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

annetheman

Skiddaw1 said:

Our boy (Ollie Boppet)

Hello there!!!

This is my boy Mbaku, named after the great warrior M'baku:

AlexMac

Whatever, they'll survive and hopefully adust well , as mine, eventually did after a move.  We moved, like you OnionGel, only a couple of miles, with three cats, so I thought, easy in the car.  No problem with timing, either, I thought, as we'd gone into a rental for a few months between sale and purchase so we had several days left on the rental and moved into the new gaff a day or two after it was vacated - so not the usual completion day scramble. 

Easy? No problem?  How wrong could I be!

The cats were already a bit prickly as we'd had to introduce the three of 'em only a few years prior; my two (a rescue mum & daughter- the latter always very nervous) to my wife's more relaxed one (inherited from her ex-hubby on divorce, so he thought he was top dog- sorry, top-cat).  They'd all previously been OK in a basket to vets, etc,  so after the removals men had cleared our  rental, I coaxed 'em back in from the garden intending to box 'em up- hoping I could do the mum & daughter together in one run, then return for the bully boy.

Some hope; the familial pair went ballistic in the by now empty house, and I only managed to coax the slightly more complaint mum into the basket for the first run.  Her daughter hightailed it out of the cat-flap.  Then, as that had taken  much longer than I'd hoped, I parked her basket on the car's front seat, and thought I'd risk saving time by taking the much more placid Tom loose on the back seat.  Big mistake.  He didn't act up, just 5h4t all over the fabric upholstery.  We never quite got rid of the smell. 

So I gave up, and came back the next day... Then the next...  In the end, the only way I captured and transported her was by leaving food indoors within sight of the cat flap, which luckily had a one-way (in, but not out) setting.

And when she eventually discovered the lovely big walled garden of our new gaff- after another few days of indoor incarceration- she went awol again- hiding in the undergrowth for 2-3 days.  Her mum eventually coaxed her back to the house, leading her a few tentative yards back across the lawn before she dasjed back to safety... a few more yards each time, before she made it in the end.

But eventually they all settled happily (ish) ever after!  As I'm sure will yours!


 

SallyDucati

I also put mine in the cattery for a few days - much less stress while packing and unpacking!  
Meet Bella (miffed tabby) and Angelo (being a typical boy and not caring where he sits)

Loving all the cat pics!  Any excuse to show mine 

youth_leader

Lovely cat pics!  Fingers crossed for everyone moving with their cats, let's hope we get through it without a scratch.

Skiddaw1

Bless their little furry heads all of them....   Look at Mbaku's expression! And Bella & Angelo are just gorgeous... Loving this thread. More cats please!

trix-a-belle

Make sure you've got options just in case, as what others have said it won't necessarily be plain sailing (fingers crossed it is for you). When I last moved my housemate had her fishtank to move (I know its not cats but still time sensitive & awkward to move), it was relatively local and what should have been a straight forward chain, I left her in the house once our van left with the intention to call her once I got the keys but by 2pm & our buyers van outside she felt she had to start packing them up. We ended up not getting the keys until 4.50 & it was right on the limit of them being in transport bags, if it had been any longer they were going to get set up at my parents house up the road and then moved again.

Skiddaw1

A rather more focused one of Ollie (taken a few weeks before we moved from the old house as it happens )

oniongirl

FreeBear said:

oniongirl said: I have a plan now. 

No. You can not have all the cats.

You sound just like my husband. Spoil sport. I always get kitten broody at this time of year.

oniongirl

annetheman said:

Skiddaw1 said:

Our boy (Ollie Boppet)

Hello there!!!

This is my boy Mbaku, named after the great warrior M'baku:

Oh my goodness, Mbaku is the spitting image of my little Charlie that we lost. I'm going to run away with him, he's adorable!

pinkteapot

Our boy was indoor for the first 8 years of his life. We tried letting him out early on but we were on a crowded estate with lots of other cats and he got into constant fights. £600 of vet bills in the first year from various fight injuries! He hates other cats and picks fights, but is really bad at it. *sigh*

He was then indoor, but following our long-distance move we let him out again as we're in a small village, and this is much more a dog county than a cat one (@Skiddaw1 knows what I mean!), so fewer opportunities for fighting. We back onto open fields though, and now get a fairly constant stream of dead shrews deposited in the house. Honestly, we assumed he couldn't hunt because he never caught anything when we were in town. He's adapted to country life a bit too well. 

Speaking of which, we did have the funniest 20 mins ever when he first caught sight of the horses in the field behind... Having grown up in town he'd never seen a horse before in his life and totally lost his s***.