paparazzi with a better camera than mine. I doubt we'll be able to run into him in the same way again, he'll probably need more security from now on.

The picture below is of Tasha feeling at home in her crate. Since they are adjusting to a new place, it seems that the dogs like to go inside their crates to feel like there is a familar place for them to be. They get so tired from running on the beach, it is so exciting for them, and they come home and happily sleep the rest of the day.

I have another suggestion for something you might want to get before coming here. We have been rinsing the dogs at the beach shower after our walks, and it can be quite a pain. I found a hose attachment on Craigslist that makes it much easier. I don't think they are available here, so if you can find one bring it with you. Any short garden hose and sprayer that attaches to a garden hose faucet will work. It's nice to get the sand and salt water off the dogs before coming in the house.

I'm struggling a bit with the formatting here with pictures and text, sorry for the weird layout. I haven't received any comments or suggestions or followers so if this blog is useful or not please let me know. My upcoming posts will cover some more of the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture pet importation requirements in greater detail. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Some things you might want to start testing on your pets - and crate training

Aloha!


I reviewed my post about the procedures checklist (dry and complicated) and will go through each step in detail, but thought I'd first write about something less mind-bending today - shopping and playing with products. There are a few things you might want to order online and try on your pets in advance. I ordered Travel-Ease and Happy Traveler, these are herbal preparations that are supposed to calm your pet for travel. They contain valerian and chamomile. I went to the local pet store and thought they were too expensive so I ordered them online at http://www.vitacost.com/. We ended up using both products, they probably had the same effect, of mellowing out the dogs. You also might try stuffing cotton in the ears to dampen sound. It didn't work for us, they would shake it out, but I read somewhere that others have done it.


We also ordered some Waterbites hydration gel. It is a beef flavored gel containing 95% water and vitamins. The idea behind this product is that you can put it in your pet's dish and it won't spill during the flight, while hydrating your pet and providing vitamins. The problem for our dogs, is that they liked it so much, they would eat it all as soon as we put it in the dish, so they wouldn't have any for the flight. You also can't put it in your carry on since it's gel. So I taped an envelope to the outside of the crate and stuck it in there with a pair of scissors, and gave it to them at the layover as a treat. You've probably heard this suggestion, freeze water in the dog's dish. That worked for the first flight but it was all melted/gone by the end of the first flight. Also I've heard of freezing a plastic water bottle full of water and poking holes in it and putting it in the dish. I got some of those teeny water bottles, like the ones they serve you on some planes, but didn't end up using them. We ended up also duct taping and bungee cording filled bike water bottles to the outside of the crates, so they could be fit through the crate door grates and squeezed to fill the dishes from the outside. You can see them in the pictures from the previous post.
Travel crates: This was kind of complicated for us, but it doesn't have to be for you. We wanted to buy crates early to get the dogs used to them, but there are different size limitations on different airlines so we didn't know what size to get. So we waited until we had booked the flight to buy the crates.

• If you don't already have one, buy a hardsided airline approved crate that is big enough for your pet to stand up, turn around, and lie down, but not any bigger, so they don't get bounced around. You want this at least a few weeks early so your pet is used to it. You will also need two attachable water and food dishes. There is an airline travel kit that's around $4 that includes 2 small plastic dishes and the live animal label, made by Petmate. We went with the Petmate Pet Porter 2.

For us, it turned out that the first flight only had room for one extra large crate (500 size) or two large (400 size) crates. So that ruled out buying two extra large crates, but it turned out that the large were just big enough. That's total capacity - as in no one else could have a pet on the plane after our dogs were on it. I lined the crates with puppy training pads on the bottom, and rubber backed carpeting on top. I took a rectangular non-skid area rug from Costco and cut it in half, and each half fit in each crate perfectly. A bath mat would work too. We then had the dogs go in the crate for fun stuff, like for "bone time" or getting their treats. We would take them for fun hikes by transporting them in the crates, by making them get in the crates, lifting them in the crates so they were used to that, putting them in the car, so they would associate being in them with fun times. Eventually they got comfortable enough to go inside and stay inside with the door open. Well, Tasha got comfortable. Danzig pretty much hated being caged but at least he would go inside voluntarily to get his rewards. This photo is before I went crazy with the duct tape, labels, photos, signs, zip ties, envelopes and other pre-flight "decorations" which I will describe.

This might be overkill, but I had bought a used crate then resold it and bought a new one because the airport security go through the crates in detail and wipe them for explosives, etc. and if the used crate has gunpowder from hunting then maybe it might not pass.

Time for a beach walk!

Happy Halloween!

The dogs enjoyed their first Hawaiian Halloween Friday night. With the warm weather, the kids were out trick or treating, and our dogs loved to greet everyone at the door. Here are some pics.

Our family room looks like a doggy daycare or Romper Room, we tried to make it somewhat sand-proof and slip proof for the dogs' furry feet. The first day one of our dogs twisted his knee getting off the floor so we had to put down a non-slip surface.

By the way, the baby in the picture dressed as a pumpkin, is cast to play Baby Aaron on ABC's hit television show, LOST. Aaron is Claire's baby, and Jack's (Matthew Fox) nephew. The "flash forward" baby Aaron who is being taken care of by Kate (Evangeline Lilly) is older. So Pumpkin baby will be in flashback or non-flash forward scenes, if you follow the show. But obviously, not dressed as a pumpkin.

The trick-or-treaters were sometimes more interested in the dogs than getting candy! We handed out packages of Halloween Arare treats, some were shaped like little bones, so some kids thought they were dog treats :) and we also gave out some sugary treats (fruit snacks - we tried to keep it healthy). Okay - back to the flying dogs here part - I'm working on it now, check back soon.

p.s. Does anyone know how to rearrange the posts so they show from oldest at the top of the page and newer ones as you scroll down? I'd like readers to be able to follow chronologically. I changed it on the side where it lists the posts, but it didn't show up that way on the page.

At the Vet - and Deciding whether to move your pet

I'll start by recounting how it all actually went down, then recommend how it could have been done better. This adventure started out as a series of "just in case" actions, in case we wanted to move the dogs to Hawaii. A couple of years ago, I was at the vet and they were having a sale on microchipping. I think there is a national "microchip month" where all vets have a special. Since that is a prerequisite to importing pets to Hawaii, I went ahead and had it done. If they never moved, at least if they got lost they would have microchips in them. A microchip is like a grain of rice, very small and implanted in the back. Painless and easy. It was about $30 per dog.

We visited Hawaii without our dogs, and the petsitting bills were getting really high. With each visit we missed them more and wanted them to be with us. We never considered having them here at first, since they are double-coated and suited to cold weather. We really paid attention to the temperature and came for the month of August to see just how hot it would get, and it turns out it's cooler here in the heat of summer than in many places on the mainland, and cooler than where we were living.

• Decide if your moving destination is right for your pet. If possible, visit beforehand and imagine your pet living there. Is the temperature too warm? Are there breezes? Will you need air conditioning? Can you afford to run air conditioning if you need it?
• Go to http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/aqs-checklist-5.pdf and print out the checklist of requirements. I will go over these requirements in detail with examples of how I did it, if it would be helpful.
• You can also get the dog and cat import form at http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/AQS-278.pdf You won't need this until you get closer to the move date and you have the tests completed and all the paperwork together.
• You might want to print out the form at this link http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/AQS-39.pdf and bring it to your vet. Our vet didn't know anything about the Hawaii requirements and I had to walk them through it, and look over their shoulder every step of the way, and correct the health certificate when they filled it out.
• Make sure their rabies vaccinations are up to date, even if you aren't planning to move for a long time, and KEEP THE ORIGINAL SIGNED RABIES CERTIFICATE IN YOUR FILES! Go to your filing cabinet now and check your pet's last rabies certificate and make sure you have the signed originals. When I looked for ours, the vet hadn't signed them, and she had left the clinic and moved away, they were mangled from having the rabies tags taped to them, and I had to bring them to the vet and have them re-signed. This has to do with the separate requirement regarding the rabies vaccinations themselves ("Step 1" on the checklist), not the OIE-FAVN Rabies Blood Test ("Step 3" on the checklist), hereinafter referred to as the "rabies blood titer" or "rabies titer."
• Go ahead and have your pet microchipped right away ("Step 2" on the checklist), since it's a good thing to have whether you move or not. You need to have a microchip number for your pet in order to do the required rabies blood test.
  

During this whole time we weren't even sure if living in Hawaii would be right for ourselves, dogs or not. Some of my reading included the books entitled, "So you want to live in Hawaii" and the "Hawaii Pet Book." But that decision process is a whole different topic!


Fast forward to the point where we have made up our minds that we want to be in Hawaii and that we want our dogs with us. We had the dogs' rabies titers drawn (the required OIE-FAVN rabies blood test). This is a blood sample taken to see if the pet has sufficient levels of rabies vaccine in their blood.



If you are pretty sure now that your pet is moving, then you might as well have the rabies titer done at the same time as the microchip. This is more expensive ($90 per dog in our case) but the results are good for 3 years, or 36 months, so you have plenty of time to make up your mind after it's done.

• Make sure your vet puts down Hawaii as the destination when sending in the blood sample! This ensures that the results are sent directly to the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture so they can put your pet's microchip number into their records.
  
• Reason to have it done early: In addition to the 120 day waiting period, your pet might fail the test, regardless of the fact that they are rabies free. It is the level of vaccine they are testing for, not the presence or absence of rabies. One of our dogs failed the test and this delayed our move for several months (because this particular dog needed surgery in between so we didn't want to inject him with more vaccine and draw blood in the midst of all the surgery related stuff). In a normal case, if your pet fails, you will have your pet re-vaccinated, wait 3 weeks (vet's recommendation) and re-draw the titer.
• NOTE: If you have to re-vaccinate, it needs to be more than 90 days after the previous vaccination, if you are going to use this vaccination as one of the "two most recent" vaccines administered and sent in. Don't be confused, this is a whole separate requirement from the blood titer. It just happened to be, when we had the first titer done on the dog that failed, that his last rabies vaccination had been done over 6 months before, so that the time that passed between the two vaccinations was over the required 90 days. On the other dog, her first vaccine was in 2004, the next in 2007, her titer was taken in 2008 and she passed, and she won't be vaccinated again until 2010 (3 year rabies vaccine).


• After the blood test is done, you can go to the DOA website and look up your pet's microchip number. You open this file http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/aqs-microchip.pdf and use "find" to find your pet's microchip. It's exciting you see your pet on the list! That will show they received the results and tell you the exact eligibility date from which you can book your travel! The waiting period begins the day (or the day after) the blood sample is received at the University of Kansas laboratory - but to make sure, the Hawaii Dept of Agriculture website's PDF document will list the exact eligibility date, which was actually earlier than the date our vet calculated. To be safe I booked the flight about 4 days after the eligibility date (though you have 3 years to do it after a successful test result).



• Frontline and Interceptor - Get your pets tested for heartworm and get them on heartworm and tick/parasite treatments. Hawaii requires fipronil (ingredient in Frontline) treatment done and noted on the health certificate within 14 days of arrival. Heartworm protection is a must in the tropics. I didn't do this with the microchips/rabies tests, I waited until about a month before we came. Otherwise the vet bill can be huge. Money saving tip - if your vet allows it, buy Frontline online and bring it to the vet on the day the health certificate is being done, they only have to certify your pet's been treated, so I didn't feel like paying them to sell me the treatment too.

In retrospect, we wish we would have come sooner, but we couldn't because of the waiting period, one dog became eligible in April but the other had failed and had the surgery, then it was summer and too hot to fly - so get the blood titer done right away! You don't want to have to leave your pet behind or put it in quarantine, or have to endure waiting any longer than you have to.

These pictures don't belong in this post, I'm not to the "flying" step yet, but they are pretty cool. You can see our white dog (Tasha) coming out of the cargo hold from the first flight, she's standing up, looking alert. At the bottom of the conveyor there were five people very carefully paying attention to and handling the crates to the baggage cart, I have a pic of that below. We also did some airline personnel bribing - more on that later.

We wanted to claim and walk the dogs at the layover so they knew we would be there at the other end before getting on the long flight across the ocean. It took some jumping through hoops but I will explain in my post about the flight booking process.

This picture is of our brown dog (Danzig) getting to the bottom of the conveyor - notice the baggage handler greeting him face to face.


And notice there are five people surrounding the crate, it's not being bounced around or tipped on its side, they seem to really care!

Aloha and good night for now!

We've arrived!

Aloha! This is my first blog so I hope this works out. I'm open to any suggestions to make this more helpful.

I wanted to create a site to help others who are planning to move with their pets to Hawaii. From reading the moving to Hawaii/travel/citydata forums, there are so many people wanting more information and I don't have time to reply to every email or follow forum threads. When I first started this process, there were so many questions and I couldn't find all the answers I needed. Our two dogs are so important to us, we didn't want to put them in baggage for fear of the unknown. We also didn't want them to spend any time in quarantine. I checked out dogtravel company to see about chartered flights where the dogs could ride in the cabin, cruise ships, cargo companies that transport zoo animals, everything. We considered driving to the West coast so they wouldn't have to change planes. I spent countless hours on this process and am happy to report that everything went smoothly and our dogs love the beach. They are both large breed dogs at 12+ years old so we were very worried, but they are totally fine. I took pictures of every step of the way, even loading them on/off the planes. Since I spent so much time researching everything, and since we achieved success, others should benefit from all our efforts.

Of course, the flying part was the final step. The culmination of weeks, months, even years (in our case) of preparation. Finding pet friendly housing, satisfying Hawaii's Department of Agriculture requirements, and the weighty decision process of whether to bring your pets in the first place. I am extra conscientious, and we were undecided for a while, so it shouldn't take others quite so long, if you know for sure you want to come to Hawaii you only need about 4-6 months to prepare adequately.

So I'll begin by posting some pictures, then start on the step by step description of the process. So, the snowy picture is the "before" picture. The "after" picture is from the end of our first beach walk!