Last Updated on March 26, 2026 by admin
The news arrived the way bad news usually does — suddenly, and with a deadline.
Saleena was leaving Dubai. The circumstances had changed. She had maybe a month to close her life there and get back to India. There was the apartment to hand over, the paperwork to file, the flights to book.
The first thing on her list wasn’t any of that.
It was the cat near the office entrance.
Eleven wasn’t supposed to be anybody’s cat. She was a stray who had figured out that the area near Saleena’s workplace was a reliable enough place to survive — the bins were accessible, the foot traffic was consistent, and she had learned which humans were worth watching.
This was Dubai in the height of summer. The streets bake at temperatures above 50°C, and for the thousands of stray cats living across the city, summer means weeks of searching for shade, scraps, and anything cold enough to press against. Many don’t make it. The situation each summer is considered a crisis, and the animals surviving it are the ones who learned to keep moving.
Eleven was one of those cats. Lean, cautious, quick.
Saleena started buying two breakfasts.
One for herself, on the way to work. One for the cat at the entrance, who had started waiting. It wasn’t a plan — it was a decision made once, then made again the next morning, then again, until it was simply the shape of the day. This went on for about six months.
By then, Eleven knew Saleena’s footsteps. She was there in the morning when Saleena arrived. She retreated to her own corners when Saleena left at night. The deal held.
Until it didn’t.
When Saleena found out she was leaving, the advice was immediate and consistent.
Just leave her. She survived before you. She’ll be fine.
The logic was sound, as far as it went. Eleven had survived before — that much was true. But Saleena had also spent six months making sure she didn’t have to.
She called her family in India. She told them she was bringing the cat.
What followed was not simple. Taking a cat out of the UAE means navigating a process that has no shortcuts: an ISO-compliant microchip, a current rabies vaccination, a health certificate from an accredited vet, an export permit from the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, and an IATA-approved travel crate — because cats travelling internationally from Dubai go in the cargo hold, not the cabin. From permit application to customs clearance, the process takes roughly three to six weeks under normal circumstances.
Saleena had about four.
There were vet appointments, and then more vet appointments. There was paperwork filed in a specific order, and then refiled when one date didn’t align. There was the airline cargo booking, the manifest documentation, and the import requirements on the India side. Saleena handled most of it herself.
Eleven, who had once spent her days navigating Dubai’s streets alone, now sat in Saleena’s apartment watching her make phone calls at midnight.
Eleven had survived Dubai’s 50-degree streets alone for months — Saleena was not about to let a forced relocation do the same thing twice.
The night before the flight, Saleena posted a video.
It was a quiet moment. Eleven in her IATA-approved carrier, the crate tagged and labeled, sitting beside Saleena’s packed suitcases. The caption read: “You rescued me just to leave me behind? Me: Never. We move together or not at all.”
The video has been watched more than 108,000 times. Over 10,000 people liked it.
The comments were full of cat owners who recognised the shape of that fear — the life closing in, the animal who doesn’t understand any of it. Some shared their own relocation stories. Some just wrote variations of: I would have done exactly the same.
The flight was a few hours. Eleven spent it in cargo, in the crate that had taken four weeks and a small stack of documents to certify as correct.
She arrived without incident.
Customs cleared. Documents checked. Crate collected.
When Saleena opened the carrier in her family home in India, Eleven walked out slowly. She sniffed the unfamiliar floor. She looked at the two other cats already living there, assessed the situation, and made her decision.
She walked directly to Saleena and stayed.
For the first several weeks, Eleven didn’t explore much. She followed Saleena from room to room. She slept on her feet at night. It took time — for Eleven to understand that this room was not temporary, that the floor would still be there in the morning, that the person who had shown up every day with breakfast in 50-degree heat was still showing up now, in a different city, in a different country, with no plans to leave.
She’s more confident now. She has her own corners. She’s worked out the other cats.
She still waits by the door when Saleena comes home.
If you’re facing an international pet relocation from Dubai and don’t know where to start, Carry My Pet offers UAE-to-India relocation services and can walk you through the documentation in sequence. You can also follow the original story on Instagram at @selevena11.
What’s your cat’s name? Drop it below. 🐱