I am moving, need some advice

hi, it's been awhile. Not avoiding, just no problems and been doing research on my newest addiction, fish, snails.
I will be moving soon. I have 2 dogs and a cat and I want to make this move as smooth as possible. In the past, just packed all up (not these) and moved with them. My cat has been a bedroom cat until just the recently when she started to come to the living room in the evening and sitting on the back of the couch or the cat tree.
Do I take her down first and let her check everything out by herself? Should I do this before or after moving all my stuff?

Same question for the dogs, before or after moving everything?

I know someone here has the info I need. Maybe MA

We just did a 16 hour one way/one day move with 2 toddlers, 3 dogs (2 german shepherds and one chinese crested) and 2 cats as well as 5 totally aquatic frogs. We ended up bringing the animals in the same time we did all our stuff. Sure it was chaotic but everyone did fine. The cats and the crested were sequestered to our bedroom so they wouldnt get outside and the big dogs were sequestered during the day outside in the fenced backyard. At nites we let the animals roam the house ( and the dogs had run of the backyard as well). They all adjusted fine. If i could have moved just my stuff first, i would have done that then brought the animals in-- either way they would have KNOWN that something was going on as things were leaving. but it worked well and they are doing good so imhappy that they are happy.

Good luck on your move!

There's always chaos on both ends of the move. On the one side, they watch you pack and if they are there the day of the move, they watch everything slowly disappear from your home. On the other side, if they come to an empty place, there is nothing there that belongs to them, new smells and they watch everything reappear before there eyes.

I've done it both ways and frankly have to say that they will be stressed which ever way you go. I'm going to try it a new way next time: Move some of my things into the new location, move the pets, then move the rest of the household. I'm assuming that I'll have access to both homes for a few months to pull this off.

But here's my suggestion: Move part of your things into the new place - perhaps a bedroom. Move in the critters and lock them in there so they don't need to witness the move itself. I have noticed that it is all the noise of moving boxes and furniture that gets them stressed the most. Got scratched from the corner of my eye to the start of my ear during one move by a cat that freaked out and hit my face as she was charging thru the apartment (I was taking a rest on the sofa at the time).

Good luck!

That's what I was thinking mom. Don't know what to move except the boxes I have packed. I don't have a lot of time to do this and not a lot of help. Oh well.

I am still trying to decide whether to move the aquariums first or last.

Thanks for your insight.

I just moved across town. Two weeks ago, my dad and I moved boxes and my living room furniture. Last week, we moved the rest of my furniture and boxes. While moving stuff out of the house, I put the cats in my large dog crates. This kept them out from underfoot and in the house.

On the first trip, I put the dogs in the backseat of my car and moved them to the new place. I filled their water buckets and turned them out into the new backyard.

I then went back to the old place and loaded up the cats and some small stuff.