Chiefs’ Nikko Remigio details taking his dog and cats on an 8,000-mile journey to KC
Wide receiver Nikko Remigio was only thinking about his football future when he met with a speed coach ahead of his Pro Day two years ago.
Little did he know it would be a life-changing event for Remigio, who had been a star at Fresno State.
That coach also works with Maureen Schrijvers, a track star in the Philippines, and Remigio was quickly smitten with the 400-meter runner. They soon began dating and are now married.
While Remigio didn’t hear his name in the 2023 NFL Draft, he signed with the Chiefs as a free agent. And so, Schrijvers packed up her life in the Philippines and joined him in Kansas City.
One really big issue with moving 8,000 miles: What to do with her two dogs and three cats, all of which were rescues?
“My wife, she is very determined, I’ll say that,” Remigio said this week as the Chiefs prepared for Super Bowl LIX. “So it was non-negotiable when she was out here with me in March that the pets were going to be coming with us.”
All five animals are rescues, but not in the sense we might consider in the United States. No one drops a cat or dog at a shelter in the Philippines. The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) estimates there are 12 million stray dogs in that country.
Take the couple’s dog Kai. He is an Askal breed, which means street dog, but the 4-year-old wasn’t found by Schrijvers in a city.
“There’s a lot of them that run around in the Philippines, all over, but my wife had found him tied up in a sack on the beach on an island in the Philippines, and she ended up rescuing him,” Remigio said. “And same story with all our cats as well. They had all approached her at some point. Our oldest cat, she had found him. He was still blind, sleeping in the rice fields with the Carabao (water buffalo) in the Philippines in Carabao poop. So, you know, all of them are rescues, and they’re all sweethearts.
“My wife, she is an angel. If it wasn’t for her moving here, I think we’d have like 10 pets at this point. She wants to rescue all of them.”
You can understand Schrijvers’ attachment to her pets.
But getting them to Kansas City wasn’t going to be easy, especially because Remigio was on the Chiefs’ practice squad at the time. Those are the lowest-paid players on an NFL team.
Remigio’s promotion
The couple was able to get their three cats (Coco, Lau and Maya) and Kai to the United States. But their other dog, named Hoku, had to stay in the Philippines.
“When I was on the practice squad, we were trying to bring him over, and there was just some rules and regulations that was making it more expensive and more difficult to bring him over,” Remigio said. “And so we actually had a conversation of possibly having to get him fostered or having somebody adopt him. And then I got activated a couple weeks later, and it kind of changed the story.”
Remigio was signed to the Chiefs active roster in early December, which meant a big financial boost. And when the Chiefs beat the Texans in a Divisional round playoff game in January, Remigio and his teammates received a bonus check from the NFL.
That money helped too. It will allow Remigio’s father to fly to the Philippines and get Hoku in the spring.
The dog will be glad to be here, but won’t like the journey. Anyone whose driven a long distance with a dog and/or cat knows how difficult that can be for human and animal.
Remigio said traveling with the other four animals was a headache.
“It’s as hectic as you could have imagined,” he said. “A lot of flights, a lot of stress for us, even more stress for the pets, but we got them here, and I can show you videos all day of them loving life now. Who would have thought that these Island cats, this island dog, would be loving life in Kansas City?
“Thirteen hours in the cargo from Manila to LA was definitely not fun. Plus the flight from Orange County to Seattle, Seattle to Missouri. So they weren’t happy with us. They didn’t talk to us for like a month.”
But now Kai is happily adjusted in Kansas City, and has even taken to the Midwest winters.
“I’ve got to show you these videos of my dog playing in the snow,” Remigio said. “He was in awe.”
Schrijvers shared this video of Kai’s first taste of snow on her Instagram account. This is one happy dog.
