Moving with 2 cats

July 23, 2016 5:49 PM

Moving from Ohio to Florida with my 2 cats So many options : we decided to drive them than fly them... The vet said less stressful Now shoukd we do hard top cat carrier vs soft top? Any advice? Should we separate them?

See above

posted by barexamfreak to Pets & Animals (18 answers total)

When I flew my two cats from Wellington to Auckland (NZ, 1 hour flight), I got a large hard case and put them in together (they generally get on well together otherwise). They were fine if a little anxious when they came out. Talk to your vet about Feliway, which can help to reduce anxiety in cats, especially if you have a special dork like one of mine that's afraid of his own shadow.
posted by New England Cultist at 5:59 PM on July 23, 2016

Yes separate them. I would use a hard shell carrier for each. Don't try to feed them while they're in the carriers, they'll probably be too stressed to eat. Definitely never open the carriers in the car unless you are parked and have all the windows and doors closed. Cats are generally ok for 8-10 hours at a stretch, especially when they're stressed. Just make sure to stay in pet friendly hotels and let them roam in the room at night. We had good luck staying at La Quinta when we moved from OR to MI with one cat.
posted by zrail at 6:01 PM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]

Separate them, definitely. If the cats panic or get sick you don't want to clean vomit off two cats, or have to separate two panicking cats with your own, easily bloodied hands. I've never used a soft-sided carrier for cats; you would lose crash protection with a soft crate but I doubt you're planning to get into one of those. I usually buy a crate pad or soft blanket to pad the bottom of the crates. Buy them a week or two beforehand and leave them sitting around with treats and toys so the cats can get used to them on their own time.

Be prepared for howling even if they are used to the crates. Vets used to prescribe sedatives for long trips; you may still need this. Schedule stops in your road trip to let them out to use the litterbox (I use disposable litterboxes when travelling), and make sure they're secure stops. I would probably keep a harness on my cats if I were travelling so far, just because I'm super paranoid about them getting away, and a harness and leash offers extra control. If you have to stop at a hotel, make sure ahead of time it's pet friendly. Bring familiar food and make sure they stay hydrated.

Good luck. I spent weeks driving back and forth from hotels with three cats and, uh, the chorus of feline unhappiness is still legendary. They didn't stop.
posted by Nyx at 6:02 PM on July 23, 2016

We moved from New York to Wisconsin last year with our cat in the car. Our vet didn't recommend sedatives for traveling cats unless they've had them before. She said that sometimes it will make them even more anxious. She recommended Feliway pheromone spray instead, and it seemed to make a big difference in his stress levels. I'd recommend hard-sided carriers - better ventilation to prevent overheating, and easier to clean mid-trip if you need to. We put his favorite blankets in it for reassuring smells, with an absorbent puppy pad underneath just in case. (He didn't end up peeing/pooping in there, though.)

We did two days of driving. The first day, we let him out of his crate inside of the closed-up car (with us in there, too) to use the litterbox. He did not use his box, but he did crawl under the driver's seat and we had a hell of a time getting him out. The second day, we didn't let him out at all in the car. We stayed in a cat-friendly hotel (just some national chain - Google around) and he used his litter box in the bathroom when we got there (after about 12 hours). We took his full-size litterbox with us, but he may have been fine with a smaller portable one.

Microchip your cats if they aren't already and make sure the contact information on file is up-to-date if they are chipped. That and a collar tag will increase your odds of getting them back if they slip out.
posted by fussbudget at 6:32 PM on July 23, 2016

When I moved from Minnesota to Maryland a couple years ago, I set my two cats up in a tent that fit nicely in the back seat of my car. They had blankets, which I spritzed with Feliway spray, and a small litterbox. After a couple hours of yowling, they settled in and did really well. They're bonded best friends (obligatory glamour shot) and I thought they'd be less stressed out together, and I was so proud of the way they handled our adventure! They had a water bowl, and I fed them wet food during our occasional stops. I sat in the back seat with the car doors closed whenever I had to open the tent because I was very paranoid about them escaping.

We did it over three days, and stayed at a cat-friendly hotel (surprisingly hard to find - we had luck with LaQuinta) and with cat-friendly friends along the way. I had a large hard-sided carrier for transporting them to and from our evening accommodations, and another larger tent for keeping them somewhat contained in those environments, but my boy-cat figured out how to undo the zippered door on that one, which led to madcap adventures like him scaling the decorative-grass wall in my friend's yoga studio. It really wasn't nearly as terrible as I expected it to be! I ended up with a whole new level of respect for their adaptability.
posted by kittyb at 6:54 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Be very careful driving. See my posting history.
posted by k8t at 7:36 PM on July 23, 2016 [9 favorites]

We moved across country twice with two cats, driving once and flying the other. When we drove, we started out with the cats in separate hard top carriers with some of my husband's old shirts (they love him to death) sprayed with Feliway as bedding. From Michigan to Chicago one cat cried almost non-stop. We gave up and moved them to the same carrier (locked doors and windows closed!) And the rest of the three day drive went smoothly. We thought this might happen: when they were fixed, the vets told us whiner was distraught until put in the same cage as chill cat. I'd still start with two separate carriers, but get one large enough for two if you think your cats might be better off together. We had good luck with holiday inns. They used the small litter box with no problems

On the off chance you reconsider, flying wasn't too bad either. We kept them separated, I don't think the airline would have let them be in the same carrier even if the carry-on sized ones could have fit them both. Whiner cried for the first bit, but eventually settled. The only real problem was the seats: we spent hours on the phone with the airline making sure we could bring the cats, keep them with us, and get the right sized carriers. We get on the plane, and find out that some seats couldn't accommodate anything larger than a purse. They weren't helpful in fixing the problem, but a sweet woman traded seats so it worked out after all.

For the cats, they were fine after both journeys. Flying was probably less comfortable for them, but only lasted a day. Driving worked very well for our cats, but I can imagine that some other pets might be better getting it all over with faster.
posted by ghost phoneme at 8:49 PM on July 23, 2016

I drove from Wyoming to Milwaukee over few days with my two cats. I had to keep them together because of a lack of space. They yowled the whole trip. They would stop for like a minute and then one of them would bring the yowling back to a fever pitch. Good times.
posted by Fister Roboto at 9:05 PM on July 23, 2016

I drove my cats when I moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles and when I moved back to Los Angeles from SF a few months later. On the way up, I kept them in separate, standard carriers. They cried the whole way. 6 hours straight! When I moved back, I got a big soft-sided dog kennel and had them share it with a blanket over the top. Barely a peep and no accidents for *9* hours (the road was closed due to weather at a point and we got diverted an extra 3 hours).
posted by amycup at 10:18 PM on July 23, 2016

It really depends on the cats. If they get along well, being in one large crate can be comforting, but if they have any tendency at all to get snippy with each other, separate them, and possibly medicate.

Anecdata: I drove from Denver to San Francisco with my partner and two cats, and one of them HATED being in cars, so he got put in a roomy crate between the front seats (it was a big Uhaul) and the other had a soft carrier on top that she barely used, preferring to nap on the dashboard or in our laps. The non-driver made sure she didn't creep under the pedals (easy, as she mostly liked to look out the windows). I think she was disappointed three days later when we arrived at our new apartment in California.

We stayed at pet-friendly hotels along the way, and didn't medicate them or anything. We had some tranquilizers from the vet if they got super stressed, but the crated cat sang us a mournful song until we got on the highway and then promptly fell asleep every day, the free range kitty enjoyed captive petting-slaves and shorter vehicles to feel superior to.
posted by ananci at 7:03 AM on July 24, 2016

A popular cat-related YouTube channel that follows the lives of Cole and Marmalade and their servant, Chris, covers moving with cats rather well: https://coleandmarmalade.com/2016/05/14/moving-with-cats/

Good luck with the move.
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 7:14 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

We moved cross-country with three cats in tow. They were a bonded family and very chill with each other, so we put them in a single large crate in the back seat. Covering the crate with a blanket seemed to help calm them down a bit.

We used Best Westerns along the way, which was good for two reasons: pet-friendly policies, and the rooms invariably had platform beds, which made cat retrieval easier in the morning.
posted by metaquarry at 8:02 AM on July 24, 2016

I often drive 9ish hours with my two cats.

My cats don't really fight, so I bought a large, soft-top carrier for them both. I put a small litter pan and a bowl of water in it, but they generally knock the water over. They've used the litter pan maybe twice--they usually ignore it.

Sometimes they get hissy at each other but they generally settle down. They meow for a while, then get quiet until they sense we're stopping. (They're so hopeful! It's so sad!)

So, like--it can really be pretty painless. But cats are cats. They could decide that they suddenly hate each other, or one could barf everywhere. It's probably safer to have separate carriers, but being in a SMALL carrier for that long seems pretty miserable...

I wouldn't sedate them the first trip. There are risks, and it's pointless if they handle it okay without the drugs.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:28 AM on July 24, 2016

Having flown once, for around 6 hours with a cat, and driven once, for 5 days with a different cat, I definitely would choose to drive next time. The trauma of carrying a frightened cat through airport security and the constant screams throughout the flight - despite using a sedative (that we'd tested previously at home with a vet nearby) - made the five hour trip feel much longer. While driving, we set up a significantly over-sized borrowed crate, securely bungee-corded it in place where it offered a view of the humans, and our cat was amazingly content.

The one mistake we made was trying to give her a chance to use a litter box in the car on the first day. She took no notice of the pan, and instead dove for cover under the seats. The extraction procedure was pretty annoying.

Also, note that in the US, Motel 6 has universal and very liberal pet policies. (And even if you cat decides to use bodily fluids for revenge, it usually won't make much of a difference to the overall state of the carpets.)
posted by eotvos at 10:22 AM on July 24, 2016

Aww, I thought of that Cole and Marmalade video, too, LOLAttorney! It's very sweet!
posted by feste at 11:24 AM on July 24, 2016

Just moved from IL to FL with my 5 cats, by myself. Turned out to not be as bad as I'd expected. I had 3 in one carrier and 2 in another - from my past experiences, I already knew that they travel better together, and knew how to group them based on their relationships. I used oversized dog carriers, but I don't think it mattered, as they pretty much huddled together in the corner anyway. Maybe give it a trial run on a very short trip, once with the cats separated and once with them together? A long trip might be very different, but at least it's a place to start. With all of mine, whoever goes in the carrier first will howl constantly until another cat gets added, then not another peep out of them, so the choice was obvious. I stopped overnight but other than that didn't let them out of the carriers during the trip, and they were all fine, including my two old guys. My one piece of advice is to make sure the motel you plan to stay at knows that you're bringing pets. Even if they advertise as being pet-friendly, you might show up at midnight and be told that, in spite of your reservation, they "don't have any pet rooms left," and have to desperately search for another place while already exhausted from a day on the road. Ask me how I know.
posted by storminator7 at 6:45 PM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've done two moves (one 2.5 days from Minnesota to Maine, one from Maine to Massachusetts, about 4 hours driving time) with a cat in the car.

Before the first move, friends gave me the advice to put a harness on the cat, attach the leash securely, and let her have some space to move around. I put down stuff to protect the car in case of accidents, and it took a little adjustment to find a length and attachment point that allowed her to move but not, you know, cling in desperation to the back of the driver's seat and possibly my head, but once we did that, she was great.

(She spent about 95% of the trip on her back looking out the side window looking very silly, but being quiet and fairly content. She only got cranky when we did the scenic route through Vermont, and the hairpin turns got to her.)

We used a soft sided crate to move her in and out of the hotel rooms, but the harness and leash meant we could let her loose in the car and not worry so much about her getting under the seat, and gave us an extra bit of security. (This was a cat who had escaped at various points from three different kinds of carriers I'd had her in, and I was sure if we put her in one she couldn't get out of for very long, it would be 2.5 days of constant yowling, based on previous drives to the vet.)

The second move, with a different cat, she really wanted to be high enough to see out the windows, but once I set that up, she very contentedly curled up on the box and blankets I'd set up, and let me drive. (She actually doesn't make much noise, but she is very good at silent disruption of concentration.)

The most complicated part for the longer move was that you can't stop for any length of time with the car AC turned off if you're moving in summer (I was moving right around this time of year) so I was very glad a friend offered to drive with me, and we quickly worked out how to handle gas and food stops.
posted by modernhypatia at 6:05 AM on July 25, 2016

I've driven from Florida to Minnesota with two cats and from Ohio to Florida with two different cats. Both trips were fine, but the yowling was definitely worse on the FL to MN trip. Maybe it was just cat personalities, or maybe it was Feliway or better climate control or the extra room and greater comfiness from the larger soft-sided carriers or a combination of factors, but the Ohio trip was a breeze. They yowled for a few minutes every time there was a phase change from stopped to moving and vice versa but otherwise seemed pretty okay with it all.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:16 AM on July 25, 2016