Dopers with cats (I know there are a lot of you out there), tell me your experiences of house moving with a cat.
We adopted Mizty about a year ago and she’s lived with us in our charming, but small, terrace cottage since. Next month we’ll be moving to a much bigger detached house and I want to make the process as stress-free for her as possible.
I’d love to hear what you did with your cat on moving day and what you did in the following weeks to help your cat feel ‘at home’.
I’m not sure whether it would be nicer to put her in a cattery for the day whilst the move actually happens? My other thought would be to take her over to the new house early and put her in the bathroom along with food, kitty tray, and her favourite blankets and toys, and just leave that room shut until everything has been moved in. I’m thinking they’d both be equally stressful, so from a logistics point of view, the bathroom would be an easier solution for me.
Then in terms of getting her used to the house, should we try and keep her confined to a few rooms until she is used to those?
When we moved from student housing in Knoxville, TN (UT) to Ft. Sill, OK, we carefully kept the cat in the bathroom until we were ready to leave. When we opened the bathroom door after moving everything out of the apt. she was gone. Apparently one of our friends that was helping us had let her out, the door was open and she left. We delayed our trip for hours while looking everywhere for her. Our friends promised to find her and keep her until we could get back and get her.
3 days later while unpacking the trailer, she calmly walked out of the trailer, peed, and walked into the new house. We kept her for 16 years after that and every move was easy for her. Apparently moving homes had no negative effect on her and she settled in to each house quite well. She would go outdoors whenever she wanted and never got lost in new neighborhoods.
I generally move the cat last, after putting a sign on the bathroom door warning my helpers not to open it. The cat moves with me in my car, not the moving truck. Then she goes into the bathroom at the new place while everything is settled there.
Once all the doors are safely closed and the moving help gone, I go say hello, then take the kitty to her permanent litter box spot and show it to her. I save a bit of feces to put in the new box/spot so she’s gets the idea, but I’m not entirely sure that’s needed. Cats are pretty smart about litter boxes.
Some cats will spend the next few days in hiding, others want to explore their new digs. Generally, I’ve not found that cats are very traumatized by moving, once they get their bearings.
A lot will depend on the cat’s age and temperament. I’ve moved a very grumpy cat before and the solution with her was to put her in a cattery for a couple of days until everything was moved into the new house and all the boxes had been unpacked etc.
When I collected her from the cattery, we went to the new house and she found her food bowls, toys, scratching posts etc all set up and ready for her. It was a very easy transition and she got used to the new place very quickly.
With my last cat, I shut her in a room all day with food, litter and toys. Nobody but me was allowed into that room, and when everything else was moved out, I took her in the car with me to the new house. She complained bitterly all the way but by the time we got there she was settled and calm. Again, she came in to find all her things in the house and food in her bowl.
One thing I did do was to keep the cats in the house for a couple of days to get used to their new home before I let them go outside to explore.
Our cat has moved with us a lot (counting up, I think it’s 7 times by now - she’s 15 years old) and I’ve done a number of moves with former felines too. I think the plan of keeping her in an enclosed space in your new house till the big stuff is moved in is the best one. None of our cats ever complained about being locked up for the day. It’s the big scary new open spaces that freak them out.
Speaking of freaking out, our cat always gets rather nervous as we’re in the process of packing up. Could be that she knows what happens next ;). Or maybe just - new! different! not in routine! aaargh!
Our most recent move, we ended up for the first time in a suburban weatherboard with an accessible “under the house” area. I say accessible - that really means “accessible if and only if you’re a cat”. As soon as we let her out of the house (a few days after moving in) she went under there and promptly got stuck. We could see which way she must have gone in, but she just didn’t seem to believe she could get out the same way. The space between ground and boards was only big enough to get your arms in just above the wrists, and it was a concrete driveway - no way to just dig her a bigger hole. She ended up there for three (cold, winter!) nights - we were slipping plates of food and water through the gap, and I think she was curling up next to the heating ducts when they were on. Then my husband finally managed to hook her, and drag her hissing and spitting through the gap - at least, until she was about half-way out, at which point she seemed to realise - hey! out of that hole! that’s where I WANT to be!
Ours is a rescue cat, so strictly indoors. She’s gotton out once and it overwhelmed her so right before the movers arrived and many doors were left open we took her to the Vet/Resort or, as you eloquently put it, “cattery.”
Once they’d finished unloading at the new home and furniture was situated, we brought her “home” again. She transitioned really nicely, what with having familiar furniture about. No messes, no angst, hid for maybe an hour and that was it.
The trick is to pick One bathroom that no one is to use the night before the move.
Have someone shake the treat bag in one of your bedrooms. While that person is treating the cat, you move the cat-carrier into the bathroom & shut that door.
You see, cats Hate the cat carrier. It Always means The Vet to them. And The Vet means they either get shots or they lose kitty parts. And they Like their kitty parts.
Put on the heaviest long-sleeve sweatshirt you own and then grab the thickest towel you own, put it over your arms, and call your cat to you.
Calmly pick up cat.
Open Bathroom door and step inside with cat. Remember to close the door qickly behind you.
Put the cat into the carrier & click the carrier-door shut behind it. Granted this isn’t’ as easy as it seems. You might want to listen to some classical music while this is happening.
I’ve found that this piece complements this activity nicely. (Warning, music link, lower your speakers before clicking) music to cage cats by
Move carrier to new houses bathroom & shut the door.
Move your stuff.
Once you are 100% moved in (and the doors and windows are shut & locked) put out a litter box, put out a bowl of food, a fresh bowl of water (cold, no ice), and let your cat out of the bathroom.
Heheh I had no idea cattery wasn’t a universal term!
Sounds like I’m on the right track with my plan to put her in the bathroom. I was thinking of moving her over before the movers even arrive at our old place - as some of you have noted, I’d be worried about someone inadvertantly letting her out and I know she’d get freaked out with all the movers in the house.
She’s a mature cat, 10 years old, and as we’re headed into autumn/winter, she isn’t spending that much time outside anyway, so I don’t think we’ll have any troubles keeping her indoors in our new house to start wtih. Also, there are a lot of doors in the house so it will be easy enough to operate a double-door system to ensure she doesn’t sneak away.
It sounds like once the movers have left, we’ll be able to just let her have the run of the house rather than needing to confine her to a room. I guess all our stuff will look and smell familiar so that will help her settle!
A lot depends on your cat. Some cats freak out at any sort of change, and others are all “Ho-hum, aliens have invaded and they’re threatening to blow me up, I think I’ll lick my ass.” For either type, I don’t know that there’s really much difference between shutting her in a single room while people bosh about outside or taking them to a boarding facility. The former type is going to freak out somewhat either way, and the latter isn’t going to care either way, so you might as well do what’s easiest for you.
One thing to consider, though, is that you don’t want to put her in the bathroom if it’s the only one you have. Someone will need to go at some point during the loading out process, usually more than one, and every time that door opens is either more stress or another opportunity for her to do a runner, depending on her personality. I would lean more toward a lighted closet or other small room you can completely clear out so nobody will need to open that door at all till you’re ready to move her. We didn’t really have a good closet or room to keep the cat corralled last move, so I put set up the dog crate in the spare bedroom and put her and her stuff in there.
Good point! Luckily there are two other toilets available for people to use during the day.
That probably makes our new house sound a lot more impressive than it is - one toilet is in the master bedroom ensuite and the other is a downstairs loo just off the kitchen.
No kidding. We moved many times with cats when I was younger, and standard operating procedure was to butter the cat’s paws before releasing him or her into the new place. The rationale is that the butter holds the cat’s scent very well, the cat tracks that scent everywhere, and soon discovers the new place smells just like home.
I don’t know if it actually works, but we always did it and generally the cats adapted quickly to their new digs.
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When we moved in February, I discovered much to my dismay about half an hour befoer the movers were suppsoed to arrive that I had lent the cat carrier to my sister and never gotten it back. It was 7:30 am on a Saturday, so nothing was open yet.
Not knowing what else to do, I shut the cat in the (one) bathroom and dashed off to Petsmart as soon as they opened at 9:00 am, while the movers were already loading the truck. (Luckily it was only about 10 minutes away.)
They had a new and quite handy type of carrier: it opens from the top rather than just from the front. I folded up a nice clean towel and put it in the bottom of the carrier, and then calmly picked up the cat and stuffed him in the top. It was MUCH easier than trying to stuff him in the front door!
Then I put the carrier in the room that had been emptied already. We took him to the new place in the car, of course, and stashed the carrier in a quiet corner of the (much larger) master bath of the new place until the movers had left.
He sniffed around and was kind of nervous for a couple of hours, but was much happer at the new place - it’s more than twice as big, so lots of new places to hide and perch!
I used to move at least twice a year so my cats (I had two at the time) would start getting excited when they saw me get the boxes out. They would be moved as soon as I’d be sleeping in the new place. They were eventually jaded with moving.
They’ve passed on so when I recently purchased a house and moved, I waited until the day we’d sleep in the new place.
I was moving six cats with two carriers. One is an old feral cat that gets picked on by a couple of the others so I moved her first. Then took a couple of the cats that I think would adjust fine, then cats that I think would be harder to adapt and would be relaxed by the presence of the others etc.
So it was many trips but worth it & they adjusted quickly enough. I had hoped that with the move the old cat wouldn’t get picked on as much but I was wrong so she now lives separate in our bedroom which is huge compared to our old bedroom. I call it the “Kitty Hilton”.
We talked about moving to Alaska and the thought of transporting all six cats PLUS a Doberman in my car sounds like a nightmare. Thank goodness this move was only to the next town.
I’m going to move in a few weeks, and this is what I plan to do.
It’s even better to use a dirty, sweaty towel or T shirt, as it has the scent of the cat’s human on it. Most cats DO like to sleep on nice clean folded up towels, though.
When we moved from California to Pittsburgh, we kept the Neville kitties in the bathroom while the movers were there. We had another bathroom, so this wasn’t a problem. Just be sure to get all the stuff you’re taking with you out of the cat bathroom before you close the cats into it, so no one has to go in there while the movers are around.
We flew with the cats. Luna is a Siamese mix and yowls in my car, since she associates it with the vet. Siamese mixes can yowl very loud. Nobody wants five days worth of that.
When we got to the new house, we introduced them to it the way you’re supposed to introduce a new cat to a household, basically one room at a time. They can get a little freaked out if there’s too many new rooms to take in at once.
We actually have one person hold the cats (two, one on each side) in their arms while in the bathroom with the door close while the other gets the cat crate. If anyone even touches the carrier, the cats both freak out and take off. Between the holding them and the closed door, we have a chance of having no escapees.
