Moving abroad is already one of the most logistically demanding things a person can take on. Add a pet to the equation, and the complexity multiplies: health certificates, import permits, microchip verification, airline approvals, quarantine requirements that vary by country, and a timeline that can stretch months before your travel date. For the families we work with at Starwood Pet Travel, navigating all of that is part of the deal. But so is something else — the quiet, stubborn certainty that leaving their dog or cat behind was never an option.
What does a day in the life of an international pet traveler actually look like? It looks like waiting. It looks like tracking a crate through a layover in Frankfurt and willing your phone to update. It looks like standing at an arrivals terminal with your heart lodged somewhere in your throat, and then — when that crate comes around the corner — something releasing all at once. Every family we work with experiences some version of this. The routes and the paperwork change. The reunion is always the same.
Below are a few of the stories that have stayed with us.
Some moves are decided quickly. Others take months of planning, long conversations, and the quiet acceptance that getting two dogs across the Pacific is not a simple thing. For Nova and Ona — a Boxer and an Australian Shepherd, both anxious, both deeply attached to their owner — the journey from Honolulu to San Antonio meant a flight across an ocean, a new climate, and a whole new world waiting on the other side.
Their owner waited at the terminal the way you wait for news from a doctor: still on the outside, unraveling underneath. When the girls finally came through, alive and warm and blinking at the airport light, she crouched down and let two very confused, very relieved dogs crash into her arms. Texas turned out to be an education. No salt in the air, no trade winds, the horizon stretched flat and wide in a way Hawaii never allows. Cows were a revelation. So were horses. Nova and Ona pressed their noses to the backseat window and watched it all go by, learning the shape of the place that was now theirs.
→ Read Nova & Ona's full story
Maggie had always been the kind of dog who greets every open car door like a new chapter waiting to be written. So when the suitcases came out ahead of a move from Seattle to Portugal, her tail started going before anyone said a word.
She made the long journey through Frankfurt and into Porto — patient, nose pressed to the crate grate, reading the air of every airport like a very long, very strange book. She arrived tired from a few days of travel, but the moment she saw her family, every mile evaporated. She had been missed, and she knew it. Now settled in, Maggie spends her days exploring cobblestoned streets, catching the salty sea air off the Douro, and conducting the very important research of which café owners slip the dog a treat.
→ Read Maggie's full story
Rocky is, by his family's own description, spicy but shy — a pup who takes a little time to trust, and then trusts completely. When his military family was stationed in London, there was never a question of leaving him behind. The journey from Seattle to Heathrow is a long one, and Rocky was understandably nervous when he arrived.
Then he caught their scent. That was all it took. The fear melted, the tail started moving, and Rocky was back where he belonged — reunited with the people who knew him best, in a city that was about to become home. His bucket list for London is simple: endless afternoons in the backyard, a ball, and the people he loves most nearby.
→ Read Rocky's full story
Booby — also known as Gibson — arrived in New Zealand from California with the same reputation he'd carried his whole life: warm, social, the kind of cat who makes friends everywhere he goes. New Zealand has strict biosecurity requirements, and Booby spent 12 days in quarantine before being cleared to go home. His family drove an hour and a half to collect him. When they arrived, the quarantine staff admitted they wished he could stay longer.
The ride home was quiet. Booby slept for most of it, finally able to relax after a very big adventure. By the next day, he had already settled in — making friends with the family's German Shepherd, chasing their Jack Russell mix around the house, and mounting a patient campaign to win over the senior cat who wasn't entirely sure about him yet. He's currently being leash trained so he can one day walk the New Zealand coastline alongside his family.
→ Read Booby's full story
No two international pet relocations look the same. The paperwork varies, the timelines vary, the requirements at the destination vary — and the emotional weight of sending your pet on a long journey alone is something every family carries differently. What doesn't vary is the ending: a pet who made it, a family whole again, a new place that's starting to feel like home.
At Starwood Pet Travel, we handle the logistics so you can stay focused on what's next. If you're planning an international move with a pet and want to understand what the process looks like for your specific situation, we'd love to talk.
Read all of our pet travel stories at starwoodpet.com/our-stories