Best Way to Move Cats Across Country

[traceroo]

Our next move will take us at least 1,000 miles from our present home in Austin. Ian and I are debating the best way to transport our two cats. Do any of you have experience moving cats - not dogs; they're really quite different, cats - across country? How did you do it, and do you have any advice to offer?

Trace

Comments

[embermwe]

I would crate them and drive them.
1000 miles is 12 hours give or take and you have 2 cars to transport too. I have heard some horror stories of animals flying in cargo...

Drive v. Fly

[traceroo]

Ian thinks flying will be less horrible for the cats; I think flying will be about the most horrible option imaginable for all life forms involved!

Still, there's a lot of complexities involved in driving what will most likely be multiple days with two cats. I'm hoping I know someone who's done this before and has some great advice waiting out here!

Your icon made me stop typing the preceding sentence and make a really embarrassingly girly squeal!

Trace

Re: Drive v. Fly

[embermwe]

http://www.helpinganimals.com/Travel_cargo.asp

Re: Drive v. Fly

[traceroo]

Oh gosh, I only got a few paragraphs into that before I groaned and couldn't read any further!

Fortunately our cats (and their carriers) are small enough to fit under the seat -- if the airline allows it, and we'd only book if they did. Still, I wonder. I can only imagine the poor cats for X number of hours on the plane... mau mau mau mauuuuuu! We'd have a riot on our hands.

Then flying or driving, there is the option of tranquilizing them... Yuck. I plan to speak to their vet. If she tells me that it is genuinely in the cats' best interest -- much like drugging me out of my senses when I have to go to the dentist -- then I'll consider it. I won't do it just for human convenience, however. Poor babies!

But my little babies in a cold cargo compartment, scared and alone in a plane? Uh-uh. No way. No day. Not happening!

Thanks for the article!

Trace

Re: Drive v. Fly

[embermwe]

Agreed. That is why I made the suggestion I did.
It might be a long and leisurely trip in a car, but they would be with you and with eachother. You can stop the car periodically and let them out of the crates to stretch and use the box and get a drink and you needn't trust their care to ham-handed baggage tossers or worry about the vagaries of re-routed flights or lost baggage.
It should be easily done with at maximum one overnight hotel stop.

Re: Drive v. Fly

[traceroo]

Lost. Baggage.

Okay, those two words relating to my cats are the stuff of nightmares!

Trace

Re: Drive v. Fly

[embermwe]

Correction, refigured the math...It could take 2 overnight stops. But I still think it is the safest way to go, and will get cars transported as well.

Re: Drive v. Fly -drugs

[samiraalthores]

Sometimes, it's best to sedate the cats during travel. They don't understand or comprehend the motion and the changes in pressure. Check with the vet, though.