Bringing indoor cats to a vacation home

[shwarl4life]

Hi everyone,

I'm a foreigner who has absolutely fallen in love with Tobago:) I would love to take the step to purchase a vacation home in Tobago so I can snowbird. One problem with that plan though is I don't think that travelling back and forth with my indoor cats (up to date on vaccinations, spayed and neutered) would be good for them. I understand I'm only allowed to stay in Tobago for 90 days at a time on a tourist visa. But will I run into problems if I leave my indoor cats with a local house sitter/cat sitter when I'm not in Tobago?

These cats would not be going outside, so there would be no issues with them interacting with the local environment.

I understand to bring the cats into the county, we will need to have paperwork to prove vaccinations are up to date, etc. But if we leave without the cats will we run into trouble from immigration authorities saying something along the lines of "I see you entered Tobago with cats 90 days ago, how come you're not leaving with them?"

Anybody know how this works?

Thanks!

[Steve Wooler]

Hello

That's an interesting one. To be frank, I've never heard of anyone bringing pet cats into Tobago and haven't the remotest idea what the regulations and procedures are. However, I must admit to being horrified at the thought of those poor moggies being left in a house for 9 months until your next visit. Subjecting the poor things to the journeys each time you visit is not something that I would personally consider - but neither would be leaving them to the care of a local house sitter or cat sitter.

[PaulMakin]

sorry - i think i forgot to get back to you about this .

there is a process whereby this can be achieved - i note a revised application document has been introduced but i cant remember where i saw it :

https://agriculture.gov.tt/wp-content/u ... Tobago.pdf

https://foreign.gov.tt/documents/210/Ap ... d-Cats.pdf


managing your absence would be the determinant of how viable the importation may be.

[shwarl4life]

Thank you everybody for chiming in!

The plan would not be to abandon cats - it would be to establish responsible local friends who can help the cats thrive... Thanks to you both Steve and Paul for your comments.