You sound like me -- a real planner and organizer. It does sound like you've got all your bases covered. It wouldn't make any sense to give the cats to your boyfriend's mother like your dog over Friday night, would it? That would avoid having them alone at the new place without you, which I guess could be confusing to them. But yeah, I think you've got a good plan.
Preparing for the move
I now only have a little over a month because we are moving from an apartment to our own townhouse(very very excited!). Anyways, I am starting to plan how to transition the animals before, during and after the move and wanted some input. Here's the plan:
We take posession on the Tuesday and will slowly move some boxes over the week but we arn't actually moving until the Saturday morning. We will drop off the dog at bf's mom's friday evening and pick her up after the move on sat evening or afternoon, whenever. I plan to free feed the cats the thursday and friday since two of the 3 will be a nervous wreck and most likely not eat for a few days. We only have two carriers so I plan on taking the two youngest(who are tightly bonded) sometime in the afternoon on the friday. I am going to put them in one of the spare bedrooms with a sign on the door not to open so the cats don't get out. In the evening me and bf will take more boxes and the third cat over and stick her in the room. We will leave them alone over night there.
On the saturday morning, I will go over by myself to check on and feed the cats. I have to go anyways because we are having new furnature delivered and they didn't specify a time when they would come. Meanwhile bf and friends will load up the truck and bring everything over. We will leave them in there for a few days and then carry them around on a tour of the house. They are all use to the apartment so I want them to get use to the 3 levels.
Am I missing anything? Is there any other steps/precautions I need to take? I want the transition to be as smooth as possible and less stressful for everyone.
We take posession on the Tuesday and will slowly move some boxes over the week but we arn't actually moving until the Saturday morning. We will drop off the dog at bf's mom's friday evening and pick her up after the move on sat evening or afternoon, whenever. I plan to free feed the cats the thursday and friday since two of the 3 will be a nervous wreck and most likely not eat for a few days. We only have two carriers so I plan on taking the two youngest(who are tightly bonded) sometime in the afternoon on the friday. I am going to put them in one of the spare bedrooms with a sign on the door not to open so the cats don't get out. In the evening me and bf will take more boxes and the third cat over and stick her in the room. We will leave them alone over night there.
On the saturday morning, I will go over by myself to check on and feed the cats. I have to go anyways because we are having new furnature delivered and they didn't specify a time when they would come. Meanwhile bf and friends will load up the truck and bring everything over. We will leave them in there for a few days and then carry them around on a tour of the house. They are all use to the apartment so I want them to get use to the 3 levels.
Am I missing anything? Is there any other steps/precautions I need to take? I want the transition to be as smooth as possible and less stressful for everyone.
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Sounds like a good plan. I wouldn't worry so much about leaving two of them there on Friday night. make sure you bring along their toys and anything they've been sleeping on. Perhaps a Feliway plugin in the room to help mellow things out.
Could you leave a radio on perhaps? Then they'd have the sensation of humans being around.
When we adopted our kittens from the shelter they went from a one room multicat existence to a 2 floor household with tons of rooms and windows. We kept them in the laundry room at first then cracked open the door and let them explore at their leisure. They got bolder and bolder as the week wore on. I'm sure our house looked like a palace to them. We'd call them to us with treats so they didn't hide in a corner too long. And they got used to a nightly routine of dinner in the kitchen. Only rules we had was no fighting and no wandering outside.
Cats do love to explore. As long as they know where their litter box and food/water is, you're fine to let them explore at their leisure.
Oh, just make sure you have them contained in a safe place while moving in. It's easy to forget to close a door when you're hauling boxes and furniture in. In the commotion, you wouldn't want a kitty to go exploring outside and get lost.
Could you leave a radio on perhaps? Then they'd have the sensation of humans being around.
When we adopted our kittens from the shelter they went from a one room multicat existence to a 2 floor household with tons of rooms and windows. We kept them in the laundry room at first then cracked open the door and let them explore at their leisure. They got bolder and bolder as the week wore on. I'm sure our house looked like a palace to them. We'd call them to us with treats so they didn't hide in a corner too long. And they got used to a nightly routine of dinner in the kitchen. Only rules we had was no fighting and no wandering outside.
Cats do love to explore. As long as they know where their litter box and food/water is, you're fine to let them explore at their leisure.
Oh, just make sure you have them contained in a safe place while moving in. It's easy to forget to close a door when you're hauling boxes and furniture in. In the commotion, you wouldn't want a kitty to go exploring outside and get lost.
It would make sense to leave them at bf's moms but we are having a hard enough time convincing her to take the dog overnight, If we so much as suggest her taking the three cats she might not take the dog. Another thing is Anna is super skittish and does not do well in new situations. We brought her to his mom's once and I thought she was going to have a heart attack, so I don't want to bring her to more places than I have to.You sound like me -- a real planner and organizer. It does sound like you've got all your bases covered. It wouldn't make any sense to give the cats to your boyfriend's mother like your dog over Friday night, would it? That would avoid having them alone at the new place without you, which I guess could be confusing to them. But yeah, I think you've got a good plan.
Right now they have their own cat room here at the apartment(its a glass enclosed solarium) so I was thinking I would set that room up micking their room now as much as possible. I'm going to leave it as sparse as possible though because when they are scared they tend to hide in the smallest of spaces then get stuck. I think they will be more comfortable with each other and they won't be there too long. I'm going to try and bring them closest to the evening as possible. I will also look into that feliway plug in... I heard mixed reviews so I'm not sure if I want to buy it and it doesn't do anything.
1 - 5 of 5 Posts
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