{"id":117891,"date":"2026-04-07T09:25:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/?p=117891"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:25:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:25:04","slug":"i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was 15 years old, my mom and I made a life-changing decision to leave Brazil and move to the ever-freezing land named Canada. Prepared as I was to bid farewell to my family and friends, there was one little thing I refused to leave behind \u2014 two, actually: my cats.<\/span><\/p>\n My cat Amy\n

Moving with Pets<\/h2>\n

I never understood people who dispose of pets like they\u2019re objects you can donate to goodwill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Animals have feelings and I would be lying if I said I didn\u2019t hold a certain level of grudge against people who abandon animals. I know that there can be legitimate reasons for a family to put a pet up for adoption \u2014 a new baby in the family, possibly allergic to the pet, for instance, is a valid reason. But moving away generally isn\u2019t. <\/span><\/p>\n My cat Kelly\n

Anyone who tells me they had no choice but to abandon their pet because their \u201cnew apartment building has a no-pet policy\u201d will never convince me. You might not have a choice when it comes to moving away, but you do have a choice when it comes to looking for a new place. If you choose a new apartment over your pet, chances are I won\u2019t ever respect you. <\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, knowing I was moving to Canada, I thought \u201cwell, how do I bring my cats?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The process was long but not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/h6>\n

Before the trip…<\/h2>\n

First things first: we had to take both cats, Amy and Kelly, to the vet. We made sure our cats got shots from all the mandatory vaccines, and the vet proceeded to give them a general check-up examination. Once the vet could determine my cats were vaccinated AND healthy, she signed a health certificate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next step after having a complete cat vaccination medical record and a health certificate signed by the vet for both cats was to submit the documents to the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil, so they could recognize and certify them as legitimate documents. The Ministry then issued us international health certificates, identifying our cats\u2019 names, age, sex, breed etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing about this certificate, though, is that you have to get it right before your trip, because the certificate is only valid for 1 week, from the date it was originally issued, which means we had to provide the exact date we were planning to board the airplane.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the airport…<\/h2>\n

Checking in at the airport in Brazil, my mom and I had to pay around $100 per cat, and then we just carried on with our schedule to board the plane holding our kitties. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, when it comes to the air travel itself, there are a few ways to go about it. Each company has a different policy. Some companies won\u2019t allow you to bring your pet on board with you, so your pet must travel on the cargo plane. I personally don\u2019t trust that method, because I\u2019ve heard horror stories about animals dying or getting left behind for weeks before meeting their owners again. <\/span><\/p>\n

My mom and I chose to fly with Air Canada because, according to their policy, we could bring our pets on board so long as they weighed no more than 10kg. Another thing they required was that each animal needed a separate pet bag\/carrier. We were lucky neither of our cats weighed more than 10kg, and since I wasn\u2019t travelling alone, it was easy for my mom and I each to carry one of the bags with our cats in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/h6>\n

The flight…<\/h2>\n

Given that it was a 10-hour flight, and we were worried about our cats freaking out, meowing, peeing, pooping etc, the vet suggested we gave them a few drops of cat stress & anxiety relief medication, as well as making sure they wore diapers. We did that, and the cats were pretty quiet during the flight. They were awake for the whole duration of the flight, but they were calm. At some points, my cat Amy meowed very loudly \u2014 but there was a baby on board crying all the time, so people didn\u2019t even think Amy was responsible for the noises. <\/span><\/p>\n

And that was that. We arrived in Canada safe and sound. Upon our arrival, the immigration officers just checked the certificates and double-checked our cats to make sure they were matching the description, and then we were good to come into Canada. Now our cats are more Canadian than Brazilian!<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you ever travel with pets? What was it like? Let me know in the comments!<\/h3>\n

https:\/\/www.pinterest.ca\/pin\/380624605999156522\/<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was 15 years old, my mom and I made a life-changing decision to leave Brazil and move to the ever-freezing land named Canada. Prepared as I was to bid farewell to my family and friends, there was one little thing I refused to leave behind \u2014 two, actually: my cats. Moving with Pets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24987,"featured_media":117892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9609],"tags":[10930,10931,10114,10932,10933],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-117891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-airport","tag-brazil","tag-canada","tag-cat","tag-cats"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nI Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened - Society19 Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When I was 15, I found out I was moving to Canada. As prepared as I was to leave my friends and family behind in Brazil, I refused to leave my cats. This is the story of how I brought my cats from Brazil to Canada.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened - Society19 Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was 15, I found out I was moving to Canada. As prepared as I was to leave my friends and family behind in Brazil, I refused to leave my cats. This is the story of how I brought my cats from Brazil to Canada.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Society19 Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheSociety19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-07T13:25:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"384\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"288\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Faria\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@theSOCIETY19\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@theSOCIETY19\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura Faria\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fce971a605a03c93f78c5dd3d96c97f0\"},\"headline\":\"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-07T13:25:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":805,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"airport\",\"brazil\",\"Canada\",\"cat\",\"cats\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Travel\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/\",\"name\":\"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened - Society19 Canada\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-07T13:25:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fce971a605a03c93f78c5dd3d96c97f0\"},\"description\":\"When I was 15, I found out I was moving to Canada. As prepared as I was to leave my friends and family behind in Brazil, I refused to leave my cats. This is the story of how I brought my cats from Brazil to Canada.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1\",\"width\":384,\"height\":288,\"caption\":\"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/\",\"name\":\"Society19 Canada\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fce971a605a03c93f78c5dd3d96c97f0\",\"name\":\"Laura Faria\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/03b0f781a1e6b388576bb79293b1fc8e43bdfccef3c1484d68b2bee310a9f0ad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/03b0f781a1e6b388576bb79293b1fc8e43bdfccef3c1484d68b2bee310a9f0ad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/03b0f781a1e6b388576bb79293b1fc8e43bdfccef3c1484d68b2bee310a9f0ad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Faria\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.society19.com\\\/ca\\\/author\\\/laura-faria\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened - Society19 Canada","description":"When I was 15, I found out I was moving to Canada. As prepared as I was to leave my friends and family behind in Brazil, I refused to leave my cats. This is the story of how I brought my cats from Brazil to Canada.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened - Society19 Canada","og_description":"When I was 15, I found out I was moving to Canada. As prepared as I was to leave my friends and family behind in Brazil, I refused to leave my cats. This is the story of how I brought my cats from Brazil to Canada.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/","og_site_name":"Society19 Canada","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheSociety19\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-07T13:25:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":384,"height":288,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Laura Faria","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@theSOCIETY19","twitter_site":"@theSOCIETY19","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/"},"author":{"name":"Laura Faria","@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/#\/schema\/person\/fce971a605a03c93f78c5dd3d96c97f0"},"headline":"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened","datePublished":"2026-04-07T13:25:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/"},"wordCount":805,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1","keywords":["airport","brazil","Canada","cat","cats"],"articleSection":["Travel"],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/","url":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/","name":"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened - Society19 Canada","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1","datePublished":"2026-04-07T13:25:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/#\/schema\/person\/fce971a605a03c93f78c5dd3d96c97f0"},"description":"When I was 15, I found out I was moving to Canada. As prepared as I was to leave my friends and family behind in Brazil, I refused to leave my cats. This is the story of how I brought my cats from Brazil to Canada.","inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/i-brought-my-cats-from-brazil-to-canada-and-this-is-what-happened\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1","width":384,"height":288,"caption":"I Brought My Cats From Brazil To Canada And This Is What Happened"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/","name":"Society19 Canada","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/#\/schema\/person\/fce971a605a03c93f78c5dd3d96c97f0","name":"Laura Faria","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03b0f781a1e6b388576bb79293b1fc8e43bdfccef3c1484d68b2bee310a9f0ad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03b0f781a1e6b388576bb79293b1fc8e43bdfccef3c1484d68b2bee310a9f0ad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03b0f781a1e6b388576bb79293b1fc8e43bdfccef3c1484d68b2bee310a9f0ad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Faria"},"url":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/author\/laura-faria\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Featured-Image-S19-6.png?fit=384%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8vdpK-uFt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24987"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119613,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117891\/revisions\/119613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117891"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.society19.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=117891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}