My husband and I moved from Baton Rouge, LA, to St. Louis, MO on July 1, 2003, with Bailey & Leila. They both rode in the car for the 10-hour trip with me, and they were both so happy when we went in the house we were renting and let them loose for the first time, once we got their food/water/litter and some toys set up. Prior to that, we had them locked in our apt. bedroom in Baton Rouge, so we could leave the front door open and be carrying things out. We did the same thing the next day when we unloaded everything from the truck into the house - we kept them in one of the bedrooms so they'd be nice and secure and not get out.

We closed on the home we bought on April 29, so from then on, we gradually moved things from the rental house to our new house. We lived at the rental house with Bailey, Leila, and the 2 cats we adopted last April and June, Leo & Claudia until the following weekend. That was the point at which most of our stuff was moved over to the new house. The cats were definitely upset b/c all of the familiar things were disappearing, but that's why we stayed there all week, so we would never have to leave them at the rental house alone - we all went into the new house to sleep there for the first night together - on May 7. We closed off the finished basement so they wouldn't be too overwhelmed. We also brought them in and put them in our master bedroom/bathroom at first so they could kind of get acquainted with everything in small scale first. Then, we let them go out into the rest of the house (except for the basement and 3-season room, both of which were closed off to them), which included a main floor and a half story to explore.

We started letting them go in the basement over the next couple of days. They really did adjust to the house pretty quickly, with minimal traumatization. They love all the open space and 2 sets of stairs. Now that my husband has redone the 3-season room (it was in really bad shape when we moved in, whereas the rest of the house is nice), and put carpet squares in, secure doors, etc., we let them out there, and they just love it!

Cats do pretty well - they just have to be given time to adjust, and plenty of love and attention in the process.