How to move with a cat

Before the move

Bring the boxes out early. A cat is wary of boxes for the first few days, then starts ignoring them — or sleeping in them. If they all appear the day before, everything is new at once.

Get your cat used to the carrier. Leave it open at home, with one of their blankets inside, weeks ahead. A carrier that only comes out for trips to the vet is a carrier your cat runs from.

Keep the routines. The same times for meals and play, even with the house turned upside down.

Update their ID. The microchip details, and the collar tag if they wear one, with the right address and phone number — it’s what brings your cat back if they get out in a home they don’t know yet.

On moving day

Moving day is the most dangerous day for a cat: doors left open, people coming and going, noise.

• Shut your cat in one room that’s already empty, with the litter box, water, food and the carrier open. A sign on the door saying “cat — do not open” avoids surprises.
• Move them last, once the old place is empty — and in the carrier, never loose in the car.
• In the new home, the same in reverse: a room just for them, set up before you let them out of the carrier, with their things in it and the door closed until the move is over.

The first weeks in your new home

One room at a time. Let your cat explore the room they arrived in first, and only then the rest of the house, a little at a time. A whole new home is too much territory for the first few days.

Their things first. The bed, the blanket, the toys, the litter box — the familiar smell is what tells them this is home. Don’t wash the blankets as soon as you arrive.

Be patient with the hiding. It’s normal for a cat to hide under a bed and eat little in the first few days. Let them come out at their own pace; don’t pull them out.

If your cat goes outdoors

A cat that goes outside shouldn’t go out at the new home before getting to know it well from the inside — a few weeks, at the very least. Until then, the new home isn’t their territory yet, and the first time out is when many cats get lost trying to get back to the old place.

If something isn’t going well — not eating for several days, hiding and not coming out, going outside the litter box for a long time — talk to your vet.

The cat’s box

Pack a separate box with everything that’s theirs: food for a few days, the litter and the scoop, the bowls, the toys, the blanket, their medication. It’s the first one into their room at the new home — and it’s never the box left forgotten at the back of the garage.