10 tips about moving home with your cat

Photo by Finn Frode when moving home.

Here are 9 hopefully helpful tips about moving home with your cat if you need them. It is a much discussed topic:

1. The biggest potential danger is your cat getting lost; going missing because of a complete disruption to his or her life. We know how cats love the familiar and their routines and rhythms. It is all destroyed. And they're going to a new place which removes them from their 'home range'. It can take months for a cat to get used to a new place but it does depend upon the individual cat. In fact, it can take months for the cat's owner to get used to a new place. 😕.So the biggest danger is losing your cat and therefore a lot of the procedure should be built around that to prevent it happening;
2. Experience says that the safest and most pragmatic arrangement is to put your cat in a boarding cattery before you move and then you collect your cat from the boarding cattery a couple of days after you have moved and when furniture and household items are more or less in place. It also gives you time to dig out all the cat stuff so it is to hand. This brings peace of mind provided the cattery is known to be good;
3. One of the dangers is losing your cat on the day of the move. Some owners have lost their cat in the removals lorry! The cat jumps in to explore and it is closed. Avoid that one like the plague. Or the disappear because of all the disruption. The run off. Some owners have placed their cat in a carrier and placed the carrier in the removals lorry. Your cat should go with you if you don't leave them at a boarding cattery.
4. When you collect your cat from the boarding cattery it is advisable to restrict your cat to a single room until the time comes when he or she wants to investigate their new home. Some cats take weeks while others want to explore the place immediately, but if so it should be done with great care. There are new and sometimes unknown dangers. I think some supervision of your cat is needed and increased vigilance;
5. If you move home a short distance, your cat might, if he escapes, try and return to his home range if that is firmly fixed in his head. For example, if your cat was raised as a kitten in a certain place and is removed from it they are probably more attached to their home range and want to return to it after you have moved. This may encourage an escape. Cats have been known to travel long distances and they are amazing navigators;
6. RELATED: How far has a cat travelled to return home?
7. You can sprinkle a little of your cat's urine-soiled litter close to your new home to act as an outdoor signpost. This may help to reset his brain to thinking that he is in his home range;
8. You should escort your cat outside if your cat is an indoor/outdoor cat and supervise on the first few exploits;
9. Normally it takes several weeks for a cat to become fully custom to their new indoor and outdoor home. It may take longer to become settled and as long as a year to feel truly fully relaxed;
10. After moving, the advice from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is to choose a room where your cat can get used to the new environment and in which there is everything that they need. It should be comfortable and safe. You might place in that room a pheromone diffuser such as Feliway. The whole house should be escape proof. I think the last point is the most important until your cat is familiar and doesn't panic.

Stress of moving home can makes us leave behind our cat

Moving home is stressful. People do forgetful things at best and crazy things at worst when they are stressed. So when we move home we tend to leave things behind or, to put it another way, we lose them. And I will put it in a third way: removal company employees steal items. Are you like me when I believe that removal company employees steal valuable items which you have hidden away and forgotten about?

5 TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE MOVING HOME WITH YOUR CAT A SUCCESS

It is so easy to do and we might only discover that an item has been lost months if not years later. That is why I believe removals companies become involved in this form of theft. It's a personal viewpoint perhaps but I also believe other people have the same thought.

It is also possible to mislay your cat when you move (or for a cat to be stolen, I'd argue). This is according to Animal Home Insurance. Their research tells them that about 50% of UK homeowners have lost or misplaced something when moving home. And among that long list of items which I reproduce below you will see the domestic cat.

And I'm going to speculate some more. I have seen on more than one occasion a cat companion inquisitively hopping onto the removal lorry or van (on CCTV). You know how inquisitive domestic cats are. Something new like that will always appeal to them. They become either trapped or if they jump on towards the end of the removal they are locked inside. Then they are transported perhaps hundreds of miles across the country to their new home.

In the meantime the cat's owner's are scratching their heads as to where there cat has disappeared to. Only when the removals employees unload the lorry do they find the cat. Regrettably this may be days or even weeks later. The cat's life is in jeopardy but they are great survivors as we know.

I suspect, too, that sometimes when the relationship between cat and caretaker is somewhat loose, the homeowner forgets about their cat at this panicked time. The cat may have run out of the home because of all the commotion. They may hide somewhere nearby. They may only emerge when the lorry has gone and so have their owners.

It is sometimes said that the domestic cat is more attached to their home (and therefore their home range) than their owners. There is an argument that a cat should remain in their home when it is sold and should become a cat belonging to the new owners provided they like cats and accept that extravagant and extreme concept.

On a more financial note, some people do like to hide cash in safe places in the home but they hide the stuff for so long that they forget about it. One homeowner mislaid £30,000 in this way. The same goes for jewellery and indeed any other expensive item which is put away for safekeeping.

There is an argument that we have too many possessions nowadays. Many possessions are not used or seen for years. Perhaps we should not own them? Divest yourself of unused items but never do that with a cat.

The list:

• Books
• £30,000 worth of cash
• Photographs
• Jewellery
• Pictures
• DIY equipment
• Thermostat
• Family cats
• Passports and ID cards
• Bolts and screws
• Barbecue
• Guitar
• Kite
• Ornamental chimney pot
• Sewing machine
• Sledge
• Old whiskey bottles
• Fridge full of food
• Garden furniture
• Outdoor pots and plants
• Children's teeth
• Dirty nappies