A few weeks ago, I posted about how I was planning on taking my sweet cat Atticus with me to Holland. I wrote about how I was planning on being courteous to the other passengers by storing my baby below. After some intense research and reading countless horror stories, I have decided to hell with the people on the plane I will only see for 9 hours of my life, my baby is coming with me.

I started the process by first calling the airline to book Atti's space. You need to do this as soon as possible, as only a certain number of animals are allowed in the cabin. Of course, they couldn't find my reservation! But I got it taken care of. I had to specific if Atti would be traveling in a hard or soft carrier. I hadn't even bought one yet so I said soft. I wanted to make sure he could fit in the seat in front of me. For Atticus, I have purchased the small Sherpa bag from Amazon. It had favorable reviews and co-workers of mine will find humor in the name. The bag is incredibly small, but so is Atti and, he seems to enjoy it. 

When you are traveling with a pet, it is important to look up information on the country you are traveling to specific qualifications. For The Netherlands, Atti needs to be microchiped with an ISO Chip. You can not get these from your normal vet and the literature on the net really sucks in helping you. Here is the easiest way to make sure your pet is covered if you are moving to, not just visiting Europe- A special shout out to the staff of HomeAgain for helping me figure this out.

1. Go to microchipidsystems.com, click on products. Click on  The TRAVELchip™ then select the World Chip. Place your order. 
2. Check with your local USDA approved vet and make sure that they have a HomeAgain scanner with the yellow sticker. This will read ISO 134 kHz, which is required for Europe.
3. Make an appointment and bring in your Euro 998 form to your vet. You can get this from the Dutch Embassy or any number of Pet-Relocation sites.Make sure the vet uses a blue pin.
4. Mail the form to your State's USDA Vet Office, so that they can sign off on it. 

As of right now, I am waiting for the microchip to come in. I will keep you updated as the steps unfold.