Any tips for moving with cats??

[Tina B and crew]

We are getting down to crunch time!

Close on the house Friday and will be moving in with my daughter for about 2 1/2 weeks and then heading 800 miles from here. Our plan is to isolate our cats upstairs at her place away from her cats. We already have some of our stuff over there so the will have familiar things around. Within the next week I'll have all the cats to the vet for check ups and make sure they are up to date on their vaccines.

After thanksgiving we are heading north with one of the cats...Cricket. She's going to stay with my daughter up there until we get our house built. Our plan is to have reservations at a pet-friendly hotel and drive half way. I know not to let her eat or at least eat much just before driving....I will talke to my vet about sedatives and if she feels they are a good idea.

Once we drop Cricket off we will take some stuff to my parents and then head back home...stay a few more days and head up north for good around December 5 with Gizmo, Frodo and Willow. Gizmo and Frodo are the two I am most concerned about at 15 and 13. Again we will drive half way, stay overnight and then drive the rest of the way the second day. Gizmo will be staying in my mom and dad's house and we will most likely be staying in a small trailer with Frodo and Willow until we get a house built. We chose to do it this way because Gizmo will not tolerate Willow's presence and being in pretty small living quarters they she would have no way to escape from him. Frodo will not tolerate Gizmo's presence and will growl constantly if he gets too near her *sigh* My parents are fond of Gizmo and he is such a people cat that I think it will be good for him

I have found a vet up there already...a feline only vet to boot!! I was so excited when I found them. I've already been in touch with them about Frodo's thyroid condition so they are expecting to hear from me when we get up there...I was so excited to find a feline only vet!

Anyway...anyone have any tips on moving with the cats? Helping them adjust? I know the obvious...having things familiar to them, watching that they eat/drink and use the litter box normally etc. I'm trying to not stress over this but it's hard

[kehorner]

I just moved with my three boys last summer, from Arizona to Michigan. I also had some crazy in between stuff going on, staying with my parents for about a month in between homes. So here are my tips...

You might want to think about microchipping, since you are going a long distance and will be in unfamiliar places and all. I also got tags with my cell # on them and hot pink collars to put the tags on. I figured that if they did happen to get lost, I wanted a collar to show up from a distance and make it obvious that they were lost pets and not ferals.

The reservations at the pet-friendly hotel are good. Call around... some places wanted to charge $75 or more, while others only charged $10.

What I did is get two big tall-sided rubbermaid-style containers for all the cat stuff. One was the litterbox, so it had the litter in it, but it also had a lid for moving it in and out of the car. I then put all the other junk in the other box. I had way too much stuff, but I wanted to be prepared, so here's what I carried in the car:

-a few towels (used those for propping up carriers that were leaning, shading sun, etc... a good thing!)
-sedatives (I got enough for all three boys for all four days of driving, but only used them on one of my boys... poor Spike got carsick and just sat there howling and drooling and wretching... but once we gave him the pills he felt better and went to sleep, so I would recommend having them just in case)
-folder with vet records, a photograph of each cat (just in case...), certificates of veterinary inspection (required to travel into/through some states, although they never check.... but I figured if I didn't get it, I would get caught...), proof of vaccination, vet phone numbers
-harnesses and leashes (used those, but generally only one or two at a time... useful for when they wanted to come out of their carriers... safer than just letting them wander in the car)
-plastic bowls for food and water in the hotel room
-bottled water
-food
-paper towels (in case of accidents....)
-litter scoop
-plastic bags for scooping

So off we went, just me and my dad, the U-haul, and the car being towed behind us.... And three unhappy cats in the cab. One of the things that we didn't realize at first was that the floor of the cab was getting really hot, so the original plan of putting one carrier on the floor was not good!!! Be sure to check the temperature in any strange places like that where you may put the carriers. Actually, the boys were very very good. Once we cured Spike's carsickness, he curled up right next to me on the seat and slept most of the way, and we hardly heard anything out of anybody the whole way there. Pat even came out and sat up on top of the carrier on the seat and peered out the window for a while (on his harness) and really looked like he was enjoying himself!

The first two days, I offered them the litter box and some water in the middle of the day at a rest stop, but nobody was interested, so I just gave up on that for the rest of the trip.

In the hotel, we'd just unload those two boxes and the cats, open up the litter box, and pull out the food and water. They had no trouble really adjusting to the different rooms. Although we did have a little issue with hiding the first night (behind the base of the bed, under the mattress....). They say not to leave them unattended in the room, but we just put the do not disturb sign on the door when we went out for dinner so nobody would open the door and had no problems.

I did have a bit of a problem when I got them to the new home, because they decided that they just didn't like where I had put their litterboxes. But once I moved the boxes, everybody was happy in their new home.

Good luck with your move!!!

[Tina B and crew]

Thanks kehorner!! I was thinking about the microchipping myself and the collars with tags. One of my cats already wears a collar with a bell (Gizmo..he wears it so he can't sneak up on Willow and pound her..it works!)

We are fortunate that we have a small SUV so the cats will all ride in the back of it...or at least two of them and the other will go on the rental truck seat with DH. I've saved a bunch of old towels, so those will go with. I didn't think about using a rubbermaid bin for litter...that's a good idea! I'm not sure my Frodo can get in and out of one of the tall ones, so I may have to go for one of the shorter ones (saw some at Big Lots yesterday). Didn't think about the photos of the cats either..that is really a good idea. I've checked a few hotels that are at the halfway point...so far they have been reasonable with their pet fees...one was only $7. Do you know if that fee is per pet? Or per room?

Thanks again...I think the cats are taking this all better than I am..LOL But I'm trying to stay calm for the cat's sake

[Traci]

Keep the cats in their carriers at all times while driving (a loose cat in a car is not a good idea, you can't predict their behavior)

Keep the car temperature as normal as possible, because plastic carriers can get hot inside very fast.

If you stop at any rest areas, keep the cats inside their carriers at all times, and only open their carrier doors (to eat, drink, use litterbox) when ALL OTHER DOORS of your car are CLOSED. Never leave the cats unattended if you stop anywhere.

When at the motels, be sure your check-out times correspond to when you know you're cats will be safely transferred to your car...the last thing you want is a housekeeper opening your room door and letting a scared cat out. (leave the "do not disturb" sign on your door)

In between homes, give the cats TONS of attention, the more attention you give them, the less likely they will get stressed. Monitor their food and water intake constantly and monitor litterbox usage.

During the holidays, keep the cats in a private room, hopefully calm and quiet, you can't predict how often outside doors are going to be opened and closed on a continual basis. Give them TONS of attention.

Instruct your daughter and your parents with the same instructions on keeping stress reduced for the cats. Give them information on what to watch for and to monitor them closely when you are away from them. There are several moves involved here, so they too need to be constantly aware of any developing stress or health conditions.

As close to the move as possible, ask your current vet to fax copies of all the cats' health records to your new vet. This will hopefully help save both the clinic and your time in transferring records, etc. Confirm it by calling your new vet and ensuring all the records have been recieved.

Don't forget to keep copies of health exams and rabies certificates with you at all times when travelling...keep them handy so they don't get lost.

You could consider microchipping, but with exceptional care and handling during the moves, your kitties should be safe. At the very least, breakaway collars with ID tags for the duration should suffice. The tags should include your vet's clinic name/address and number, rabies tag number, and/or a number YOU can be reached at, at any given time (a cell number would be ideal until you get phone service)

If you feel this is going to be a hectic and stressed time for you, keep a daily checklist of things you need to do for the cats individually (monitoring, medications, etc) and give a copy of the checklist to both your daughter and parents if they're keeping them as well.

[kehorner]

Perhaps I should clarify... when we let the cats out of their carriers, they were on harnesses and leashes, and were kept on very short leash by the passenger, and thus not allowed to intrude into the driver's space. Mostly two of them were most comfortable staying in their carriers anyway, but Spike was most comfortable sleeping on my lap, rather than in the carrier. But he was kept on the harness and leash the whole time, and put back in the carrier at rest stops. No way we wanted a kitty to get in the way of controlling the big truck!

[Tina B and crew]

Good idea for the list of things for my parents and daughter...thanks Traci!! So much to keep up with I may just print out this thread before we leave

The cats will stay in carriers at all times, except at the hotel room and I will make sure to lock the slide bolt when I am in the room with them and they are out. I doubt we will risk going out and leaving them in the room by themselves and since there will be two of us it should be easy enough to eat etc without leaving the room. Fortunately the carriers I have are pretty large, and I will put toys and comfy blankets in them as well as carry spares incase one of the cats has an accident. I guess the only way one of the would come out of the carrier in the vehicle is if the towel needed to be changed...lets hope noone poos in their carrier

[annabradley]

When I moved from AZ to Oregon, Honey meowed in the carrier for HOURS I recommend soothing music (for you as well as the cats) She finally got the idea that she wasn't getting out (or wore herself out) and was quiet for the next two days of the trip. She was also fine in the hotel room as long as I was where she could see me. I got her used to the harness a couple of weeks before I left. She hated it at the beginning, but got used to it quickly. Good luck!
Anna B.

[k9Karen]

I don't have cats, so I can't offer any suggetions there. All that everyone has said so far makes a lot of sense, and much of it could be applied to traveling with dogs too.

I only wanted to add that you want to be sure the hotel pet reservation is for having the pets with you in the room, not in a separate kennel. I'm not sure where you're headed, but North Carolina has a state law that prohibits having pets in the room (or at least they used to), so if you say you are traveling with a pet, you are, in effect, making a separate kennel reservation for them. I don't know if any other states also have the same type of law, but it might be a good idea to check. In all our travels with dogs, we've never stayed in North Carolina because of that law.

[Tina B and crew]

Thanks Karen! I'll be sure to check that out. We will be traveling through NC, but won't be staying there. We would be staying in SC as it is about halfway.

I can't believe I won't be watching hurricanes with you next summer

[TheSkeptic]

[quote="I can't believe I won't be watching hurricanes with you next summer [/quote]

What will you be watching for instead; Blizzards, floods, tornados or earthquakes?