I recently moved from the Chicago area to the Phoenix area. My fiancé and our two cats are still in Illinois, and will be moving out here sometime in the next two months. She’s most likely going to drive here (with her mom, so she doesn’t have to do it alone). When we moved me last month, it took three full days to get here. Which was rough, though not as bad as we expected.
We’re trying to figure out the best way to get our cats here. One option is for my fiancé to bring them in the car with her. Neither of us are too excited about the cats having to stay locked up in their travel cages in the back of the car for three days. We’ve been told that a vet can give them a tranquilizer to knock them out for 8 hours at a time, but that would require finding a vet in the two cities they’re staying in on the way and getting the cats knocked out three mornings in a row (which isn’t out of the question).
So we started thinking about flying them. She’s actually flying here in a few weeks for a job interview, and we’re thinking about having her bring the cats then so she doesn’t have to worry about them when she drives. We’ve also thought about sending them here on a plane without either of us on the plane, but don’t know anything about that option (other than a family friend says he did it once).
Has anyone ever moved cats across country? How’d you do it? Any tips, advice, help? Can you get some kind of screen to put between the backseat and front seat, so the cats can roam around but not bother the driver? How hard is it to get a flight that allows pets?