[homeball]

Hi all,

My wife and I just sold our house in Garden City South, NY and plan to move down to TV around the end of January. We have two 11 year old cats who have never traveled anywhere except to and from the vet. We were considering sending them to TV via a professional pet transporter instead of taking them with us for a very long car ride.

Does anyone have any ideas about or experience with transporting pets. If anyone knows of a reliable and safe transporter service that they had good experience with, I would like to hear about it.

Thanks for any help you can give.

-Dave-

[chuckinca]

We recently got a quote from a pet transporter for our cat: $1200 from Norcal to TV.

Also checked with Delta airlines who will ship animals as freight - $250 (or so) plus vet health cert no more than 10 days old.

I believe United and Delta airlines change around $80 to carry on a small animal that fits under the seat in front in a soft sided carrier.

(we have an 11 YO and two 6 MO kittens - above quotes are each)


.

[cglenhar]

I brought my big fat 5 year old cat, Yoda, down here by car. She was an indoor/outdoor cat up north and never rode in a car except to go the the vet. I figured that the trip would be horrible as my lab (who only barely tolerates her) had to share the back seat with her for the 20 plus hour trip.

I bought a medium dog harness (she weighs 25 lbs), a leash and a carrier. She slipped the harness as soon as I put it on her and curled up inside the dogs belly and never made a peep all the way down. I brought food, water and a small pan of litter, but she never took advantage of any of the supplies until we got settled down here. I also bought those herbal tranquilizers, but never needed them. Ask your vet about those.

Yoda tends to be pretty mellow, so I think it may depend upon your cats temperament. Good luck!

[Bogie Shooter]

We had a cat also who was indoor/outdoor and he made the trip in a pet carrier. He joined us in the motel room where he did his business after riding all day....no problem. Maybe a little whining but thats all.
$1200 WOW!

[Floridagal]

We drove down from NY 13 years ago to South Florida and the vet gave us some tranquilizers and we had no problem.

I came to TV 4 years ago with two different cats and had no problem on the trip up.

I would suggest you check with your vet.

[graciegirl]

Hershey and Mikey both five year olds have made the trip twice. The first time there was a lot of angst. Yelling and crying and trying to get out of the pet carrier. The second time (ten days ago) we put harnesses on them, fairly snug, about five days before the trip. The day of the trip we fastened leashes to them, turned the carrier on end, (heavy plastic vinyl and mesh from Walmart)
and dropped them both in leash and all VERY quickly, zipped them up. We let them out after about an hour and they found laps and all was well.(Our daughter was with us) We put them back in the carrier for our stops. Put a small litter box in there too. The carrier cost less than thirty dollars, is lightweight and roomy.

Hate to use tranquilizers, plus they won't eat anything they don't LOVE.

[Atlantic]

Hi Homeball, made the trip here two years ago with a cat that never went out side never mind took a two day ride in the car. He did fine, did a lot of meowing the first hour or so. He didn't eat, drink or use the litter box until we stopped at night in a motel. Meanwhile after two years in the Villages he has grown fat and happy. As long as your cat is with someone he knows and loves he will be fine. Do not ship him down keep him with you!!!

[Atlantic]

Hi Homeball, made the trip here two years ago with a cat that never went out side never mind took a two day ride in the car. He did fine, did a lot of meowing the first hour or so. He didn't eat, drink or use the litter box until we stopped at night in a motel. Meanwhile after two years in the Villages he has grown fat and happy. As long as your cat is with someone he knows and loves he will be fine. Do not ship him down keep him with you!!!

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by homeball

Hi all,

My wife and I just sold our house in Garden City South, NY and plan to move down to TV around the end of January. We have two 11 year old cats who have never traveled anywhere except to and from the vet. We were considering sending them to TV via a professional pet transporter instead of taking them with us for a very long car ride. -Dave-

Please don't ship your cats. I used to work in the travel industry and I was told by air cargo guys from different airlines that it is inhumane to ship animals. They are in the dark, it can be cold, they are afraid, and there are often accidents with other cargo shifting around.

We drive for 26 hours to get to TV. Our 16 year old cat travels with us. (For the first 14 years of her life she didn't travel at all). We do keep her in a harness with ID attached, and a leash, so we can secure her when we stop to walk the dogs.

At first we gave her tranquilizers as she would get car sick. Now she doesn't need tranquilizers. She just lies down with the dogs and sleeps through the whole trip. She uses a small litter box occasionally, and eats when we stop at night. She adjusted very readily to the travel.

Please give your cats a chance. If you start taking them for short drives (which is what "the books" recommend), it may give you an idea of whether they'll be anxious and require sedation.

You might want to start by using a tranquilizer, the Vet explained to me that it reduces their anxiety and is therefore the humane thing to do (if they need it). By the way, I found the key to giving a tranquilizer was that it has to be done at least two hours prior to the start of travel.

Good luck, and welcome to Paradise.

[redwitch]

Another non-fan of shipping animals. The stress to the pet and the risk is too high to make it worthwhile.

I traveled from California to Florida with 3 cats. One cat was absolutely car-phobic. She would poop the second she was put in the carrier and by the time I would get her to the vet (5 minutes away, max), there would be nothing left in her innards (but the car smelled wonderful!!!). One cat did not like cars but could tolerate. The third one didn't care as long as she was in a lap being petted or could look out the window.

I got tranqs and give them each a mild dose for the first leg of the trip. For the rest of ride, no tranqs for any of them and no problems. We would take them out at night and let them roam the hotel room. They rode quite contently during the day -- even drank, ate and used the litter box (one cat was a piggy ... no way would she go all day without her food).

It does seem daunting to drive with felines but giving them a very mild tranquilizer until they are used to the motion seems to do the trick and they really don't mind once they feel safe in their "moving house."

[meriboo]

We have transported cats from Chicago area to Florida twice. The first time we traveled with one cat, put her in her carrier and went on our way. What a disaster!!! What a mess!!!! The second time traveling with two cats, put a litter box on the floor in the back and let the cats have their freedom. This way worked great. AFter about 5 min of checking all the nooks and crannies the cats settled down for the trip. Each night with the help of the carriers they enjoyed the motel room.

Can't imagine $1200 for pet transportation. Perhaps a new job for me.

[fizzbyn]

Exactly 1 month from today, Dec 12th, the movers are coming and we're starting on our 5-day trip from Arizona to The Villages. With us will be our 86-year-old mother and a 15-year-old grouchy cat, so I'm very interested in this thread. We had two cats when we made the 9-hour drive from California to Arizona. We settled in AZ three weeks before we went to pick up the mother and cats, so we decided to rent a van where there'd be lots of room for the cats to roam about and for their dirt box, food and water. They howled for about an hour and then spent the rest of the 8 hours under the seat. Then never ate, drank or used the cat box. Now we have only one cat, but we kind of know what he'll be like. We will provide food, drink and liter box, but we don't know if he'll use them until we get to the motel. We just hope he will then. We'll put him in back with our mother so she can entertain him, if that is even possible. Keep this thread up... the more we learn the better.

[ouma1938]

We always taken our cats with us when we moved and they always end up settling down quite quickly. Don't worry if they don't eat, unless its a three day trip, but they usually eat when you get to the motel if you do make an overnight stop. Whatever you do will be better than shipping them down. They would be so scared, and its just not safe. So many things can happen.

[bargee]

Start getting them used to the carriers now.Short rides are good also.They'll moan and groan for a while but they get used to it after an hour or so.

[uujudy]

Traveling 2400 miles across the country with two kitties was really an adventure for us! On the first day Baby Monroe finally stopped yowling around Little America. That's in Wyoming, and about 4 hours into the trip. Every time we stopped the car for a rest and started again he would yowl for an hour or so.

We bought 2 small soft-side cat carriers for the trip instead of the big hard-side airline carriers we usually use. They have mesh sides and close with a zipper. They saved a lot of space in the car, HOWEVER the mesh sides are pretty much shredded by now, and getting the cats back into them in the morning was harder than if we had used carriers that they couldn't sink their claws into. The carriers close with a zipper. It was a 2- person job to get each cat into his own carrier each morning. Tommy Boy "snags" on things with his paw. It's part of his OCD personality. He will lie on the floor next to the dishwasher and "snag" on it for hours. If he can get something to make a sound when he snags, he's happy. He'll lie next to the window and snag on it at the bottom so it makes a clicking sound. He did this with his carrier when he discovered he could make the zipper pull make a dinging sound. For 2400 miles we listened to Baby Monroe yowling and Tommy dinging. YOWWLLL, ding ding ding, YOWWLL, ding ding ding ding....

We had figured out by Kansas that if we bought them each a hamburger (plain, no ketchup, no pickle) they would fall into a drugged-up stupor, and actually sleep for a while. Think about THAT next time you get a hamburger! We could drive almost 200 miles in silence after a hamburger stop... except for the first time in Kansas when we didn't wait long enough after the hamburger stop and Baby Monroe spewed all over his cat carrier. We pulled off the freeway and Mr. Judy (bless his heart) battled the wind to clean out the carrier by the on-ramp. Wish I had pictures of that. lol

We tried letting them each out of the carrier for a while, but Tommy Boy just hid under my feet, and Baby Monroe tried to hide under the brake pedal. They seemed to feel safer inside their carriers. We felt safer without a cat under the brake pedal.

We also had to factor in the time it took to unload and load the car every day. We had the 2 cats and their carriers, the litter box, the bag with the cat food, fresh litter, Tommy's eye medicine, cat treats, and their favorite blankets. It was like traveling with a baby. If we drove too long and waited too late, by the time we were all unloaded and the kitties were fed and pottied and settled in at the new motel, all the restaurants would be closed. After seeing the effects of hamburgers on them I sure didn't want us to eat fast food all the way across country. We had to stay sharp!

We made it to The Villages. We're still married, and both kitties are doing fine. Just get yourself some of those foam earplugs. You can do this!