"I'm moving and I can't take my cat"

Lets face it, cats don't normally like to travel. One glimpse of the cat carrier and they are under the bed out of your reach. You may be able to grin and bear it for as long as it takes to drive kitty to the vet, but there are times when you have to take a cat on a long trip.

If you are moving from one place to another, you may have to drive kitty over several days to get to your new location. It won't be a good experience for the cat, but at least there are some things you can do to minimize the trauma.

Before you are due to make the long trip, take a few shorter drives for an hour or two, with the cat in the carrier. When you return to the house, give kitty a treat so he associates trips with special treats.
Make sure kitty is in the carrier at all times. Not only is it illegal for you to have the cat running amok in a moving car, but if you had an accident, chances are the cat would be lost in a strange environment.
Make sure the carrier is placed in such a way that the cat sees you. He doesn't need a view of the changing scenery (in fact, that would be scary for him). He needs to see his human.
Try to spend less driving time per day. Maybe it only takes you 14 hours of solid driving during one day to go 750 miles. Consider making the trip in two days.
Carry disposable cat litter boxes so you can throw them away when you leave each motel on your trek.
Don't feed the cat before you leave. Fear and motion are a bad combination. If you are going to spend five hours driving, don't let kitty have any food beginning about two hours before you leave. When you reach your destination and move kitty into the motel room, prepare the disposable kitty litter box before you let him out of his carrier. Allow him about 30 minutes to settle in, and then give him some food and water.
Don't ever think you can let the cat out of the car during a rest stop along the highway. You are asking for trouble.
Remember that when you travel with your pets, you need to put their needs above your own.

A personal account

I moved Tristan, Isadora, and Calvin 700 miles from Ponca City, Oklahoma, to Sour Lake, Texas. The only hard thing was when I moved Tristan & Isadora together. The first day, I had Tristan on the front seat with me, and Isadora in back and she howled the whole time. The next day I switched them and then Tristan howled. I stopped at a gas station and put them both in the back facing each other, thinking then they would be happy, but then they howled in stereo. By the time I pulled into the hotel parking lot, I was in tears.

When I brought Calvin down in September of that year, he rode next to me and was fine as long as he could see me. If I stopped the car, then he meowed, but if the car was running, he was quiet.

I have had other cat folk tell me if their cat can't see them, the cat gets hysterical.

--Terry Early

(Four years before she moved the above three cats in two separate trips, Terry Early moved another cat halfway across the country with her by automobile. He was already an elderly cat, and he died the year before the second move.)

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