Two Animalcouriers vans left Portsmouth this afternoon, heading to France. We were a bit disappointed we had to take a daytime ferry, but what with the holiday season being in full swing, and the conditions at Calais being so difficult, the overnight sailings from Portsmouth are all booked up weeks ahead. So we felt fortunate to get a crossing, and relieved that we didn’t have to brave Calais.
On board we have a fantastic set of passengers who are on their way to rejoin their families all over France and Spain.
Glamorous cat Jules was delivered to us by Fraser and his daughter. The family has relocated to France, and we expect to catch up with them tomorrow in Nantes, where they will be very pleased to be reunited with Jules.
Bull Terrier Ianto is travelling with Vienna the cat and brother-and-sister geese Stephen and Kirsty. Courier Joe was a little surprised on arriving to collect them to discover his role included catching the geese first! An hour later, with Stephen and Kirsty secure in a carrier, everyone was on their way. These four well loved pets are all off to join Sam and her family in the Creuse region in central France. It’s the first time Brittany Ferries has been asked to transport pet geese. It was a bit touch and go at first but, in the end, the special permission we needed was granted.
Waterdog Boris has been a regular passenger over the past few years, as he splits his time between London and the Cahors region of France. He’s starting to show a few white whiskers around his muzzle now, but is as exuberant a character as ever.
Feline chums Conan and Gypsy have also travelled with us before — we transported them from Barcelona to the UK a little over a year ago, and now they’re on their way back to Barcelona. Owner Victor has gone on ahead and is very much looking forward to their arrival. Conan and Gypsy were due to stay at a cattery for three weeks until the start of this trip. But when we checked their documents, we discovered their inoculations had run out. Fortunately courier R had space for them in his study. They kept him great company, practising Spanish with him and Googling tortilla recipes on his computer.
Cute Border Collie pup Killibrae Kit is also on board. She’s off to live in Palma, Majorca, with Xanthe, who’s planning to fly into Barcelona where we’ll meet up and hand Kit over. Xanthe and Kit will then travel the rest of the way to Palma together.
Jackadoodle Bailey’s journey started in the Scottish Highlands and will take him all the way to Javea in Spain. He told us he’ll miss Aviemore and the ski season, but is looking forward to enjoying the sun, sea and sand. He’ll spend a day at Casa Antigua kennels and cattery in Denia until Simon and the rest of the family arrive.
Lulu, Fifi and Dave, a fine trio of cats, are travelling with us from Wolverhampton. They’re on their way to join Linda and family who’ve relocated to Alhaurin in the Malaga area of Spain.
Gorgeous Beagle Beau hails from Peebles in Scotland and is on her way to Marbella to join Moe. Beau and Moe travel back and forth between their two homes, so we won’t be surprised to see them again soon!
Character cat Wispa belongs to Philip and family. They’ve moved from Sheffield to Albufeira and now Wispa is on the way to join them in their new home.
Glamorous Golden Retriever Lula is travelling from London to the Haute Savoie region of France in one of our smaller vans with courier H. Not only does her owner Jane not want to be parted from her for a moment longer than necessary; it also saves the rest of us a detour eastward and so avoids compromising the length of the journey for the other pets we have on board.
Jules is a real stunner with a beautiful colour coat
Vienna takes to travelling like a pro
Boris the Waterdog — sorry it’s not a great photo, we’ll try again soon!
E-I-E-I-O And a meow meow here, and ruff ruff there, here a ruff, there a meow and everywhere a honk honk!
Is there no end to your musical ear worm torment? 😀 won’t pass on to couriers J&M as we’d never hear the end of it…
I’m sure they don’t hear the end of it with that load of kitties, dogs and geese. Listen to the Gypsy Kings’ version of “Hotel California”. That ‘ll get the Big Mac ear worm out of your head. 😉
THUNK. Sound of chair falling over as we run headlong into the night… You got it spot on!
What a busy bunch! They look happy to be going to their respective families.
Yes, they’re all off to distant places – lots of fun and games to come.
Heart-melting photos. What a wonderful job you do!
Aren’t they the most gorgeous gang!
Such good looking guys and gals. Geese – now that is novel.
Never a dull day round here.
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Love the geese! Definitely not what I expected to see being transported!
We do find ourselves with a few different types of passengers every now and then.
It must keep life on the road very interesting!
Totally enchanted. They’re all wonderful of course but the geese today bring on a special smile. Some of these sweeties have interesting names. Our cat, Gypsy, died just before Christmas. 🙁
We’ve had great fun with Stephen and Kirsty. How very sad to lose Gypsy – has anyone taken her place?
I am very surprised to find that you didn’t have a partridge in a pear tree too.
The pear tree would have been the tipping point.
That is quite collection you have there. Are they all from the same family?
That would be a huge number of animals for one family! No, there are quite a number of families waiting for their loved ones.
I thought so but all of them coming from and going to the same place seems hard to organize.
A lovely set of passengers! I had a pair of geese log ago, given to me by a friend. They are quite the watchdogs.
Yes, there’s a distillery in Scotland whose security staff is made up entirely of geese!
Is Boris related with Doggy? could be a cousin :o) I hope the geese are nice passengers and they will not hiss at you :o)
They could be brothers by the look of it. The geese were really good passengers – not a hiss out of them!
They’re all gorgeous, but Lulu has a face that could melt a heart of stone!
Mske sure you keep the geese happy, I’ve heard they can be very feisty!
I’m glad you managed to get a ferry crossing. I think of you each time I see news about Calais.
Lulu is angelic looking, isn’t she! We had two very lovely and unfeisty geese on board. Great travellers. Combine the strikes, immigration problems and school holidays and it’s a recipe for disaster 🙁
Love all the animal companions you’re carrying…but I’m particularly interested in how it went with the geese. We had geese when we lived in Arizona, they were the best “watch dogs” I ever had, well other than the Guinea Fowl we had in Virginia 😀
The geese were wonderful travellers – not a hiss out of them. There’s a distillery in Scotland that uses geese as their security staff. Yes, heard that guinea fowl are great guards – love the noise they make, a bit like nails in a tin can.
🙂
What a lovely group of travelers! 🙂
We loved the variety this trip!
What a wonderful job you folk have, it must be absolutely rewarding.
It certainly is rewarding – the smiles are a bonus!
Fifi lookss like shee could bee mee Sisfur!! Mew mew mew…
An wee adore Bailey thee Jack-a-doodle! He iss hansum littul felloh!
Safe journey to all….
**paw patsss** Siddhartha Henry an ((hugs)) LadyMum xxx
a pair of geese how cool, love all the photos.
What a beautiful, stunning group! Each one deserves a song.