My Little Troopers

Many people have been asking me how our two cats handled the cross country drive and moving into a new house.  So here I will give you "Sarah's tips for traveling with kitties while keeping them calm and you sane!"

First, a little background.  Our cats are homebodies.  They are indoor cats and for the most part they only go to and from the vet which was about 5 miles from our old house.  Clover (C) usually just sits in her cage with a freaked out look on her face while Tigger (T) lets out the lowest pitch meows I have ever heard.  And its not just one cry.  Oooh no!  It's constant meowing the entire way to and from the vet.  Seriously it sounds like someone is killing him!  T acclimates to new situations and people pretty quickly but C is a little more wary.  And she makes sure to tell us she's not happy by peeing in things.  Laundry baskets, bags, and boxes (and you can imagine how many boxes we had in the house).

So you can see why we were a little nervous.

After successfully driving 2,600+ miles, staying in 4 hotel rooms, and packing and unpacking all our stuff, here are my tips if any of you readers ever have to travel or move with cats.

1.  Buy this stuff!   Before our trip, I brought both cats into the vet for a final check up and to ask for some advice on moving.  She recommended quite possibly the most amazing product for cats ever.  EVER!  There is a product called Feliway that is a  feline pheromone that cats release when they rub their faces on things.  It supposedly has a calming effect on cats.  They sell it in a spray and in a plug-in type thing and it's supposed to stop furniture scratching, peeing outside the litter box, and ease anxiety.  We were skeptical but we both where phitens so who are we to judge what works and what doesn't.  But this stuff is the real deal. It works like a charm!  We had one plugged in our old house to calm them during packing and pre-move.  We sprayed their carrier and the car with it before we put them in it.  We sprayed it in each hotel room and plugged one in before bringing the cats in.  And we plugged two of them in the new house.  I'm telling you, buy this stuff!  (order them online because they are much cheaper there than at the pet store)

2.  Make them comfortable.  My little ones are buddies.  They like to be with each other and we often find them snuggling together on the bed.  So we figured that if we had a cage large enough for both of them, it might make them more comfortable being together.  We bought a dog crate that fit on the back seat of the car.  The could snuggle together but it was also big enough that they had some space if they got sick of each other (5 days in a car will do that to even cats!).  We put their favorite toys in there, some comfy padding (one of Bryan's old t-shirts that smelled like him), and their dry food.

3.  Cover the cage.  Think about it from their perspective.  From the seat, all they can see are the trees and tractor trailers flying by and they hear the loud noises from all the cars.  Bryan had the idea to cover the cage with a blanket like you would with a bird cage so that they couldn't see what was happening outside.

Peaking out at a rest stop

4.  Prepare the hotel rooms before you bring the cats inside.  This starts by finding pet friendly hotels.  There are many of them so we never had a problem and always searched here or here when making our reservations.  At the hotel, we had our routine down to a T.  We'd go in first and get their litter box and food ready, spray the room with the Feliway, and then bring the cats in.

5.  Have patience.  The first day of our dive T meowed for about 2 hours.  It wasn't quite as bad as his vet visits, but still was enough to drive you mad.  Remembering that they are scared, unsure of what is happening to them, and not doing it on purpose helps.  So does turning up the radio!  Rest assured that they will eventually tire themselves out and fall asleep.  Each day it took him a little while to settle in but after that, he was fine.

Overall, it was a much smoother process than either of us expected.  They're still buddies, they still seem to love us, and we didn't kill either of them (or each other!).  I am happy to report that there have been zero boxes, bags, or laundry baskets peed in during the trip or since we moved in!  They truly are my little troopers and I'm so proud of them :)