Taking Cats to Brazil - Part 4: The Conclusion!

Curitiba to Pato Branco

I’ll start off with some geography for those not familiar with the south of Brazil.  Our destination of Pato Branco is a small town of less than 70,000 people in the southwest of Paraná.  It is 438km (272 miles) from Curitiba, the capital of Paraná.  This takes approximately 5 hours by car or 7 hours by coach.

Pato Branco, showing the driving route from Rio de Janeiro via Curitiba

The first step in planning this leg of the journey was checking whether the coaches would accept the cats.  Only one company would accept the cats – Cattani.  They operate two services from Curitiba to Pato Branco: “Executivo” – business class or “Leito” – first class sleeper coach, with very comfortable, fully reclining chairs.  We could take the cats in their carriers and they would go in a small cabin where a second driver (for longer journeys) could sleep.  The other company said they would go in the luggage compartment and only if we signed a document absolving them of all responsibility for the welfare of the cats.

So obviously, we decided to go with Cattani.  The executivo departs at 10pm and the leito departs at 10:30pm.  As our flight was due to arrive at 8:30pm (outside the city – the bus station is in the city centre) we resolved to find a hotel; preferably one where we could leave the cats until it was time to get the coach (the earlier coaches are all operated by the shove-them-with-the-luggage-and-don’t-blame-us company.)

Sheila called around various hotels to find one that would accept cats.  The story of one of these calls will stay with me forever:

•          Hello, do you accept cat’s in your hotel?
•          Madam, this is a hotel for people…
•          I’m sorry, you don’t understand, I want to stay here with my cats!
•          Madam, you need to take them to a cat hotel.
•          But I can’t stay with them in a cat hotel!
•          Aaaaaaahhhhhhh…. I’m sorry, we don’t accept cats.

She found one eventually though, Novo Vernon Hotel, directly opposite the bus station.  For an additional R$50 we could have cats, which is perfectly reasonable when you think of the extra mess from hair, food, litter that needs to be cleaned up.  What’s more, we could have the room until 6pm for half the daily rate, which was also very reasonable (after that time, there would be no one to clean the room which would mean they could not let it out.)  In addition, we could leave our luggage as long as we needed – they were extremely helpful.

It did not take us long to see that it would have been impossible to catch the coach the night we arrived.  After collecting our luggage, passing through immigration and customs and having had the cats’ paperwork inspected, we were met my two of our friends from the area (any friend that meets you at the airport with a bag of pão de queijo is a true friend!) and we proceed to fill the car with luggage and cats in a way that should not have been possible!  By the time we were finished, it was already approaching 10pm.  There was no space for passengers, so three of us took a bus to the bus station and we all met at the hotel.

Kiwi's first experience of
Curitiba

We unloaded at the hotel and left the cats for a while to relax in peace (it was only a fringe benefit that we had a few beers and something to eat, honest!)  When we returned, the cats were hiding under the beds, but they purred happily when they realised it was us and there were no more boxes!  We felt sorry for them knowing we’d be putting them through it again the next day, but for the time being, they were free and happy and we were exhausted!

When we got to the bus station, we were told that the cats would be travelling with the luggage.  We weren't happy about this, but by this point we had little choice.  They were in the hard carriers we bought for the flight and the luggage was arranged such that it wouldn't become loose and hit the carriers.  When we finally reached Pato Branco, shortly after 5am, we had two tired, scared but healthy cats, ready for their new life in Brazil with my mother-in-law and her cat, Dunga.  But that’s another story.

If this whole saga has taught me anything, it’s too avoid travelling long distances with pets.  Aside from the cost and hassle of arranging flights, hotels and buses that will take cats, it is incredibly stressful for the cats.  Unless you absolutely cannot leave the cats with someone, don’t take them!  And if you must, avoid American Airlines!

Pretzel taking in the sights and sounds of Pato Branco

Kiwi surveying his new domain