I’m freaking out with the idea of moving with two cats and several fish. S.o. and I plan to move within six months from D.C. metro area to Jacksonville, Florida, area – about a 12-hour drive. The fish are the least of the problem – they can go a day or two without aeration or food, but my two cats – another problem altogether. Took one of the cats to the vet today for her annual checkup and shots; asked the vet about moving. Answer: keep them in their carriers, and every four hours, let them use a litter box and drink and eat in the car. Don’t use a leash or harness – keep in the car. S.o. asked about keeping the two cats in a cage (like a dog training cage), and putting the litter box, water, food in the cage. Vet: depends on how the two cats get along. Well, they get along fine here at home, but in a cage on a 12-hour trip – who knows? We have two cars to get to Florida – his and mine. The cats are a bit fearful of him and favor me, so I’m figuring I’ll have to have the cats in their carriers in my car. Anyone have experience transporting cats for that long a drive? Advice welcome for making this move with the least trauma for everybody.
I moved from Atlanta to Austin. It’s about a 20 hour drive and I did it in two days. I got a couple of tranquilizers from my vets but didnt’ really need them. My kitty was really docile and just slept then entire time. Truthfully, I didn’t even have him in a carrier* because he never needed one before. He spent almost the enitre trip sleeping on my lap while I drove.
My advice: if you know your cats are fairly docile and you have the room, put the litter box on the floor behind the passenger seat and let the cats loose in the car. If they do freak out on car trips and climb up on your shoulders and head rest, keep them in the carrier and let them out into the car at the rest stops. Be prepared to put up with some cat whining. It’ll probably be tough to get them back in the carriers tho’…
*yes, yes, everyone’s gonna chime in with how unsafe this is but I already knew my cat was a good rider and wasn’t gonna freak out on me.
My only experience with my cats in the car has been in getting them to the vet. The older cat I adopted from a shelter, and was depressed when I got her. She freaks when we try to get her into the carrier - that’s the worst part. I’m exhausted from simply trying to get her into her carrier today. After we get her in the carrier, she’s docile and resigned;the other cat, a 6-year-old tabby, meows and whines the whole time she’s in the carrier. I think the tabby would be a problem if not kept in a carrier – she’s hyper and I’m afraid she’d be climbing all over the car and under my feet on the trip. Since it appears I’d be driving my car alaone with both cats, I think keeping them confined would be best thing. I asked the vet about tranquilizing them, and he said no to that idea.
You could try tranquilisers, I personally would prefer to put them in a large cage with a litter tray, if you have the type of car that you can put a cage in the back, that way they can move around, they can see (more than if they were in a carrier) and you can talk to them. Give them water by all means, but not food (and possibly no food for a few hours before) just in case they get queasy - you don’t want them puking! And for the love of mike make sure the car doors are closed if you open the cage!!!
Try this.
Put them in their carriers. Go to a secluded place like a parking lot in the early morning. Let them out and drive around for a while. If they do freak out, you won’t be in an accident because no one else is around.
Then you’ll have a better idea if they will freak.
Here’s the advice of someone who apparently has traveled with cats a lot (first item on the page):
http://www.cherryh.com/www/panel_room.htm
From personal experience, I would say that cats that are not accustomed to travel should not be loose in the car while you’re driving, because they tend to want hide by your feet.
Also, a cat in a cage needs to be shaded from direct sunlight, otherwise they are likely to overheat.
Our cats can behave loose in the car, though we’ve never driven without the two of us there, and I don’t think I’d be comfortable with them loose if I were driving alone, because one of them really wants to be in the footwell.
If at all possible, I would go with the largest dog cage you can fit in your car. Or, if they don’t like each other, two smaller cages/crates-- but large enough to fit litters pans in. Remember, you don’t need ‘official’ litter pans, cats will go in a surprisingly small tray if needs be. I have a 13lb cat who will use a 8"x12"ish tuperware pan. Line the bottom of the cage(s) with puppy pads just in case. My cats will, no matter what I do, ‘empty themselves’ from both ends within the first hour of the drive. The one time we drove with them in the carriers w/o litter was a hellish experience, as they got vomit & excrement all over themselves, and we got to smell that the whole drive. Puppy pads are easy to pull out & replace.
There are bowls you can get that will hold water, but will not spill. I’ll find the link when I get home and post it.
I second the advice about keeping the cages covered. I’ve also discovered that seeing the world flying by the window really freaks them out (incase the cage is high)
Also, for the carrier-phobic cat, there’s a carrier I use called Sturdibag (you can google it) that is soft sided, zips on from both sides, so when you open it, it looks like a tunnel. We can lure a cat through with a toy and then zip them up. It’s pricey but worth it. Saves me a LOT of trouble getting them in packed up.
This is something I’ve been wondering about, too. I’ll be moving from Michigan to Austin before too long, and I have 3 cats.
One sits quietly in the carrier and just looks at us pathetically.
One yowls almost too pathetically to bear. Plus sticks his paws through the cage and tries to rip up whatever’s in reaching distance (my seats).
The other yowls and breaks his carrier. He’s a very strong boy kitty who chews up cardboard boxes and weighs a good 15 lbs. The Fix-Mobile lady said that he cried for the 2 hours between when his anesthetic wore off and I was able to pick him up, so I don’t doubt too much that he’d cry for 2 days straight. Also rips up things through the cage.
So, has anyone used traqs? How expensive are they?
I’ll also be moving 6 snakes and about a dozen rats, and the only animals I’m worry about are these two cats.
My wife and I moved from Oregon to Connecticut. Driving. In a Geo Prizm. With two cats. I forget, 5 or 6 days. Long, long days.
We had quite a bit of stuff in the car, but left them half the back seat. Other half had a box, we put a towel on top for them to rest. One foot-well (or whatever you call the place the backseat passengers put their feet) had a bowl of food and a bowl of water. The other had a litter box.
Lastly, we fashioned a divider between the front and backseats out of chickenwire and duct tape. We even built in a door that we could leave open for them to crawl through if we wanted.
Then we left them loose in the backseat.
Halfway through the first day, they had managed to find a way to squeeze throught the fence on both sides between the headrests of the front seats and the car doors. Each morning, they would meow like crazy for about one hour or more, then generally settle down for a bit. Then come up to the front. Hang around, try to get down to our feet. Which was reasonably ok for the passenger, but not.a.good.thing for the driver. So whomever was not driving had cat-watching duty.
Getting in and out of the car at rest stops or motels was a bit hectic, since the last thing we wanted was a cat loose in the middle of some Kansas rest stop.
But, all in all, they ended up travelling pretty well for cats. No problems at any of the motels. Contrary to some of the other posters in this thread, our cats didn’t have any real issues with watching things out the window. They would hang out on the dashboard, or the back up at the rear window.
We did practice driving around with them a few times before we left; really have no idea if that helped or not. But I would heartily recommend doing that, at least so you know what you may be up against.
Also, we did try some herbal sleeping pill thingies. They wouldn’t touch it.
Best of luck to you! I hope you like Jax! 
We just made the drive from Jacksonville to Portland, Maine–my daughter, me, a dog and a cat in a Honda Civic (hubby and the big dog were in the moving truck). We bought a few of those disposable litter pan kits and kept it on the floor in the back seat and let the cat out of his carrier. He slept a lot under the seats and on that area by the back window. And as for actually using the litter box, it wasn’t often, and when he did, we just stopped at the next rest area and scooped it out.
Drive safely and be sure to enjoy the St. Johns!
How old are your kitties, and do they have any health problems? If they’re young and healthy, you might ask about getting some acepromazine for them. Ace is a sedative that in high doses can knock them flat on their hairy little butts, but in low doses it just knocks the edge off. It’s routinely prescribed for travelling, as well as for dogs who freak out during storms and fireworks displays. You don’t want to give it to older animals, or those who might have kidney or liver problems, though.
When we moved from Kentucky to North Carolina (8-hour drive), I was the designated critter hauler. The cats went in their carriers (separate, they don’t play nicely together), and the dog rode in the front seat with me. I gave all three a light dose of oral ace right before we left, and stopped for potty breaks and drinks every four hours or so. It worked rather nicely, because one cat howls rather a lot when confined for long periods, and the other gets carsick after an hour or so, and the ace took care of both those problems.
When someone mentions tranquilizing a cat, I think of the article “How to Give Your Cat a Pill.”
I’ve heard horror stories from people who “simply” had to take their cats to the vet. I’m sure that the easy trips go unreported, but from what I’m led to believe, a bottle of something brown for you when you get there is a good idea.
Good luck with your move.
I recommend heavy tranqs…no, wait! That won’t work if you’ll be driving… 
Seriously though, my friend had to take her cat on a, 8hr+ trip and mild tranqs worked perfectly on him. On the other hand, one or both of them might surprise you.
We had a cat who loved travelling so much that he whine at the door if you said “Go for a ride?” and then beat us to the car. He went everywhere with us. He especially liked fishing trips.
I’d try the practice trips idea. Just make sure you’ve got a proper carrier, NOT a cardboard box. We use the plastic kind with the metal front.
Some of the presentation animals at work seem to like their crates better if we hang a cloth over the front. Just be aware of the heat factor. NEVER leave them in the car with the windows up! Crate them and either roll the windows all the way down or bring them with you at rest stops. A car can heat up amazingly fast even on a relatively cool day.
Good Luck!
L.A. to Seattle, two cats, in a Honda Civic. It was like a beautiful dream.
They were scared, but comforted each other. I had them together in single cardboard carrier, opened, and they rarely left it. Litter pan in the back footwell, never used, and water, never touched. No food.
There were two motel stops. The most important thing was thoroughly checking the motel room for escape routes before bringing them in.
Make sure they are completely confined before opening the car door, every time.
(Maybe I got lucky. One time I took a car trip with Grace the Wonder Kitty, and she cried in my lap the entire way. What a nightmare.) I think you’ll find two are better than one in this situation.
In my experience kitties never use their car litter box when you decide it’s time for an in-car pit stop. We’ve moved lots of time and the best arrangement we’ve found for two cats is one large carrier with a litter box, water and food inside. But for a one day drive that’s probably overkill. Really, 12 hours with 2 cats is a piece of cake, especially if it isn’t in the summer when you have to worry about the car heating up.
We once moved from Oregon to Connecticut with 2 big dogs, 3 cats, 4 parrots and a 6 month old baby. I felt just like the Ellie-May Clampitt rolling up to our new home with all the critters.
Good luck!
Minnesota to Oregon, 2 cats, four days, two people.
My wife and I bought two metal-mesh dog crates, and an opaque plastic shower curtain. Curtain goes on the seat, crates on the curtain, remainder of curtain folded over crates to make a “cave” and keep sun off them. We put a small litter box, a pad, and a cat in each crate. This pretty much took up the entire back seat of a Nissan Maxima (mid-size four-door). These cats are not terribly social to each other, so putting them both in the same cage does not appear to be an option.
Elapsed time: 3 minutes - Both cats begin plaintive meowing, about once every fifteen seconds. Occasional hissing and impotent slashing of claws in the general vicinity of the other cage. Cat 2 uses the litter box, causing non-delicate, non-floral odors to permeate through vehicle. Observation #1: Odor-suppressing litter is a necessity. We speak comfortingly to the cats to calm them.
Elapsed time: 3 hours - Both cats still plaintively meowing. Both pads (designed for cats, guaranteed pet happiness) have been reduced to tatters, Cat 1 is attempting to ingest pad. We stop, refresh the litter box, remove pads, and offer the cats some food and water, which they refuse.
Because these are entirely indoor cats with the combined intelligence of catsup and the escape skills of Houdini, we’ve decided on a policy of never having a crate door open and a car door open at the same time. So all interactions with the inside of the crate use the following ritual: open car door, remove one crate and put it on the ground. Sit where the crate was, close the car door, open the other crate door, and perform required cat interaction. Close the crate door, repeat with other crate and cat. At all times avoid eye contact with passerby concerned about the “I’m being tortured to death” sounds coming from both cats, but particularly the one outside the car.
Elapsed time: 3 hours, 30 minutes - Under way again. Plaintive meowing has not ceased at any time.
Elapsed time: 3 hours, 33 minutes - Cat 2 again uses litterbox. Cat 2 apparently feels that the litter box is a good place to sleep, and settles in. Cat 1 begins clawing at anything in reach.
Elapsed time: 3 hours, 36 minutes - Cat 1 has managed to work the shower curtain cover completely off, and is hence sitting in the sun. We stop the car, put the curtain back in place, and tie it through the bars of the cage.
Elapsed time: 3 hours, 40 minutes - Cat 1 begins working on uncovering cage again. Cat 1 makes the catsup look like Mensa/SDMB material, but has persistance in spades.
Elapsed time: 5 hours - Cat 1 has managed to uncover self again, but sun is going down, so we leave it be. Cat 2 is still in litter box, curled up in a tight little mewing ball.
[harrowing hotel incidents ommitted, including the misfortune of arriving in Cody, Wyoming during a firefighter’s and police conference – on September 11, 2002. Hotels that will take pets are few and far between in any case, there are now no hotel rooms of any kind within 100 miles back toward MN, it’s 9:00 at night, and to the west (our direction of travel) is a good 8 hours of travel, much of it through Yellowstone park on roads that are scenic in the day, but perilous at night, until the next hotel-bearing location. Luckily we’re well-rested and energized by the mewing every fifteen seconds, which has never ceased, and is varied just enough to prevent it from ever really becoming background noise.]
Elapsed time: 3 days - Cat 2 has become one with the litterbox. Cat 1 has removed the cover in the face of gravity, knots in the plastic, nylon twine, and packing tape, and is sunning herself. We put air conditioner on full-blast to compensate.
Elapsed time: 3 days, 4 hours. Stereo cat meowing ominously becomes mono. Cat 1 is breathing rapidly, curled into a ball, and generally showing all the signs of heat exhaustion, even though the car is at roughly the temperature of a last-day Everest base camp. We stop, give offer both cats food and water (neither of them every accepted it while in the car during the entire trip). Cat 1 responds to petting, but still seems heat-addled and won’t accept any water. Not thinking straight from several days of sleep deprevation, I pour some of the water over Cat 1 to cool her by evaporation. Really ominously, she doesn’t seem to care, which is very unlike her (previous attempts at wetting this cat have resulted in limb loss on the part of the wetter). Being in the middle of nowhere (currently located near Bozeman, Montana), we recover her and continue. Cat 1 remains nearly comotose and breathing rapidly for remainder of day’s travel, but condition does not worsen.
Elapsed time: 3 days, 17 hours. Cat 1, apparently near death two hours before, is boucing off every available hotel room surface. Plaintive meowing is back in stereo.
Elapsed time: 4 days, 6 hours, approximately 1.5 hours from our destination: Cats 1 and 2 (2 still in litterbox), discover that this travelling thing isn’t so bad, and fall asleep. Meowing ceases.
Observations: Cat 1 never used the litterbox while travelling, and neither cat would ever eat or drink when offered. If I was doing it again, I would get very deep spillproof bowls and insure a small amount of water (at least) was located in the cage at all times. Cat 2 used the litterbox immediately at the beginning of each travel period, but never again. I suspect that it may have been more a marking behaviour than an actual need to void. The shower curtain was a total failure as an idea: in a repeat experience, I’d use smaller, opaque crates instead, and probably leave the litterbox out (offering it to them a couple times a day.) Generally feeding works best in the hotel in the evening, if they weren’t going to have a litterbox the next day, I’d take away the food around midnight.
Keeping the sun off, as someone else mentioned, is a necessity, even if you can keep the car cool (Cat 1 is completely black, which couldn’t have helped, either). Having reservations at motel/hotels that take cats (far more take cats than dogs, and some chains: Kelly and Ramada, in particular, tend to be more pet-friendly) is also a must if you’re travelling at popular times.
Major observation: Airlines have pet transport capability. This reduces (in our case) 4 days of emotional distress to 4 hours worth. I would NEVER travel such a long distance with the cats again (their behaviour was strange [even for cats] for weeks afterward), I’d leave them with someone who could put the on a plane after we’d travelled, or arrange for someone on the destination end to take care of them and ship them beforehand. If you’re going to do this, check with the airline; they often don’t transport pets during the summer (hot) months, and some are better than others. There is some risk to it, but again, I think the trauma to the pet is lower than long-period travel.
Oh, but in response to the OP, I would definitely take them on a 12-hour drive – no nights makes it a lot easier.
Before we left on our first trip, we tried a harness and getting our cat used to the carrier. Neither of those things happened. He yowled over a period of days whenever we tried the harness or the carrier. Sometime during the trip he finally got used to the carrier but never liked the harness. So, don’t necessarily expect them to like it.
NEVER open the car door unless they are both contained.
If they are nervous, they will probably poop in the car and you will be driving with your head out the window. Bring stuff to clean up diareha. we were pulling a U-Haul and had to pull over on the highway soft shoulder while my son dug through the stuff in back to find something to clean up the mess on the front floor mat.
Every time I moved with my cat he would disappear for three days at our destination and just when I had decided he was dead he would show up. So, keep them confined even in the new house until they are used to it, and don’t open a door without knowing where they are.
Make sure they both have chips implanted just in case they do get lost. My cat was in the car sleeping when my son and I got out; a truck went by and he jumped out the window from fright. He had his harness on so we got him because it got caught.
Florida is very hot and humid and the cats will have to adjust just like you will. And August is at the height of summer. Keep the AC on in the car. I never knew cats panted like dogs until we were driving though New Orleans and my cat started panting like he was going to pass out. I didn’t have AC in the car. We had to get a motel and bring him inside and put him in front of the AC for him to recover.
The second trip JR spent most of his time on my lap, with his paws on the window, ducking down every time a car or truck went by. But, he did like to sleep, as other have said, down by my feet, so we only let him free because my son was there. with only a 12-hour drive, they should be in the carrier.
Oh, make sure you get a standard carrier, because I once tried to transport a cat on a one-day move in a cardboard box and an hour out he had made a hole in the box and was all over the car.
Being confined for 12 hours is not the end of the world and as long as they have water they will be okay. The biggest risk is that they will try to get out of the car and out of anyplace you put them that they are not familiar with, including the new house. Cats will run from things they are not familiar with, so just remember that and be very vigilant. Have a nice trip and enjoy Florida.
We moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to York, Pennsylvania years ago (over 1,200 miles) with two kids (one flew up, the other two rode with me) and two cats and everything we owned in a Penske truck, towing my Toyota. During the drive (three days), we kept the cats loose in the car with lots of water, food and the kitty litter box on the floor of the backseat. Two windows were cracked to allow for air circulation, and we put towells up on the other windows to cut down on the sun, and checked them every time we made a stop (which with two kids and a huge truck sucking down gas, was fairly frequent). At night, the cats came into the hotel room with us (unknown to the hotel). Both did very well, without any problems.
When we moved to Virginia from Indiana, we put the two cats in a LARGE dog crate with a small litterbox, and covered it with a blanket to prevent overload. One cat is a chickensh*t, and cowered all the way, and the other one was unfazed. The unfazed one contented herself by 1) laying on top of the coward, and 2) sticking a paw through the wires of the crate and clawing the dog’s ass.
We had the third cat put to sleep before we left because it was terminally ill.
I’ve heard second hand stories of people moving with stoned cats, and it was a real ordeal. I would not recommend it unless you have one that is really weird.