Moving home, help make it less stressful for the cat.

[Blibbleflibble]

Hi,

Basically we may be moving house (assuming the chain doesn't fall apart again, third time lucky) in a couple of months.

How do I make the transition good for my cat? We've had her since she was about 5 months old and she's lived with us in the same house for 8 years. She loves going outdoors so keeping her in is going to be stressful in the first place and we're only moving half a mile away so she could possibly make her way back to the old house if she escaped (although there's a fast country road to get across if she did).

The new house also needs a bit of immediate painting and decorating doing as it's very tired (but liveable) we also have a 3 year old (turning 4 soon) DC and would like to do their bedroom asap. We can live in my Mum's little house for a couple of weeks between the move, but worry it's not secure enough to keep my cat in, mum's forgetful and my son could let her out too. Also it'll be very cramped and she won't have a lot of places she can escape from DC who constantly wants to pet her (I really worry she'll dirty protest, she went through a 6 month phase of scent marking when my DC was born)

Should I board her or will that just add to her stress? Should I keep her in the "new" house but just in a spare room with her things? (cat tree, litterbox etc) Should I bring her to my Mum's and risk her scent marking and escaping. (Mum is also only a few streets away from old house)

Anybody got any advice?

Thanks in advance xx

When we moved, for the days during packing and then immediate unpacking, we put our boy into our Cattery. The previous owners had cats so we wanted to get at much of our smell in the house first. We also didn’t want him worrying during the packing. I’m really glad we did that.
Then the day we brought him home and I think for a few days after, we kept him in one room. Poor guy, he was so stressed he sat under the dining table moulded against me for a whole day. I couldn’t move at all. We didn’t have a cat flap then and I can’t remember what we did with outside time, but I would definitely recommend Cattery for the move itself. If you could do for longer it may make everything a bit easier and less worrying for everyone?

Thanks@LostCats

She would absolutley hate a cattery as she hates other cats, we've always paid for someone to feed her at home when we've been on holiday too, but it may be the best solution. At least we can explain to my 3 year old what's happening, prepare them for it and make in an adventure, my cats going to be absolutley traumatised. She loves her home.

If you're going to be at the new house a lot doing decorating and stuff, and assuming it's not going to take weeks and weeks, the best option would be to allocate a secure room for the cat, ideally one with a good view out the window, furnish it with her favourite things and spend plenty of time in there with her. Once you've moved in you can give her the run of the house. I would keep her in at least 6 weeks as you're moving so close by.

She will be fine, plenty of cats come from rescue with all sorts of backgrounds and settle fine. No reason your much loved cat won't too, especially as she'll be surrounded by familiar people and things.

YOU would hate her in a cattery. The cat will just deal with it (and cats are not mixed together they have their own space). It may not be her favourite place but frankly would you rather the cat was in a safe secure place or going to a house she doesn't know where she may escape (and you'll constantly worry), then another new place with a lot of disruption. No. Put her in a cattery for the few weeks and once moved in to new home take her back. Mine were once in fur six weeks as my purchase fell through so I was sofa surfing fur a few weeks. They came back a little heavier but totally unphased.

Unfazed!

We've moved with cats three times now. It's been far easier than we expected.

Definitely keep them in for a fortnight, give them a dedicated sage room for a couple of days, especially whilst people are in and out, and put your dirty laundry in there with them so it still smells ok to them. I let mine into the rest of the house as soon as they start scratching at the door and wanting to explore.

Lots of treats, as much attention as they want, and they'll adjust a lot faster than you expect.

(I think the old idea of buttering their paws was to associate the new home with a treat, so maybe an equivalent?)