Hello to everyone at Keringa,
After 210 days in quarantine, 90 of them at Keringa and the remainder at the Eastern Creek quarantine station in Sydney, our cat Frank was released last week. It is, as if he was never away, he has settled in so beautifully and is so happy, as are we to have him here with us and the children. I thought it may be useful to send an open letter which could be used by people trying to decide if they should put their animal into quarantine at all, and if so, how long they should wait before sending their animal over to Sydney. I know that we would have benefitted from reading something like this before we made our decisions. Please use this in whatever way you wish, and congratulate everyone and pass on our regards.
Our cat, Frank is 7 years old. He was unsettled for the first 2 days of being at Keringa (as were we), and then for the next 208 days, he acted like he was always going to live in quarantine, just accepted his fate. He didn't show any outward signs of problems from the flight. We visited him throughout. We felt that this was important, maybe more for us than him, I'm not sure. I spoke to lots of people that weren't able to visit their animals and they told me that Colin sent regular photos and kept the owners updated. If Frank was representative of other cats, then they cope wonderfully with this transition, and for us and our children, it was important to have him with us.
A quick note on moving to rented property when you arrive in Sydney - Just remember that it may be harder to find rented accommodation if you have a pet (especially a dog). It will just take you longer. Be prepared to agree to fumigate the property when you leave it.
We thought that the staff at Keringa were brilliant. I didn't realise how brilliant until we, and Frank were no longer in South Africa. Colin and Guest, Robert and all the other people that looked after us and our animals. We could tell that you cared about them, we could tell that you knew their personalities and characteristics. We could tell that you are completely committed to bringing out the best in our animals while they are with you. When Frank had been in quarantine at Keringa for almost 90 days, that's when we moved to Sydney and that's why we moved Frank at this time, so that we could carry on visiting him. I do regret that, as it was so much nicer at Keringa than at Eastern Creek and I think we should have moved ahead of him so that he could have continued to have enjoyed the 5 star service instead of the 3 star accommodation at Sydney. Let me tell you the differences:
The staff at Sydney are kind and do their best, but it's a very big and not very personal service. There is only one person that looks after a block of cats, and there are up to 60 cats in one block. It's incredibly busy there at the moment and some predict that it will only get busier. The carers don't have very much time to spend with the animals. When we arrived they didn't even have a heat mat for Frank due to demand (I felt slightly aggrieved about this at the time), and there were no additional (government) funds to provide for the purchase of more. It has been getting very cold here over the winter. They did soon remedy this situation when a cat moved on. The person responsible for the block changes every month as these carers are trainees and they must circulate through the different departments through their training - from working the switchboard to working with the airport dogs. I think this strategy benefits the training more than the animals. If the animals could choose, I think they would prefer one nice carer.
The design of the enclosure was also important. At Keringa the units for cats weren't as high, but the floor area is greater than at Eastern Creek, that was important as we have three small children, one of them a small baby. At Keringa we could put Frank's drinking water and the litter tray out of baby's reach and sit on the carpet while visiting. At Eastern Creek the unit is very high but incredible small in terms of floor space, two bath towels covered it, which was so problematic for the children and sometimes we'd be so frustrated. Especially on wet days, which there have been many of. Half of the unit is open, and this provides lots of sun and a high viewing platform for the cats on lovely days, and on wet days my children and I would be wet and thoroughly miserable. The units were disinfected every day, so the floors are always wet and slippery. I had to dry the floor every time we visited.
Visiting times are also much better at Keringa, 45 minutes per visit was wonderful, compared to the 30 minutes (for arranged appointments) at Eastern Creek, which doesn't sound so different until you factor in the walk to the unit and cleaning the floor before you can even get the tuna out. Open visiting time is between 1.30 and 3.30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays (when you can stay for up to two hours) which was completely impossible for me as I had to be back in Sydney (40 mins to the North Shore) to pick up my son from school during this time. That meant that I had to make an appointment to visit (only 30 minutes allowed), and you are allowed 2 of these visits a week. I was sorry only to be seeing Frank twice a week whereas I could come every day to Keringa if I had wanted to. Because you can only visit during the week, my husband didn't see Frank at all while he was here at Eastern Creek. On weekends, there is only skeleton staff at Eastern Creek, and was probably pretty quiet for the animals. They are very strict. One lady was not even allowed to be there at the same time as the vet when her animal was sick, because it didn't coincide with visiting times.
We do think that Frank was well looked after at Eastern Creek, his needs were met and we believe that the people that looked after him cared for him and the other cats. With the benefit of hindsight, I would still put Frank in quarantine, but I would only have brought him here for the last 30 days. Keringa was like a home away from home, Eastern Creek didn't quite hit the mark.
Congratulations on your successes.
Best wishes,
Claire Cocksedge
