Moving out of state - need advice re cats

[Anonymous]

My family is moving to Florida and are wondering how to handle the move w/our two cats.

We won't actually move until a week after we close on our house in MD. We plan to have the moving company keep our things in storage until we head down to FL.

I'm thinking it might be best to board our cats during that week before driving down to FL (we'll be staying w/family during this wee). It's probably about a 12-14-hour drive (w/two little ones). Ideally we'd like to break up the drive into two days and stay in a hotel along the way. However, I'm wondering if logistically it'll be easier/better to drive straight down b/c of the cats.

Has anybody had experience moving long distance w/cats. If so, any advice/feedback would be much appreciated.

TIA

[Anonymous]

I only moved one cat, and flew him down instead of driving him. Cats are notoriously prone to motion sickness. Have you taken your cats in the car before? Do they tolerate it well? Maybe your vet can give you sedatives for them to help ease the carsickness and anxiety they have. You'll also need to put a litter box in your car. I would pack a carrier so that you can put them in it before opening a car door for a bathroom break. The last thing you want is to have one bolt out the car door into a strange new area.

I would think your cats would appreciate a stopover at a hotel for the night. A chance to get out of the car, sleep on a bed, run, probably sounds as good to your cats as it does to you!

[Anonymous]

When we moved here from California (by car) we left the cat with my aunt. She kept him for a couple of months, til my mom went to visit in California. Then mom brought the cat with her when she flew back east. I don't know if such an arrangement is possible for you, but a four-day drive with a pissy cat was pretty unthinkable for us.

If you do have a friend who can keep the cats for a couple of weeks, I bet you can find a cheapie plane ticket to come back and get them. It might even be less expensive than boarding, or whatever exorbitant fee the hotel would charge to let you bring animals.

[Anonymous]

We did a cross country move (from DC) with two cats about 1.5 years ago. We also had a 10 month old at the time (and were flying versus driving) so there was no way we were dealing with the cats ourselves. I did A LOT of research on this and ended up hiring a pet transport company out of Austin, TX called Pet Relocation (http://www.petrelocation.com/). They were awesome. They handled absolutely every detail. We put our cats in boarding in McLean while we closed on our house and moved out. Then we flew out and got settled in our new place and a week later, they picked them up in McLean, handled getting them on the plane at Dulles, facilitated a transfer in Newark, picked them up at the destination airport and delivered them to our new door. They also handled all the paperwork involved in the transport (related to flying). They also communicate with you every step of the way. All we had to do was make sure we had the proper carriers for them and their paperwork from the vet saying they had their shots for travel, etc. It couldn't have been smoother and I couldn't have imagined dealing with it any other way. Of course it wasn't cheap - I don't recall now but I want to say upwards of $1K per cat (though that seems high to me now, but it may be right).

[Anonymous]

I moved 10 plus times to west coast from east. Basically a 5 day trip. Two cats, 1 dog and on the last two moves a toddler. The cats were okay after about an hour of driving. The meowed a little in the beginning. I have flown them also overseas, they did great. You know your cat better then we do, if you think they could not handle the drive, get a pet transportation specialist. Club Pet is great, in Chantilly. If you bring the cats with you, La Quinta hotels across the entire country will allow pets. I would make sure there are no places to hide (under the mattress) in the room. And put them in the crate when you are not in the room. You can buy disposable litter boxes almost anywhere. We brought a few with us and threw them away each morning. Have a great move.

[Anonymous]

Residence Inns will also allow pets, as will some TownePlace Suites.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Unfortunately, we can't afford to fly our cats down. I'll definitely look into Residence Inn as an option.

[Anonymous]

One other thing OP... have you looked into the Auto Train out of Lorton to Florida? For a family of 4 plus a car, it's about $350 one way, and you don't have to drive. You get off right outside Orlando, after riding through the night.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Route/Vertical_Route_Page&c=am2Route&cid=1081256321200&ssid=136

I don't know about cats on board. But I was reading your post about having two small kids, and thinking that could be a LONG trip and maybe do you have two cars? Maybe one adult and the kids could take the auto train, and the other adult could drive the cat down?

[Anonymous]

To the 00:55 poster - thank you so much!! This is terrific information. I am definitely going to look into this - it's incredibly reasonable.

Thanks again

[Anonymous]

No problem! We almost took it to WDW with the kids, and the nice thing about it with kids is that they can move around on board. There are outlets on the armrests for their DVD players, tables for playing card games, huge windows to look out for sightseeing. You can make it into quite an adventure. They also have roomettes with small beds, if you really want to stretch out.

Plus there is the dining car and lounge car. The seats are like first class airline seats, they recline almost flat. Google Auto Train tips and you should find a website devoted to how to travel on the Auto Train.

Until around late fall, it's deserted on board the Auto Train and then the snowbirds start coming in droves. The other thing is their pricing: prices are lowest far in advance. Once the low prices sell out, they start selling the next tier of prices, and up from there. It never goes down in price getting closer to your departure. There's no discount for round trip. They also offer full refunds up to 24 hours before your trip, so it totally doesn't hurt to buy tickets even if you aren't sure.

Lastly, they tend to put families with children together so your kids will likely have other kids to play with. It's way better than being seated with the snowbirds who'll glower and huff your way if your kids aren't mute and made of stone.

It's cheaper to upgrade at check in than in advance too (say, to a roomette).