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Moving House With a Cat

Ask a rescue when they get the most calls about missing cats and the answer is moving day. The mechanism is always the same: the front door is propped open for hours, everyone is busy, and a frightened cat takes the one exit it can see. Almost all of it is preventable with a closed door and a sign.

By The Pawcial team Β· Updated Β· 5 min read

The single most important thing

The sign matters more than the instruction. People forget what they were told three hours ago while carrying a sofa; they do read a door.

The week before

Two things to do early, because both take time and neither can be done on the day.

First, check the microchip registration. Not that the cat is chipped β€” that the record has your current phone number on it. This is the week it matters most and the week nobody thinks about it. Update it to the new address as soon as you have the date.

Second, leave the carrier out as furniture. Open, with a blanket in it, somewhere the cat already sleeps. Feed the odd meal in it. A cat that has been ignoring an open carrier for two weeks loads in thirty seconds; a cat that only sees the carrier on vet days will be under the bed when you need it.

If the move is long enough to need a vet en route, or you are crossing a border, sort the paperwork now rather than in the last week. Getting to the vet without a fight covers the carrier work in more detail.

Moving day itself

  1. 1Empty the safe room first, then put the cat in it with litter, water, bed and carrier before anything else happens.
  2. 2Sign on the door. Tell the movers. Tell them again.
  3. 3Load the rest of the house around them. Do not open that door to check on the cat every twenty minutes β€” each opening is a risk and the reassurance is for you, not them.
  4. 4The safe room goes last. Load the cat into the carrier in the closed room, carry it straight out, and put it in the car footwell or seat-belted on a seat β€” never the boot.
  5. 5At the other end, reverse it: the cat's room gets set up first, cat goes straight in, door shut, sign on the door until the movers have gone.

In the car, a partially covered carrier calms most cats. Do not open it to comfort them, however loudly they object β€” a carrier opened in a car is how a cat ends up under the pedals.

The first days in the new house

Resist the urge to give the cat the run of the place immediately. One room first, with everything they need and something that smells of the old house β€” an unwashed blanket, your jumper. Let them come out of the carrier in their own time rather than tipping them out.

Expect hiding, and let it happen. A cat that spends two days behind the sofa is processing, not ill. What matters is that they are eating, drinking, and using the litter tray. If none of those has happened in twenty-four hours, call a vet β€” cats that stop eating get sick quickly.

Expand the territory a room at a time as the cat starts exploring rather than on a schedule. Most settle within a week or two. Some take a month, and that is still normal.

Letting an outdoor cat out again

This is the part people rush, and it is how a cat ends up walking back to the old address. A cat needs to have decided the new house is home before it goes outside, and that takes considerably longer than it takes you.

Wait at least two to three weeks
Longer if the cat is still hiding or unsettled. There is no rush and a great deal of downside to going early.
First trip out hungry, before a meal
Go out with them, stay in the yard, and call them in for food after a few minutes. Food is the recall you actually have.
Build up in short supervised sessions
A few minutes, then longer, over several days. Always before a meal, always ending with coming in to eat.
Not at dusk, not overnight
For the first few weeks especially. A disoriented cat out after dark in an unfamiliar area is the worst combination.

If you have moved locally β€” within a mile or two of the old house β€” take this more seriously, not less. Cats that go back are almost always cats that moved a short distance, because the old territory is still reachable. Warn the new occupants and leave them a phone number.

The admin nobody remembers

  • Update the microchip record with the new address, not just the phone number.
  • Register with a new vet before you need one, and ask who covers them out of hours. Find cat vets and clinics near you.
  • Get the records transferred from the old practice β€” vaccination history in particular, which a cattery or sitter will ask for.
  • Check the tenancy terms if you are renting. Get any verbal permission in writing before the cat is in the building.
  • Find the new emergency clinic and save the number in your phone the first week, not the night you need it.

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