How to Move 1,100 Miles With Two Dogs and A Cat

Having just accomplished the "moving with pets" feat, I thought I would share my accumulated knowledge with the rest of the world.

If you can afford it and aren't afraid that your pets will be traumatized or somehow shipped to the wrong location (like missing baggage), flying them is definitely the best idea. If transportation by flying isn't an option for you, there are other ways to get from Point A to Point B and still keep your wits about you. Following are some strategies that were helpful for us:

Stock up on harmless sedativesWe found these easily at a pet store. The one we used was, fittingly enough, called "Quiet Moments". Even if your pet is relatively calm by nature, a long ride will cause stress on them. They will see you packing, see you loading things into the car and/or truck, and they don't really know what's going on. A mild sedative can ease their fears, and make your trek much more pleasant. We didn't try to knock them out, only slow them down.

Divide the pets and put them in cages

I drove the car with the two dogs, my husband drove the truck with the cat. I think putting the cat cage in the truck may have been against the moving company rules, but we didn't have many options. We were afraid if we put him in the back of the truck it would get too hot.

We knew our cat had to be in a cage all the way. He hates to ride, and would have jumped all over the place. It took awhile, but he became used to his cage and acted as if he felt safe there.

The dogs were a different story. I did not have a cage for them, and we piled a bunch of things in the front seat to make sure they didn't come up there. Things got a little exciting in the middle of Indianapolis when our big Golden Bernard (or Saint Retriever, whichever you want to call him) decided to come up front anyway. He was so determined, there was nothing I could do to stop him. He stood in the front seat of my little Ford Escort, balanced on top of a suitcase like an elephant standing on something at the circus. I couldn't see out of my right front, side or back windows and was genuinely afraid that an officer would ticket me for lack of visibility. To make matters worse, there were no shoulders in the stretch of freeway where this happened. The moral of the story is, of course, that dogs should also be put in cages.

Plan ahead

We knew we would have to stop at a motel for one night, so we looked on the Internet for pet-friendly motels and had one already booked. It made things a lot easier. We knew where we had to get that first day, and didn't have to worry about accommodations. The place we found had an extra charge for each pet (about $10) and a limit of two pets per room. The lady at the desk helped us out very nicely, however, by not counting or charging for our cat.

Handle cats with care Our cat did not like to be on a leash, he did not like to ride and he was generally unhappy during the trip. He also refused to eat his "Quiet Moments" some of the time. We almost lost him twice on the trip. Once he wriggled out of his leash at a rest area and made a beeline for a tall chain-link fence with a pond and lots of underbrush behind it. My husband caught him when he was halfway up the fence. The second time my husband took him off the leash in a large field behind the motel. The cat took off like a shot for the underbrush, and my husband had to run him down again.

Our cat was terrorized by the trucks coming and going at rest areas and truck stops. We found it better to stop at quiet places. Also, if I had it to do over again I would have tried to arrange having his kitty litter somewhere where he could use it during the day. We didn't like the idea of having it up in the front of the truck, but that would have been a whole lot better than almost losing him twice. We have had our cat for 14 years, and would have felt really bad if he had run off somewhere.

Check into your local laws

The state we moved to actually doesn't require dog licenses. You can get them if you want, but most people don't and there is no fine for not having them. This was a bit of a shock, since where we lived before you could be prosecuted for not having a dog license. You can get on the Internet before you move and check the laws for your destination. This could save you some grief after you get there.

Expect the unexpected

We thought we had everything planned out very well for our trip, and as a general rule we did. The house we were moving to had a backyard fence, and we felt relieved to finally pull into the driveway and put the dogs in the fence. We had a real shock coming, however, when our dogs met the neighbors bulldog just next door. They couldn't get to each other through the fence, but if they had, it would have been quite a fight. There was a terrific amount of vicious snarling and territorial disputes that went on for literally days. There were also several cats in the neighborhood who had staked out our yard as their territory and we had to work through that.

We kept the cat in most of the time for the first few weeks, and when he was out we kept an eye out for him so we could rescue him from the neighborhood bully (Cocoa) when needed. We also quickly found out that our new house, and yard, was infested with fleas. It took one yard-spraying, two flea-bombings, a lot of pet baths, one grooming, one trip to the vet and a lot of Frontline, but after several weeks of struggle our pets are quite comfortable again. The next door dogs and cats have accepted their presence, and we are relieved to have successfully survived the ordeal of moving 1100 miles with two dogs and a cat. If you see such a move in your future, take heart. It takes some planning and a bit of nerve, but you can get across the county with you pets in two-if you want to bad enough.