Moving a cat

Next year we will be moving from Florida to Tennessee.
Any tips about the best way to handle this move with my cat?

Will you be driving? If so, try taking the cat on little trips in the car to get it used to it.

We take Bijou and Mika frequently in the car. They go shopping with us (not food stores) to hardware stores, Home Sense, places like that plus the library. If Bijou is outside with my husband and I go to the car he'll jump in and settle on the back seat ready to go now.

We took them both with us to a cottage we rented this summer for a week. We put their carrier (open) with a towel draped over it for privacy, a litter pan and a dish of water in the back (put the seats down). They were wonderful for the whole 4.5 hour drive there and another 4.5 hour drive home. In fact, on the drive Mika slept in my lap or my husband's and Bijou slept on my feet (on the passenger side of course ) or on my lap.

Bijou didn't like the car much in the beginning but now he's wonderful and as I said above, loves to jump in when the door opens.

Linda i think that's brilliant the way your fur kids travel in the car with you

Make sure to accustom them to some sort of restraint--carriers or something--you don't want them getting scared and causing an accident, or getting hurt if something else causes an accident.

When my friend and I traveled with her cat Skimble, we harnessed him (he'd been accustomed to a harness before), put him in a carrier, and stopped every couple of hours to clip on a leash and stretch all our legs. At first, since he was an indoor-only cat, he was very frightened of the outdoors; and we had an accident when he peed in his carrier, because he was afraid to do so outdoors. (Unlike us, I suggest getting him used to not only the harness, but to using the bathroom outdoors, where you'll be traveling; or else taking a litter box with you, and getting him used to just being comfortable being leashed and outdoors.) We took some treats with us, which he loved; and we'd stick our fingers through the holes in the carrier and pet him, which gave him some reassurance. He yowled some, during the beginning of the trip; he was not used to car trips, and associated them with going to the vet's (another mistake--we should have gotten him used to benign car trips).

The vet can give you tranqulizers and/or motion-sickness pills if your cat still has problems after you pre-train it.

So, basically, our plans weren't perfect; and it wasn't fun for anyone; but Skimble adjusted to the move pretty well. Once we were unpacked, a week later (thanks to my L337 (packing) skillz), he happily claimed the new apartment as his own. Cats do recover from "trauma" like this--whether they'll do it without glowering at you angrily from under the bed for a week is another story.