Hi all 
We all know relocating is not easy and requires lots of preparations and effort and having a pet certainly won't make things easier.
Saying that and knowing it might be too much work and costly, still it's worth it.
If you are a pet owner then I don't even have to explain .
So, take your time and prepare everything in advance and don't wait until your travel date comes or the last minute.
If I had someone to show me the way before, it would've been much much easier.
After doing it though, it's actually not that difficult.
*** Even though this is a "mini guide" specifically for relocating a cat from Canada to KSA (Riyadh), it can be a general guideline and hopefully you'll find it useful ***
The Steps:
1) Check the Saudi embassy in Canada mofa.gov.sa/sites/mofaen/Pages/Default.aspx
Best thing is to just call and ask where to find the info.
2) Get all that's necessary (paper work etc.):
If I remember correctly: health certificate (the vet is going to do all shots etc.), ownership certificate, birth certificate, tracking chip.
3) Send the required paper work to the Saudi embassy:
Money order for stamps, money order for FedEx (for return back)
4) Legally authenticate the papers (Canadian legal department):
Sorry forgot which step is before the other 3 or 4, might be 4 before 3 though logically.
Authenticating is not difficult just forgot the details. There's two steps to it I believe: signature form a legal entity and sending to the legal department.
5) You have to buy a legally accepted kennel, so best thing is to get all accurate measurement of your cat weight, height, length etc. while at the vet. Check the Canadian food inspection agency and the airlines for the details.
Don' forget once everything is done to leave water/dry food with your cat and put a mat or something and prepare your cat before hand by giving him as little as possible because in the flight there's no littering box you know.
You are going to need littering box and more food , of course, ready when your pet arrives here.
6) You are going to need to arrange for your cat cargo flight directly with the airlines and for someone to get him here in Saudi.
7) In Saudi, someone has to go to the airport and take the papers that should be with your cat plus some papers that the airport will provide to go and authenticate with some office here.
8) All in all you are going to need to contact a pet travel agency and they will give you more info and help:
I used petflightinc.com, talk to Pat,
email: [email protected], you can do a search though for other service if you like, but they were good.
+ Some other info of interest +
Veterinarians
While being here, I've tried different vets and found Egyptians to be the best/experienced ones (even doctors not just vets ).
They really know what they are doing.
My cat eat something bad and got really sick vomiting and all that.
Naturally, I went to the "high end" (pets only) vets in Olya and it was just a waste of time and money. The guy gave my cat a general antidote.
There was another one I went to for my cat hair problem and was a waste too.
None of them were Egyptians by the way.
I went to a vet who I didn't care to check at 1st (he happen to be an Egyptian) because I thought the "high end" ones will be better and he wasn't a pets only vet (now I clearly see that this is a good sign as it shows more experience).
He diagnosed the problem with all confidence and gave me specific antidotes and everything went well even for the hair problem.
When a vet gives a general antidotes then it's not a good sign or if he/she treats specific type of animal.
Hope this save you some trouble and good luck
