Labradoodle in Transit

The most gorgeous girl in my entire world is also moving to Suzhou, China. Meet Bella Roberts. Bella is a 3 year old Labradoodle descended from a NZ Labradoodle and an Australian Labradoodle. She's 3rd generation. Her eyes never finished changing colour and she is my real life teddy bear/child replacement.

I've never had a pet, unless you count some Goldfish named after cartoon characters at the bottom of the garden in a pond. I wasn't even sure I wanted an addition to the family. My husband took me to pets shops to coo over the adorable puppies and cuddle the little bundles of furry love. He persuaded me. The saving began and the search for our perfect match began. We did our research and we found our breed and breeder. We asked questions and as we saved and bought one item per week towards preparing for our family addition I discovered that the girl we were looking for was ready before we were.

Nearly all of Bella's litter were the same colour as her. They were expecting some variety and so Bella and one of her siblings were left behind and needed a home. We checked for medical reasons as to why she was still waiting for adoption and there were none. She was literally the wrong colour. We fell head over heels for our little girl and she came home with us despite us not having her bed, the grass wasn't ready and a myriad other things.

When making the decision to start teaching internationally Bella was a large part of our decision. We don't have children and she is our child. We love her without exception. It was time for us to move on from NZ and we made sure that any country I was looking into working in would be suitable for Bella. I also had to make sure that my new employer did not have an issue with the fact that I would wish to house a dog.

A lot people act shocked and horrified that we are taking a dog to China as they eat dogs there. We did a lot of research and spoke to a reasonable number of people living in China with dogs to ensure that we really were doing the right thing. We made sure that we can get quality food, medical care and toys. We also ensured that there weren't regular cases of dogs "disappearing". We checked out where we can take Bella for walks and if there were places that she can be let off the lead to run around and have fun.

A major issue for me in particular was quarantine. Bella is a very affectionate girl and the thought of her being in a sterile, clinical, loveless environment where we couldn't see her was not ideal. It became even worse when we saw an expat thread discussing the Shanghai quarantine facility. What I read left me in tears. There was no way that Bella was going there. Thankfully there is a simple way around this that any good pet transporter will know. We are fortunate to have found a good company called Dogtainers. Bella has been measured for her luxury crate, we are looking at flight dates and she has had a visit to the vets for a couple of extra shots.

You may still be wondering why we would take Bella to China with us, but from the people we have spoken to we have been led to believe that she can have a life that is just as good as she has now and that China really isn't as unfriendly to dogs as we have been led to believe.