Following our move back to the UK (you can read more on that if you want in this blog post), we have been looking at the future of our pet transports, and how we can continue to be involved with animal welfare on an ongoing basis.
Warning: this is a pretty long post so I have summarised up front, and provided more details below.
The unfortunate reality is that age, requirements of family, second driver issues, and the wear and tear of 750,655 miles and 7595 cats and dogs transported, means that we are no longer able to offer a scheduled service between the UK, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Spain.
We do, however, want to help for a while longer (above issues permitting), and have introduced a number of new services ( and few old ones making a return).
Moving forward we will be concentrating more on cerebral projects improving animal welfare, with physical support being via a range of UK based pet transport services, European Charters, and a number of services to support other pet transporters.
On the cerebral front we have identified a number of consultancy services that we will offer to animal welfare organisations and charities.
For more details see below …..
Age: It is a sad fact that neither of us are as young as we were, and the nature of the scheduled transports has become too much of an imposition on life: based in Spain we averaged 120 days a year apart from each other, with all the resultant pressures to look after our own animals etc that entailed.
Family Requirements: a key reason for our move back to the UK was to be closer to parents so we can provide support in their advanced years. Fortunately we are currently not faced with any issues other than the inevitable ones that come to you in your eighties, but we do need to be closer in order to help them get as much out of life for as long as possible.
Drivers: we have been fortunate to have some excellent drivers over the year (time here to say a HUGE thanks to Lee, Matt, and Mick who have done many many miles with us, and Jamie, Dioni, and David who stepped in when required), but you have to be a little mad to do the journeys, and while we have always paid our drivers, it has become harder to find trustworthy and reliable replacements, not least because we can’t offer them ‘regular work’ when we are not doing the Scheduled Transports anymore. With the UK pet transports we don’t have that issue, and we have a number of people that will do one or two charters a year with us as required.
Wear and Tear: old injuries to knee, collar and shoulder and a chronic neck and back problem have not been helped by the 750,000+ miles and while I have managed to keep them pretty much under control, I had hoped that a few months off and some serious TLC would make a difference, but a number of specialists have basically told me ‘enough is enough’.
So, whilst this is not the end, it is the beginning of the end, and while on one hand that is sad, on the other it is a happy time as we are very proud of what we have achieved and have met some exceptional people over the years.
If we can help you in the future via any of the above then please let us know, but if this is it between us then thank you and good luck in the future.
So proud of you for what you have both done over the years.
Mum, Dad, and little Charmin
xxx, purr purr