He arrives with a lead, a bed and a whole history that lives in other people's filing cabinets. Moving day goes well when the paperwork moves with him, deliberately, rather than being promised for later. Later has a way of becoming months, and by then memories have blurred and a clinic may have archived his older file.
Start the Chip Transfer Before He Moves
His chip carries a number, and that number points to the registry where his keeper record sits, still naming your relative at her address. Implanting the chip years ago did not register him in anyone's name by itself, and handing you his paperwork does not transfer him either. The transfer happens with the registry: your relative, as the listed keeper, starts or authorises it, you confirm your name, address and phone numbers as the new keeper, and you both keep the confirmation. Begin this before moving day, because registries can take time to process a change and may ask either of you for proof. Until it completes, a scan of him leads a finder to your relative, so agree who answers that call in the meantime and make sure her phone stays reachable.
His Vet Records and Vaccination History
Ask her clinic, with her permission, for his complete record rather than a summary card: vaccination dates and what is due next, operations, ongoing conditions, test results, weight history and the notes behind any treatment he has had. Clinics send records vet to vet routinely, so the usual route is often her clinic forwarding the file to your clinic once he is registered with you, with a printed or emailed copy for you as well. Get his vaccination history in a form a boarding kennel would accept, because a new kennel will ask before his first stay and his old card may be the only proof. If he has a spay or neuter certificate, insurance papers or a rescue or breeder contract from his early life, those travel too; they answer questions you cannot reconstruct later.
Medicines and Care Notes, Written Down
Any medicines he takes should arrive with him, in their labelled packaging, exactly as prescribed, with the prescribing clinic's instructions copied out: what each one is for, when he has it, and what to do if a dose is missed, as his vet directed. Do not accept a verbal routine for medicines; write it with your relative while she demonstrates his normal day. The care notes deserve the same care: what he eats and how much, his walk and toilet routine, where he sleeps, what frightens him, how he travels, and the small tricks that settle him. An elderly owner often holds years of this knowledge without realising how much of it there is, so ask him-specific questions rather than inviting a general account. What does he do at the vet? Which door does he expect to go out? What word means his dinner?
A Signed Note and a Phone Number for Gaps
A short signed note from your relative, dated, saying she is giving him to you and naming you as his new keeper, is worth more than its length suggests. It supports the registry transfer, reassures your new clinic, and settles any later confusion about whether he was lent, fostered or given. Keep her vet's phone number at the front of his file even after his records transfer; gaps surface weeks later, usually as a simple question about his past that her clinic can answer in one call. Her own number matters too, for the settling-in questions only she can answer, asked kindly and not all on the first evening. Once he is home, gather everything into one place so his history reads as a single story rather than a pile of handovers, and KinsLe can help through Pet Passport, which keeps his transferred registration confirmation, vet history and medicine list together for whoever cares for him next.