Moving with cats

pipscat

juliebunny said:

Haha we actually used to butter my sisters cats paws when she moved! He just licked it off, not sure where the old wives tale came from BUT he always came home. I haven't done it with mine but I have my own enclosed back garden, she only had communal areas. I'm moving house soon, and the only part of the day I'm worried about is the cats. Last time I moved my girlie went behind the washing machine and the new owner had to help me get her out.....I'm wiser now, they will be well out of the way before the moving van turns up! Most likely I'll just basket them up and keep in one locked room. One of mine gets unsettled when I do anything different in the house, so even packing is likely to upset her )-:

Hope the move goes ok - we put ours into a cattery for the actual move as I was worried about them getting stressed during all the commotion. I do always have catnip toys to hand to help relax them and we've used a plug in diffuser before the move and in the new house to help. 

SensibleSarah

I've never used a cattery when moving. I just emptied a room in the house I'm leaving, put the cats and their stuff in there - big sign on the door telling the movers not to open it. Then transported the cats to the new house and set them up in their own room there until the movers are all done at that end too. A slightly stressful few hours for the cats, but not nearly as stressful as a cattery visit would have been and they were always surrounded by familiar things so always decompressed pretty quickly in the new place. If your cat wouldn't be phased by a cattery then that's probably the right option though - it's one less stress for you on the day of the move!

The butter on the paws thing is a bit of an old wives tale, but there is some common sense to it too. A cat that sits outside their new home licking their paws for a while before exploring has time to get used to scents/noises etc before they leave the immediate area, making it easier for them to find it again. 

pipscat

Thanks again for everyone's replies. They have had a few days spending short periods of time in the garden and always seemed happy to come back in. I let my boy out early this morning and he's yet to return i'm hoping he's just asleep somewhere and too comfy to come home. He's know to stay out for hours, even days but hoping he comes back for his tea later!

Brie

Hope the boy comes home for his tea.  Possibly he's found a nice friend nearby and so has been delayed due to scritches and dreamies.  Please do let us know.

We had our Ariadne in a cattery for a week when we moved - that was in part to us selling 2 places on different days and moving into the new place on the second sell date.  Didn't want to try to take the old kitten to a hotel with us for the inbetween times!!  She loved the cattery.

We then kept her confined to one room for a week, then confined to the house for another.  We then had her supervised in the garden - very tall fences and at 15 she didn't really care for leaping so was happy to prowl the garden and inspect the underside of the shed.  Some neighbour cats came to call and she howled the song of her people with them before outstaring them.  All relatively friendly. 

As I recall the cat flap was installed in week 3 or 4 and once she knew where that was she was allowed to come and go.  Of course though it was much preferable to sit outside the lounge door and do the silent meeps at us so we'd open the door to let her in.  

pipscat

Brie said:

Hope the boy comes home for his tea.  Possibly he's found a nice friend nearby and so has been delayed due to scritches and dreamies.  Please do let us know.

We had our Ariadne in a cattery for a week when we moved - that was in part to us selling 2 places on different days and moving into the new place on the second sell date.  Didn't want to try to take the old kitten to a hotel with us for the inbetween times!!  She loved the cattery.

We then kept her confined to one room for a week, then confined to the house for another.  We then had her supervised in the garden - very tall fences and at 15 she didn't really care for leaping so was happy to prowl the garden and inspect the underside of the shed.  Some neighbour cats came to call and she howled the song of her people with them before outstaring them.  All relatively friendly. 

As I recall the cat flap was installed in week 3 or 4 and once she knew where that was she was allowed to come and go.  Of course though it was much preferable to sit outside the lounge door and do the silent meeps at us so we'd open the door to let her in.  

Thank you - he is a wanderer but he didn't come back for his breakfast - he's always been an out all night cat, asleep inside during the day. I've never even seen him use a litter tray in the previous house because he just always went out. 

pipscat

Just an update - he did come back eventually at around 9pm - I think he'd been exploring his new surroundings. He's since pretty much spent most of his time outside all day and just coming back for a bit of food. Think the warm weather is making him prefer to find a comfy sleeping spot outside But it's reassuring to know he can find his way back and my lovely new neighbours all keep an eye out for him x

Lavendyr

Glad your boy is settling.I have moved twice with my two cats - once in 2020, then in 2021 almost exactly a year later. Both times I kept them in for 3-4 weeks before letting them out. In the first place we didn't initially have permission for a catflap but we eventually gained permission and installed a smart catflap which we have brought to our new home. It tells us when the cats exit and enter (and we can update it for when they pop in and out while we have the doors open). Happy to chat more aboue the catflap