Cat's (not) in the bag

We've got a major minor hiccup in our master plan.

The cat, the myth, the legend...Beaver

NZ called Continental/United Airlines to book our cat with their Pet transport/Quikpak program. He was able to reserve Beav's spot on our flight, but was informed that if Shanghai had a predicted temperature of 85 degrees F or higher when our flight was scheduled to land, they would not allow him to travel.

Wha????

Continental/United touts it's high standards of pet care ( thank goodness!) throughout it's explanation of the quickpak system. The website and the woman I spoke to on the phone at the begnning of all this flaunted the fact that they use airconditioned kennels and vans when transporting from the holding facility to the airplane.  The website claims, "Personal handling in climate-controlled vehicles for connections over United's hubs when the animal will be exposed to temperatures above 85°F (29.5°C) degrees for more than 45 minutes". So this surprises me that they do not offer these air conditioned vehicles in Shanghai as well. Plus, we have a 13 hour flight, and our cat has to check in a whole 2 hours before we do--so how on earth will they know how warm it will be when we arrive an entire 15+ hours later??

My heart sank when NZ told me the news.

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

They're looking out for Beaver's best interest.

But how on earth are we supposed to get our cat there? Wait till winter?

Beav is a major part of our family, and neither one of us want to leave him behind. The move itself is going to be traumatic enough for our 12 year old feline..so, to get him to the airport, only to have to leave him with someone til we can ship him under favorable conditions just breaks my heart. Not to mention, China has this weird rule that the cat must arrive within 2 weeks of the owner...

I've got an email out to the vet in Shanghai that is assisting us with the transfer of Beaver from the airport to the government run quarantine where Beaver will be held for 7-30 days. The vet we are using will translate and make sure we have proper documentation for our arriving cat, as well as help navigate the quarantine system.

Who woulda thought that taking our cat with us could cause such a commotion!