Moving Long or Short Distance with a Cat!

What's happening, my friends? You know, what's funny, I was thinking about this today. There was a time in my life where, and it was a long time in my life, where I moved probably once a year. And I'm talking about over the time span of about 17 years. You probably would have loved to be my cat, but I learned a lot of lessons and plus I do what I do. So today we're gonna be talking about moving with your cat. Moving is known to be the second biggest stressor in a human's life, second only to a death in the family. And it's a big deal for your cat as well, and that's why I'm here. Because if you do it wrong, then you're looking at not only a lack of confidence in their new space, but it may go on for quite a while. So it's one of those things where it's like, you know what, it doesn't take much to get it right the first time, so let's get it right the first time. So we break this down into three very distinct phases. And the first one is before. Very succinctly, preparing is caring. What's the best thing that you can do for your cat? Well, I'll tell you that number one best thing that you can do for your cat is get all of the goods necessary to establish a great base camp. Now, base camp is something that I lay out in very granular detail in this video, this one, this video right there. Hi, video. But the upshot is that we want to get as many of what I call scent soakers, really important pieces of property for your cat, all gathered up, all properly marinated with their scent in your current place. So things like cat trees, cat beds, blankets, litter boxes for sure, we'll get back to that later on. Anything that's a scent soaker. Additionally, take an old sweatshirt of yours and put it on the bed. Any place where they tend to lay now, put it inside one of their favorite cat beds, put it there and get that nice and soaked. Gather up the goods for base camp, gather up the scent soakers, gather up those things that are like signposts for your cat that I smell it, therefore I own it and it signifies home to me. Now to that end, when it comes to litter boxes, bring them all. If you've got one cat, you got two litter boxes, two cats, three litter boxes, et cetera. You don't have that yet, get it now. Get it marinated. I know, I know how it sounds, just, you know, play along. But in the meantime, if you put out these new litter boxes around the house now and your cats use them, that's gold when you move to your new place. Trust me. Here's another little tip. One of the things that I find is that if you rely on just one flavor of food, you know, there's these two different types of cans and that's what we rotate. Start expanding your cat's palate. I mean, this is given, you know, if you have enough time before you move to start expanding their palate. A lot of times what we see when cats move is that they shut down a little bit and then they just won't be hungry enough. And one of the dangers when it comes to cats is if they don't eat for something like 24 hours. They're subject to something called fatty liver disease. It can be fatal. It's no fun. And one way to help get around it is to just make sure there are plenty of flavors that are kind of irresistible to your cat and that way you can try a couple of different things. Make sure that you have your jackpot treats, as I call them, all set up. Those things where your cat smells it and they go, whatever that is, I gotta have it. And maybe for the week before you leave, you don't give it. So that when you get where you're going, you can break everything out in this new location, including this really yummy treat and go, you're home. One of the most important things, period, when it comes to you and your cat, but here it becomes much more important, is their carrier. Every time they get into their carrier, every time they go into the car, it can only mean one thing. Bad things are about to happen. So it's truly important to get your cat to associate their carrier, their crate, whatever you wanna call it, with a good place, a safe place. So that by the time they're in the car, they're moving, or whether you're flying or whatever it is, it becomes that place that signifies, okay, I'm cool, everything's cool, I'm in my den, I'm surrounded by things that smell like me and my person, I'll be okay. I'm stressed, but I'll be okay. The way to do that really, and again, there's a whole video on this, pow, with many carriers, especially the hard-sided ones, you can take the top off it. You take the top, the door out, and you put a really nice comfy bed or a bed that they tend to use inside this thing. Now it just becomes this nice kind of semi-covered bed, a place where I hang. Remember what I was just telling you about jackpot treats? Dish out the jackpot, man. Jackpot, it's jackpot time, but only if they're in the bed. That way, once they get comfortable, when they're not looking, sneak that top back on. We're creating a great association with the carrier. So when the day comes that you have to close the door and get them in there and carry them around, it's not gonna be the end of the world for them. Like I said, man, if you care, prepare. And one of the biggest pieces of preparation here, your microchip. If your cat's not microchipped, do not pass go. Microchip your cat. If your cat is microchipped, don't forget to put the new address in the information of that microchip. Call the microchip provider, give them the new address, make sure that you do that before you move, just in case something happens along the way. You just want that information there, okay? Moving boxes, we know. If it fits, I sits. So cats love boxes, we know that. So let's make boxes fun zones. We can, you know, you can put crinkled up pieces of packing paper in there, let them run around. Take little, you know, those little ball toys, chuck them in there. Do something fun, use the boxes for fun time so that when it comes to actually putting the stuff in there for moving time, not a big deal. The boxes have been here for a while and we love them. They're fun. By and large, cats are gonna stress. It doesn't have to be catastrophic. It could just be manageable stress and that's kind of what we're shooting for here. All right, now we're on to act two of our moving drama and that is the during phase. And I'll start that about two days before. What I'd love for you guys to do is think a little bit ahead. So let's just call one room that's not your master bedroom, but a room that we can clean out fairly easily. That's gonna be their temporary base camp in the old place. So basically what you can do is just get that room packed up and the boxes and whatever. Get that stuff out of there and all your cat's good stuff, all those scent soakers, all the base camp stuff, that goes in this, you know, pretty much empty room at that point. And then on the day that the movers come, they're in their base camp and the movers are moving. All that stuff was taken out of that room already and that's why really in terms of temporary base camp, you don't want it to be your master bedroom because that's where a lot of the big, you know, lunky furniture is and you don't wanna have to move them twice in a day. If you've got a moving company coming over or even friends coming over to help you move, tape something on the door saying, do not open this door, cat's inside. Open the door and we'll kill you. Whatever, you know, just make sure that you're not giving the cats an opportunity to run out because don't forget the front door is gonna be wide open. So now we're on the moving day. Boxes are packed, you're ready for the movers or you're moving yourself and all of that big, heavy noise and all of the, don't forget how connected cats are to territory. All of those markers that are territory, oh my, this chair, the bed, the couch, oh my, the, what? All that's leaving. Now this one is a little dependent on whether you're driving or flying or, you know, hiring a service to move your stuff or whatever, but I gotta say this. Litter boxes are one of those sort of golden tickets when it comes to making your cat comfortable in their new spot. And so being able to take your litter boxes with you, do not sanitize them. Do not clean them out with, you know, with some kind of detergent or whatever. If you feel the need to use a little hot water, but try to avoid that right before you move because their scent in that litter box is just so important. So get those litter boxes moved if you can. Now here's the part that you're gonna be like, oh, seriously, Jackson. Ew! Look, you can scoop it. You don't have to be traveling with poops and whatever, but the smell of that litter, man, if you're driving or like triple bag it, put it in six garbage bags for all I care, get over it. But I gotta tell you, if you get to that new place, you set up that base camp, you put down their litter box with their litter in it, that's gonna help your cat energetically and mentally and everything get a little bit over that moving hump. So call me crazy. I'm the crazy cat guy. Bring it on. Ew! Okay, fine. Stop it. That is what it is. No excuses. But here's the things I would like you to think about. Number one, if you're getting into a car, sure, it'll help out for that first couple of hours. Then you're probably gonna have to re-administer it if your cat is freaking. If you're flying, depending on the length of the flight, you could wind up giving them some kind of medication, but by the time they're mid-flight, they'll be coming out of that. So not having to rely on that would be great. Again, if your cat is one of those cats, totally cool. I make a line of flower essence remedies. I've got a few, one called Easy Traveler, one called Stress Stopper. These are great in combination for times like this. You can miss the carrier, miss the back of the car, those type of things, and if your cat needs it, you can help them out. I think that that's better than using drugs if you don't have to. Also, when it comes to the pheromone sprays or the plugins or whatever, try it before it's actually travel day so you can see if your cat has an adverse reaction to any of these things. You don't wanna just try it for the first time that day when you're moving. So the last part of this during phase is once you get there. First thing you wanna do, especially in base camp, is check the screens. Make sure your cats can't push the screens out. Make sure there's no weird little escape routes out of the house. You just don't wanna lose your cats the first couple of days you're in your house. Like I've said before, that's a nightmare. Another thing I would tell you to do, especially if you're renting, but if you're moving into a place that has carpets, you know that the people before you had animals, and sometimes even if your landlord maybe lied to you or somebody lied to you, I would take the earliest convenience before you break your cats out of their base camp is take a blacklight. If you don't have a blacklight, get one. You can buy one on my website and just go around the whole house and find places that might even have the remnants of pee on them. And the way you know this is a couple ways. When a cat first pees on something on carpet, let's say, it will fluoresce like an orange yellow. Then over the days and weeks, it goes from that yellow across the spectrum to white. And whether you're a couple weeks later or whatever, it'll be pretty much white. Even if you clean it, it'll still fluoresce white. And you're gonna know there was a cat there or a dog there before you who was eliminating on this carpet. And that could be a problem when it comes to your animals. And this is a long story for another day. If you're renting, talk to your landlord. If you're buying, then you may wanna check under those carpets and how saturated is the area. But in the meantime, use a blacklight, use the right cleaner. Hello, Jackson Galaxy Stain and Odor Remover. Not that I'm saying, but I'm saying. And just make sure that your cats are starting with, from a smell level, a clean slate. So you've arrived at your destination. I would say one of the very first things you do is, and I know you wanna relax, you wanna just kick it at this point. You're exhausted, you're spent mentally. I'm the cat guy on the cat channel talking about your cats. So take that with a grain of salt if you want. But when you get there, carriers and all the base camp goodies, those go into a room that is, whether it's going to be your bedroom or whether it's a temporary base camp, whatever it is, base camp. Now they're gonna be surrounded by things that smell like them. You can open up the carriers, you can feed them their meals. Obviously, the day you get someplace is not a normal day. I'm not gonna pretend it is, but the more you can act as if, the more you're gonna get your cats to be able to decompress themselves. Don't feel bad about putting them in their base camp when you first get there, because there's part of you that's gonna be like, you know, they've had a really stressful couple of days. It's gonna make them more stressed being in this room by themselves. I'm not saying that you have to quarantine them away from you, but the place right now is really important, and you're important as well. But like I said, if you want that first shot of confidence in a new space, that's the way to do it. So that covers us from right before the move to congratulations, you've moved. Now on to our final section, after the move. So congratulations, you are the new occupant of fill in the blanks, and your cat or cats have made the move with you. And you should notice within the first 24 hours that they're chilling, they're getting into the fact that I've got all this base camp around me, you've set it up so that they're nice and chill, their schedule is the same in terms of feeding, and you'll probably notice that they're ready to start venturing out. Now it's time to expand base camp. Now it's time to take all those wonderful marinated objects and start spreading them around the house. Signposts, like all of the belongings in base camp, those are signposts that say I live here too. So whether you move those things to a different location later, whatever you wanna do, but those first few days in a new location, I'm just telling you, just bend against your aesthetic and towards your cat, you'll be happier in the long run. But in the meantime, we're gonna break out some of the belongings of base camp, a cat tree that you will put where? Well, if you've been following your catification, you'll put it in a window so that now they can explore the visuals of the new neighborhood and of course, the sense of the new neighborhood from that safe place. I'm here in my cat tree, it's safe, it smells like me and other cats and my people, and I'm looking out at something that is strange and a little foreign and maybe a little scary, but this makes me feel safe. So break that out, take the lid back off your carriers and now you've got instant beds that you can put around. Things like that, of course, leave some things in base camp. If you're gonna relocate base camp to your master bedroom or something, well now your bed's set up and all that, safe to bring them in there, but just be aware of how you're bringing stuff out of base camp. And you can always do this thing that it's like the marination cycle. Break some stuff out of base camp, bring some new stuff in, let it marinate, bring it out, rotate around the house until everything says cat. And also, by the way, at this point you're like, I can't wait to throw away that old, ratty scratcher slash tree slash whatever. Well, now you have my permission, now that everything has been scent soaked and everybody feels good about everything. But just like I said, put the aesthetics on hold, put the cat's not on hold, and you will be happy. So now we're coming full circle. All the stuff that I've been setting up for you before is coming to the fore now. So the last thing I wanna talk about is the resurrection of the three R's. Because don't forget, the resuming of rituals in your home doesn't just make your cats feel better, it makes you feel better. It makes you feel like this is your home, not just a place you move to. So if you are feeling nice and chill and home and happy, your cats are gonna feel it too, man. So get those rituals back into gear, commit to them, make sure that you're playing with your cat. Because again, I don't know how many times I gotta say it, not only is it about exercise, not only is it about tapping into the raw cat and say hunt, catch, kill, eat, but where I hunt, catch, kill, eat is where I own. And ownership is key. And whether it's base camp and smells or sights or sounds or the actions that we do, the rituals, where I sleep, all that good stuff, the more you can get back into a sense of ownership, the faster your cats are gonna adjust. I'm not here just to make it like we're putting your cats in the bomb shelter so that when you finish moving, you can open it up and go, you know, all right, I'm safe. This is about thriving. This is about saying, you know, we can pick up where we left off, but we can make a better self. We can make a better life and a more confident life for our cats. Taking a look at your new place and going, okay, let's catify. What are we gonna do? Where do shelves go? Where do new cat trees go? What can I do for my cats? Of course, that's why Kate Benjamin and I wrote two, count them, two design books where we talk all about designing your space so that you and your cats meet in the middle and everybody's happy. But environmental enrichment, man, we're talking about a better life. We're talking about all the projects that you were like, you know, when I got the time, I'm gonna do X, Y, Z as far as my cat is concerned. It's X, Y, Z time. Now's the time to do it. So take it from me as somebody who has moved too many times in their lives, I wish that I would have taken some opportunities to land somewhere, just start clean, start feeling like I'm taking advantage of my new space and this new time in my life. I'm saying this because it's about you, but it is definitely about your cats and living their best life with you, but whenever they're off doing their own things. So that's about it. Hey, you guys, if you have moving tips, I wanna hear about them. Put them in the comments below so that everybody can read them. Maybe I'll do a follow-up in a few weeks. Don't forget to comment anyway, and of course subscribe because whether you're here or there, I'm here for you, and to that end, you should know when something's coming your way. All right, here's hoping for a good move, a safe move, a Zen move. It's okay, man. It's all gonna be okay, and you've got a better life ahead of you. Believe it. All right, until next time, all light and all love, all mojo to you. Meow.