[Pets migration part 1] Two Tearful Farewell Stories, Migrating with Love Ones

[Sometimes it is hard to predict when to say goodbye. Sometimes weather goes against forecast. Sometimes hope and dream gets lost. In front of sudden departures, we are always unprepared to bid farewell properly.

Moving from a noisy city to a quiet place, when Charlie was about to leave this place, he fell silent and lost his interest to explore. The reporter followed their footsteps and felt their changes in emotion under the looming atmosphere of departure. “I hope this place can finally return to normal. I wish I can come back some day.” With tears standing in her eyes, Phyllis smiled to her companions from a distance, separated by a crowd of people. Then she turned around. What was her destination? Australia? UK? It wouldn’t matter as it wasn’t Hong Kong anyway.]

Mrs Wong and her “son & daughter”

Since 2019, Mrs Wong started pondering about migrating to Australia. Her determination increased after she witnessed dramatic social changes in Hong Kong over the following two years. Mrs Wong has two kitties that she treated like her own children. “They are my family members. I will bring them to Australia at all cost. I wish they could spend their final days in Australia.”

It was in fact a difficult decision to leave a place where she grew up. The closure of Apple Daily Newspaper accelerated her plan. Mrs Wong believes the degree of freedom in western countries will be larger in areas like speech and voting system. Despite the uncertainty of Covid-19 pandemic, Mrs Wong chooses to migrate in this period. Considering her cats are both below 10, they could adapt with new lives easier.

Initially Mrs Wong handled all preparation for pet migration on her own. At a later stage, the couple engaged an agency as they realized that getting a pet onto a flight was so complex. Their cats, “Fat Kam” and “Wild Boar” have totally different characters. Mrs Wong met “Fat Kam” on the street after adopting “Wild Boar” from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA). 

Since they cannot afford the cost of flying together with the cats in a private jet, they will go to Australia in different times and flights. Mr and Mrs Wong plan to settle down first and reunite with their cats afterwards.

Phyllis, Charlie and Little Wolf

This wave of migration will hurt some industries deeply. Phyllis and her partner Ada were both medical professionals having considerable income in Hong Kong. However, they chose to migrate to UK together with their two dogs. “Their existences (the dogs) are the pillars of my spirit. I cannot leave them behind.” Phyllis has a life-time commitment to her dogs. She considered migration arrangements with her dogs as top priority, including location and interior environment.

Their two dogs were “Shiva Inu”. Namely Charlie and Little Wolf, they had opposite characters. Charlie was out-going with strong curiosities while Little Wolf was an introvert. Phyllis and Charlie would arrive in UK first, Ada and Little Wolf later.

Phyllis arranged the dogs’ migration through an agency, spending around HK$100,000 and signing related documents there in person. The preparation process took around three months, including injection, chip implant and license renewal, etc. Flight seats for pets were always tight during the pandemic. “The most troublesome part is you only know if there are seats for your pets in the last moment.”

For the dogs to have better adaptation, Phyllis mixed other brands into the pet food for Charlie and Little Wolf a few months ahead. She also put some of her clothes in the special cages for dogs to stay in during flight. She felt confident that Charlie would easily fit in its new life, but was worried about Little Wolf, who is comparatively cowardly.

In mid-Aug, Charlie and Phyllis took their flight. Charlie looked happy initially when he left home. He did not even bid goodbye with Little Wolf. However, Charlie became clinging, nervous and scared when he arrived at the airport. 

Phyllis said goodbye and hugged her family and friends before leaving. She felt most reluctant to leave her close relatives.

Before she left, Phyllis said, “I hope this place (Hong Kong) will return to normal one day. I am looking forward to be back….”

There may be a lot of reasons to stay, but once you decide to leave, do treasure your last hugs and chances to say goodbye. As there is no defined date of return, you can only hold on to your good memories after saying farewell. Some feelings are hard to express in words and could only turn into a wish - that everyone, whether “leaving” or “staying”, could take care and stay safe under the turbulence.

Source: The Stand News #Sep04

Author and photographer: PANG Lok-ching

#MigrationTide #PetsMigration

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