ARE YOU PLANNING TO MOVE WITH PETS?

Are you planning to move with pets? Will you move across town or perhaps across the country? Will you drive with the pets or will you choose to fly? I asked friends online to tell their stories about moving with their pets, with the goal of giving novice pet guardians some suggestions on how to accomplish a safe and happy move, both for the humans and for the pets.

Here are two stories from friends who moved with their pets—they’ve included some good advice about making a move with pets less stressful for you and for the pets.

Kellie Sisson Snider (Pennsylvania) We moved from Dallas, Texas, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with three cats and two dogs. Two long days of driving with a night at a La Quinta in between, then a couple of nights in my apartment while we finished closing on our house.

I bought a very long crate so all three cats fit inside together. (They were buddies. We had three smaller crates, just in case, but didn’t need them.) We secured the big crate in the back of the SUV, lined it with towels, and added a small litter box. At each stop, I sprayed a hand towel with Feliway and swapped it with another towel. At longer stops, I tried to let the cats out to stretch and use the box, but they were never up for it. When we got to the motel, I sprayed the room with Feliway before bringing them inside. They all used the litter box within a few minutes of arriving in the evenings—same at the apartment and the new house.

I remember finishing up with the luggage at the motel and coming back into the room to see our most timid cat on the bed, casually licking his butt. Feliway for the win! The dogs were easy. They got walked at every stop, did some tricks and got some treats, and had water, too. One thing to point out is that while the dogs had been on car rides a lot, two of the cats had only been to the vet, and they still did great.

A couple of considerations. Check the pets’ vaccinations before leaving town and see if you need a health certificate for where you are going. Have the pets scanned for microchips. One of our cats’ chips had migrated and couldn’t be found so we had him chipped again. Make sure the pets have your name and phone number on their collars where they are easier to see. Microchips are helpful, but collar ID is the first and quickest ID that people will use immediately.

Don’t plan any special side trips where the pets can’t be with you. That may sound obvious, but it’s not always to everyone. The pets will be stressed and you need to be with them.

Photo by Glamour Shots

Jules Weber (Virginia) We just moved out of state in late August. We rented a U-Haul and we had our one vehicle. We also hired a moving company. The day the movers were at the house, we put both cats and both dogs in one of the small bedrooms with us. I stayed with the animals while my husband answered questions or checked progress. Once the movers were finished and had left (which took all day), we pottied everyone and packed up all the fuzzies in our vehicle, which is a smaller SUV that I drove, and left for our new home. We had packed the U-Haul, which my husband drove, the previous evening.

It was supposed to be a six-hour drive, but it took longer because we hit construction and traffic. I couldn’t turn the music up. I usually jam on long trips, but one cat was on the front-seat floor next to the speaker in his carrier. (The other cat was on the front seat with the seatbelt securing his carrier.) Both dogs rode in the back on a large dog bed with the back seats folded down. So it was “cozy” but not cramped. I also couldn’t sing because my one cat would start crying when he heard me. (He just wanted out of the carrier, which wasn’t going to happen for obvious safety reasons.)

All in all, everyone was an amazing little car rider.

And when we arrived, we did keep our cats in our room with the door closed for the first four to five days. (It was just too scary and overwhelming for them.) We also gave them hiding places, new toys, and treats. Anything and everything was rewarded at first. And everyone was allowed supervised sniff time. My husband even took the time to carry around both cats (one at a time) to explore the house. When they wanted to be put down, he respected that and put them down. When he could tell they were unsure and wanted to be picked up, he respected that and picked them back up. The first time he did this was constantly up down, up down, up down. But it really helped the cats gain confidence in their new house.

As far as the dogs go, one is my service dog so he couldn’t care less about a long car ride or new place. Our other dog thought he must have won the lottery with the biggest car ride of his life! Then he took a few weeks to adjust to the new place. (He’s blind.) But we brought his “lily pads” (carpet runners, for tactile awareness) and he was taught cues like: wait, step, this way, etc. We’ve now been in our new place about two months, and as far as the fuzzies are concerned, you’d think they’d lived here forever. Moving always sucks. But making sure our animals had a realistic and positive adjustment here was priority one.

I’ve moved with every single dog, cat, ferret, fish, frog, everyone. Every single time, I moved I took my animals with me. From college to now. And I never understood why rescues would ask if you have a fence or not when the average person moves every three years. Why not ask, “If you move, will you take your animal with you?” instead? I know my one cat lived through eight houses, two boyfriends, one ex-husband, and then did actually meet my current hubby. (He lived ~17 years.) Another dog lived with me through seven houses and several relationships. My point is, I never understood why people don’t move with their animals.