Hi CatMama,
I can understand your worry! I will just tell you about our experiences and maybe that will help. We have been military for 27 years and now retired and so moved every 2-3 years, toting cats along the way. I guess I never really thought of it as traumatic, but more of an adventure. I did take the cats either to a neighbors house or to a kennel. Once I remember leaving them in one bedroom and moving them from room to room as the packers worked. Getting to the new place was always an adventure! They LOVED helping to go through BOXES!!! I never recall any problems at all. The longest trip was a car ride from Louisiana to Ohio and we stopped twice to stay in motels. The kitties stayed in carriers and hollered a good bit of the trip!! We kept CB radios in the cars as we had two vehicles at the time and I was in the non-kitty car and could hear all the complaining still But, all in all it was a non-traumatic adventure each time! They will have a great time both with boxes and rediscovering all their things!!