Cat’s evacuation passport received on the way from Irpin to Haifa

“It was certainly difficult to travel with cats in the bus, and we spent 8 or 9 hours in the bus to Warsaw. In Rivne we had new passports made for them, chipped and vaccinated them. Poland allowed anybody with animals in, even if animals didn’t have documents, chips and the like. But leaving – it was difficult to leave [with animals] to England or to any country that was not part of the European Union. So, we had to visit a veterinarian for a certificate… and he asked: “Where are you from?” – “From Ukraine” – so, everything was done for free, we didn’t have to pay anything. And then we had to get another certificate from some other office so that cats could leave from the airport – so, we waited for the Warsaw airport to confirm that our cats would be allowed to leave with us, and we lived in a hotel for three weeks while waiting. But the cats, they slept on white sheets there, and they finally felt like they were at home, and they realized that there was no bombing anymore – the only thing, they were afraid of the vacuum cleaner, so we asked the hotel housekeeper not to use it <…> When we were going through the eligibility verification procedure for Israeli citizenship, the Consul checked all the documents and asked: “Do you have common children?” – And I said: “No, only common cats” (UJRI_077_VV).