General Chat

As many of you are aware, we recently put our house on the market and it has now been sold.

We are in the process of buying a new property with settlement due early in March. In the meantime we are renting our current home back from the purchasers until we move.

My question relates to our cat who is seventeen years old and has been with us in this house for fifteen years.

How can we transition him from the old place to the new one without him going AWOL?

He is microchipped and registered with our current Council until October so he will be wearing a registration tag. As we are moving to a different Council area we will need to transfer the registration.

Do we keep him indoors for a few days until he is used to the interior and then let him out.

It is so long since we have moved with pets that I have forgotten what we have done in the past :-S

Any help would be appreciated

When we rehomed our cat from cats protection in 2015 he was two years old and had been an outdoor cat in his previous home

We kept him in for a week until he was getting very wanting out so I opened the lounge door to the back garden and let him explore outside near the door staying with him all the time

He was very unsure and after a few moments shot back inside again

It was a very slow transition for him to get used to the garden to then venture through the gate to the cul de sac outside which is the back access to our garages which are situated in each of our gardens .

We let him do things at his own pace

Thanks. Shirley. :-)

I will have the same problem next week but our lad hates being restrained in any way so he will be out straight away. He has moved house twice before with my daughter and was never kept in. He knows where he is well off the spoilt blighter :-D :-D :-D

Thanks, LG :-)

Our cat is not an outside cat as such, but he does like being out at the front where he can watch the world go by from the safety of some bushes. Our current property is elevated from the from the road and set back about 15 meters.

Our new place is much closer to the road and not elevated. There is also a footpath in front of the house.

The cat is used to a cat 'taxi' although we intend to confine him to a bathroom while the move is physically taking place as he is quite nervous in some circumstances

Ours is going to the cattery for a couple of days during the actual move. as he is a nervous type too. I pity them as he will howl and play up for sure and being an oriental he is very vocal :-D :-D :-D

My cats were 14 when we moved last year.
I kept them in for a week, but I think they were also suffering from the shock of moving.
After a week, I let them out, with the door open, just before feeding them.
About a month after moving in, I had a hole in the door for the cat flap.
My sister insisted on doing this, as it was 'her' jig-saw. :-\
A couple of months later, the hole was good enough for a cat flap to be fitted.
Then Betty wouldn't come in. George died. Now Betty won't go out.
Nothing to do with George dying, she just can't be bothered.

When I was young, we had a cat that moved 12 times.
After the third move, we didn't bother keeping her in, she knew the routine.
When she was 16, she moved away from us, and took up residence with a couple of pensioners down the road.

Maggie, we had one cat called Lemon (as she was a real sourpuss) moved with us from Leonora to Bunbury into a rental place, then to our own place in Bunbury and then to here in Australind.

She was twenty when she died, but all the moves were done when she was a young cat.

Mickie, the cat who was moved 12 times, was young when we first moved, and adapted.
For Betty & George, it was their first move, and they were terrified.
I sat in the bathroom with them, while the furniture was moved in.
I had another pair of cats, Basil & Tansy. They were about 2 when I moved, and they were okay. I think age has a lot to do with it. :-(

We kept our cat in for a couple of days then a few days of letting him out just before feed time so he had time to have a look around the garden then get called in for food.. After a couple of weeks he was fine in his new home.

I know nothing about cats.
Just want to wish you every happiness in your new home and
hope the move goes smoothly.
Ann

Thanks, McAlp :-)