Colorado Bound: An Incredible Journey. Or Diary Of Moving Two Cats From California To Colorado

My BF Randall and I have been in the Bay Area almost a decade, and we decided to move to Colorado for a change of pace. Super exciting but moving two cats halfway across the country is daunting! He’s moved from Florida to California before with two cats, so he has some practice. I thought I would start this thread to document the journey of the two Humans and Olive and Gohan.

Day One: The Movers


This is one of the scarier times, when a kitty can escape the house or crawl into the dresser. We had pre-separated out the things we would need for hotels ahead of time and kept carriers out for them to acclimate to. We are using the Sleepypod carriers locally, and then transferring to airport carriers once our flight day is here. We are shipping my car, so extra carriers and stuff can go in the car when it ships.

When the movers came, Olive didn’t seem concerned and we got her in the carrier easily. She went in the bathroom. Gohan ran under the bed, so we blocked that off to do last. There was one tricky moment where he climbed into the dresser behind the drawers (a favorite hidey hole of his) and we took the drawers out and got him in the carrier and that went into the bathroom next to Olive. The chorus of meows from such suffering kitties! But they were safe. Eventually the movers were done (about 6 hours) and we went to check into our Kitty friendly hotel!

Day One: The Hotel
We didn’t know how they would react to the hotel. Smells, sounds, new stuff. We brought both carrier styles, toys, food, bowls, and a favorite bed for each. We didn’t know what to expect, although Gohan tends to sit still for hours after a move so we expected him to warm up slowly. Olive we rescued last year and to our knowledge has never moved house before. So she was a wildcard.

We brought them in and Gohan panicked and skunk around looked where to hide. The bed had a baseboard and was blocked off, thankfully, so he was pretty unsure. Olive was nervous but explored around bravely for a while. Then she hid under a chair and wouldn’t come out.

Gohan is very territory focused and smell aware. He always “maps” the house and checks out new objects. After 20-30 min, he started exploring and smelling everything. You could see him become less stressed the more he smelled objects we brought from home, and when he categorized he new smells. He was still a little cautious but soon he was owning the hotel room territory.



Olive would immediately engage and come out for food smells, but then she wouldn’t eat and would just rub my face and headbutt me. She got great comfort from me but would often retreat to the hiding spot under the chair. She eventually ate her dinner. We left out kibble and water overnight, but the wet food I rinse right away to avoid weird smells.



Day Two:
We awoke in the morning (and various times at night when a cat walked over us). The cats are more confident, and have found out how to go behind the dresser and sit atop the mini fridge. They seem more calm and are coming out more often without treat bribes. It’s going pretty well so far.

Today’s plan, for day two, is clean the house. Tomorrow will be the walkthrough with our landlady and then Sunday the kitties get to fly to Colorado. We have another hotel while we wait for our movers to arrive. So far so good! I’m so glad we brought the beds rom home, it definitely helped a lot.

Oh wow! Good luck!

Day 2: The kitties are doing good with the hotel. Better than home actually in the way they interact. They have never been friends, and are suspicious with each other. In the hotel though, they have gotten much closer and hang out on the bed together which is new.



Day 3: The natives are getting restless. After a 3rd day in the hotel many zoomies are happening and more light playful chasing. We have a wand toy and other small toys but I think they are missing their large house.

Went to check in to the flights and it threw an error. After an hour call with United (during which they said pets were not allowed on that aircraft type and a supervisor who later said they were fine but we would need to check in at the airport) we ended up going in person to the airport to talk to a real person and we were finally checked in and ready for tomorrow! Just 2 hours of unnecessary stress after Southwest initially canceled our flight last week due to the 787 grounding.

Day 4: The Flight

Woke up early to prepare the bags and kitties. First thing was using pillows to block the access to the few hidey holes (behind the dresser and desk). Then we used nail clippers to cut the sedative pull into fourths. Olive went fairly smoothly, she spit it out once but it went down after. Gohan hid under a chair and we had to lift it up to grab him, but he was a good kitty about the pill. Then we checked out and hopped the hotel transport to the airport.



The airport was ok, we checked in at thre desk and checked the bags. Took the kitties to security and put our carryons on the conveyor. Lastly we took the kitties out of the carrier and went through the metal detector and had a hand swipe. They did ok, nestled in to us from the terrifying airport hustle and bustle. The worst was the bag X-ray took so long it was probably 5 min before we got the carriers back. Gohan was ok, but Olive got really squirmy and I have a few new minor arm scratches. She seemed to fight the sedative quite effectively.

The wait for the plane was fine, and we boarded early. Carriers had to squish down under the seat, but we had a little extra space because we got really cheap First Class upgrades. And then the jet setting kitties were ready to take off!



Except the flight was the worst. I was worried that Olive wasn’t breathing the whole time she was still and quiet (she was) but then during takeoff and periodically in the flight she would panic and try to claw her way out of the carrier. She was secure but distressed. And then Gohan squirmed his way under the pad at the bottom of the carrier and stayed there like a stone. So it was a stressful 2.5 hour flight but they made it in one piece! We then took the shuttle to our rental car and drove the 40 min to the hotel with two sleepy, exhausted and quiet kitties.

But hey recovered well soon after.



In the end, I’m not sure what I would do if I did it again. On one hand, it was terrifying and they were upset for about 7 hours. But then it was over. Had we driven, it would have been a few days but way less upsetting for them. Now we see they do well in the hotels, but at the time I thought they might hide much more. But we made it to Colorado!

So quick update: we finally moved in to our new rental house yesterday, after 10 days in a pet friendly hotel room waiting for the truck to arrive. The cats started to get stir crazy even will new toys and playtime to distract. And they told us Very loudly, in so many meows, how unhappy they were when we put them in the carrier for the final trip. But they arrived at their new territory just as the first few snowflakes fell on a giant snowstorm.



They are spending all the time exploring their new home, and are doing so well. They even are doing way better in their interactions together - I think neutral territory really helped Gohan chill out with the new cat. Only took 1.5 years

Last night they didn’t hide much at all and spent the time running around trying to explore everything.



This morning we went to breakfast and we were missing two cats when we returned. We found Olive quickly enough but heard distant meows from Gohan. He had opened the bathroom drawer and crawled into the cabinet but couldn’t get out. We rescued him (and again when he did it a second time). Might need some childproof locks ...

WOW. Well, glad you made it, all in one piece and safe and sound!
Oh, you'll have to update your location below your avatar LOL

Oh good call! Fixed it!

So far the cats seem to love the new place. Olive helped me organize the movies yesterday.



We have some non-cat friendly basement areas - the water heater and lots of repair stuff from the landlord is behind a wall with one entrance that is an accordion door and another with no door at all. We put a baby gate behind the accordion door to discourage curious kitties but Gohan still managed to lock himself on there for some time. More kitty proofing needed!

Glad you made it! It seems to be going down well with your kitties. Great to hear you're all okay and I hope you enjoy your newfound life in Colorado.

Thanks! We are actually shocked how well they are taking the move. Makes it easier for us when they are so well adjusted.

LOL Olive!

So quick update! Gohan and Olive are getting along increasingly well, and breakfast culminated with this amazing photo op this morning!

They’re probably really happy to get out of the cramped hotel room! Some kitties appreciate space.

Oh for sure! They’ve been quite exuberant this past almost two months. Olive tends to be a trooper but she gets squirmy. Gohan kind of retreats within himself and shuts down so it’s nice seeing him get more animated.