How did you handle moving with your cat(s)?

oniongirl

Can anyone share a timeline/plan for how to move with cats? We will hopefully be moving next Friday, if we ever exchange. We have two indoor cats, and this is our first time moving with them, and our first time being in the middle of a chain. We only have one car to complicate matters.

Our current plan is for one of us to sit in an empty room with them with food, water, litter etc whilst removals are loading up the lorry.

Then what? What's the process for handing over keys to our current home and picking up the new ones? 

I need to stay in the house with the cats until we have the keys to the new house (I presume? I can't imagine sitting in the car for however many hours it takes for completion), but presumably I also need to give the estate agents the keys for our property so they're ready for our buyers. When do we give our keys to the agents? At the time of completion, or before? I presume I'll need to do a round trip to our agents to drop off our keys, then to our vendors agents to pick up new keys, then to the new house to let removals in? What if our vendors haven't dropped their keys off yet? I'm then sat in the town centre in my car with two cats yelling at me.

Advice welcome, even if it's condescending because I haven't figured out the obvious!

caprikid1

You don't have to give over your set of keys straight away, the estate agent can have the set of keys. Nothing to stop you posting them through the letter box and the buyer collecting the Estate Agents set. IE when ready to leave put cats in cat box post keys through door and leave, go past new agent collect keys.
How far are you moving ? Cats can be in a cat box for some time.

steampowered

My cat yells at me all the time anyway, and that's just for dinner !

oniongirl

caprikid1 said:

You don't have to give over your set of keys straight away, the estate agent can have the set of keys. Nothing to stop you posting them through the letter box and the buyer collecting the Estate Agents set. IE when ready to leave put cats in cat box post keys through door and leave, go past new agent collect keys.
How far are you moving ? Cats can be in a cat box for some time.

Aha - that makes sense. 

Only moving 2 miles down the road, but you haven't met our cats. They are very highly strung and one of them gets all fighty and tries to gnaw his way out (he actually broke 2 teeth last time he was in the carrier), and the other gets so stressed she tries to force her way out with her face. It's very distressing and probably our fault for having indoor cats that aren't very well rounded or used to change and noises.

Robin9

We put ours into a cattery for a few days before and a few days after.   Cats soon settle down as they have all you usual smells around  them.   One of ours was determined to go out on night 1 - we left the door open and he came back a few hours later.

Chandler85

My cats were evicted to my parents for the day, in a room there.  It is by far the easiest way if it is an option, move cats to somewhere else morning of the move, let them roam in the one room in the house with food litter etc and then collect them later that day.

Mine stayed overnight on the first night to allow wardrobes to be rebuilt etc.  But it was all local moves so was relatively easy.

oniongirl

steampowered said:

My cat yells at me all the time anyway, and that's just for dinner !

There's a massive difference between whining for dinner (at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm...) and the howls they make in the boxes. They do recover quickly afterwards though. Perhaps it's all a ploy for treats when they're out.

tacpot12

You might talk to your vets about some sedation for the cats. If they are lightly drugged, they should settle in the cat carrier while you move. I wouldn't drug them until the estate agent confirms that they have the keys for your new house. You might have to wait half an hour for the drugs to start to kick in, but you can then be sure that the cats will be calm for a couple of hours.  

oniongirl

Robin9 said:

We put ours into a cattery for a few days before and a few days after.   Cats soon settle down as they have all you usual smells around  them.   One of ours was determined to go out on night 1 - we left the door open and he came back a few hours later.

I can't imagine ours coping with the upheaval of two moves in a short time frame. Like I said, they're indoor. Our house is their world.

oniongirl

Chandler85 said:

My cats were evicted to my parents for the day, in a room there.  It is by far the easiest way if it is an option, move cats to somewhere else morning of the move, let them roam in the one room in the house with food litter etc and then collect them later that day.

Mine stayed overnight on the first night to allow wardrobes to be rebuilt etc.  But it was all local moves so was relatively easy.

My mum is a 30 minute drive away, and the sort of person that has a "best" living room for guests. Think Hyacinth Bucket. But worse. I think I'd find it more stressful keeping the cats there and not knowing what they were going to wreck in her museum of a house.

tacpot12 said:

You might talk to your vets about some sedation for the cats. If they are lightly drugged, they should settle in the cat carrier while you move. I wouldn't drug them until the estate agent confirms that they have the keys for your new house. You might have to wait half an hour for the drugs to start to kick in, but you can then be sure that the cats will be calm for a couple of hours.  

Ah, I will consider that, thanks. I'd never thought about that.

jon81uk

We moved from a rented flat to a new build so collected keys on Friday and returned old ones Monday so had a few days to sort things.
The removal men came on Saturday and we had moved everything out the bedroom that we wanted them to move, so in the bedroom was things we wanted to take ourselves in the car plus the cats and their litter tray and food.
That evening after we have unloaded and set up a new litter tray we transported the cats over.
They don't like the car, but trying to give them a view out the front window through the carriers helped.
We shut them in the kitchen for the first night (in case they pooped/sick on the carpet as kitchen is hard floor), but once let out they ran and hid under the bed. It took a month for them to feel settled in I think and we still shut them in the kitchen at night for a while.
We also used a Feliway diffuser as it does seem to make them a bit happier.

If they really don't like cat boxes, are you willing to have them loose in the car?