So… The other day I mentioned that at the end of the month, Pippi, Squirt, and I are packing up and moving back to Florida. What I didn’t mention is exactly how we are going to get there!
When I decided to move to California last year, I sold, donated, gave away, or threw away most of my belongings, including my car. My remaining belongings fit into six boxes and three suitcases. I shipped the boxes, checked the suitcases, and the cats and I got on non-stop flight from Fort Lauderdale to LAX.
The good news is that besides buying a car, I haven’t really acquired much since I moved to California. If anything I have purged a bunch of stuff that, after shipping out here, I realized I never use or wear!
This time around though, selling my car isn’t really a viable option! So what do I do?
Well… It looks like I am going to ship as much of my stuff as I can. Then I am going to pack up what’s left of my clothes, my grooming tools, and the cats; shove them all in my little 2-door car; and drive 2,700 miles cross-country! As far as I can tell it will take me four days of driving 10 to 12 hours a day! This means four days confined to a small car with two unhappy felines; three nights of staying in strange hotels with them.
It is going to be a really long ride! I so wish that I could afford to have my car shipped so the cats I and could just fly back! When I took them on a plane to get them here they did much, much better than I expected… Hopefully the same will happen for driving us back to Florida!
P.S. If you have any experience driving cats cross-country, please feel free to share any advice you may have!
Learning to Dance in the Rain 
no words of wisdom, but lots of wishes for a safe journey!
LaQuinta will let you stay with cats. Check our Oskar the Blind Kitten’s site – they just moved from Omaha to Seattle. Also, check out Kitty Collage – she has a big carrier “house” thing that both of her cats travel very well in. My cats freaked when we moved 5 miles down the road – good luck to you. (Both of those ‘cats’ are on FB.
I’ve done AZ to ME 5 years ago with 4 cats!
They will meow a lot for the first hour each day and they will be hard to catch each morning at the motel so stuff those nooks and crannies with towels and pillows!
Do some searching online and print out a list of pet friendly motels on your route… Plan your trip around availability of cat friendly motels and call ahead to reserve a room… Like a couple of hours at least! You don’t want to be exhausted and driving around looking for a place.
Most cats will sleep away most of the day…they won’t eat or drink much but offer anyway at each rest stop. If they are in smaller carriers with no litterbox, offer them a potty break.
Make sure they are microchipped and firmly in carriers before opening car doors…
Don’t use cat sedatives… They don’t work that great and gave one of my cats diarrhea which is NOT fun in a car!
Give lots of water and wet food at night since they won’t partake much during the day…
I’m sure I forgot something, but go ahead and email me if you have questions!
I drove from Oregon to New Mexico in Honda Civic hatchback (no air conditioning). As another poster said, they will meow a lot at first and will not eat much. In the hotel room, they’ll explore and hide under the bed until the middle of the night then get up on the bed.
At one point, while driving through LA, they all started meowing (after being quiet for a long time). I finally figured out that they were probably too hot so I draped towels over their carriers. They then quieted down.
Thank you all for the helpful hints and tips and the well-wishes. They are very much appreciated!