460 miles by car, catamaran ferry, shuttle bus, train, 2 tubes across London underground, train, and

[Brian007]

So, at the beginning of May I will be attempting a reconnaissance mission to Edinburgh, Scotland, where I plan to rent a room in a random stranger's flat, whilst I flat-hunt for my forever home.  The last time I did this I already lived in Edinburgh, and it took me 2 months of solid hunting to find a half decent, affordable abode.  When I did, it was perfect.  However, I foolishly gave it up after 6 happy years, and decamped to the very bottom of England, 18 months ago.  I literally regretted the move the moment I stepped out of the removal van at my first stop, Devon, and all I've thought about, apart from Brian, ever since is returning to my old life.  I miss it terribly and have been deeply unhappy wihtout it.  I have not been well enough to wrap my head around moving back home until very recently.  So, I've just given notice on my flat and am offski.....   I will have to pack up all my furniture and belongings (many large, ridiculous collections of oddities) and put them into storage here, then hotfoot it back down to collect by removal van once I've found a flat.  I will board Dudley in an Edinburgh cattery. I should really get on the case now, but I've moved four times in the last 18 months and the whole idea is a ludicrous, pain-in-the-neck.  

The journey includes:  a half hour car drive; choppy 25 min catamaran ferry; 15 min crammed to bursting shuttle bus; 3 hour slow train; then down, down into the London underground to wind my way through claustrophobic, long narrow, crowded rush hour passages, to get on a tube where I'll get seriously disapproving looks and grumblings for all my space-taking luggage and "baby", then more winding passages to another tube, more passages, then up many flights of stairs to busy Kings Cross station; 5+ hour high-speed train; then taxi ride to somewhere, as yet unknown, in Edinburgh.  It also costs an arm and a leg, daylight robbing swines! 

And, I have to take Dudley with me as I have nowhere suitable to leave him down here for such a long time.  

Even just letting the thought of this normally nightmare journey on my own gives me the willies.   

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• Brian007
• Mar 31, 2017

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• Brian007
• Mar 31, 2017

I've been on a Dudley treatment drive in order to get his happiness and love levels up enough to cope.  I plan on dosing him up to the eyeballs, on a variety of cat-calming treatments, for the journey.  

  I wish I could get dosed up and curl up in the stroller with him.  But, apparently, I'm the designated "adult".  

Any tips, "there theres," and whatevers would be greatly appreciated.  This is my first thread ever, it's quite exciting.  

 

This is not an April Fools' Joke.  If only it were.  

 

 

[foxden]

The entire process sounds fascinating [emoji]128542[/emoji]

There are services who do "cat transport".
What if you do the following?
1- identify the random flat that will be your temporary quarters
2- find a boarding cattery for 2-3 days in your current location or on the mainland side of the ferry ride to facilitate booking the pet transport
3- book with a pet transport service to bring Dudley to you
4- meet transport at your temporary abode.

Result: Dudley still makes the trip, but in a less chaotic method, as he will be serenely toted about by vehicle. You will be separated for a few days, but I believe he will not be as stressed.

I believe P pendragon used a transport service to bring his older cat from Italy to UK.

If Dudley arrives separately, perhaps some essentials can be shipped to your temporary home or to a shipping and parcel store able to accept parcels. We actually have a chain called "The Mailbox Store"
http://www.themailboxstore.net
These stores have 2 main functions -- as a pack and ship center so you can send parcels to others and, (the more relevant function) as a mailing address where packages can be signed for and stored securely for a day or three until you can retrieve the boxes. These businesses also have postal boxes that can be leased for your more typical posted letters.

For your bulk belongings -- here in the US a new business has emerged. The "pack-yourself" moving truck. One brand is called "Pods".
https://www.pods.com
You pack their portable storage container, the company picks it up, then delivers it to you on request. You unpack and they pick up the empty bin. You pay a fee based on the container size and on the time the container is used. I have no idea if this is available to you.

I have considered the Pods idea as a way to store some of our miscellaneous collections if we ever begin the process of remodeling our house.

 

[Brian007]

You are the single most helpful person who has to swooped in to rescue me from my living nightmare of the past 18 months.  Fast as lightning too!  

  In fact, I was utterly alone and filled with dread until I read your post, clicked on the links, which in one move forwarded me onto the UK pet transport and pods sites.  My whole world became instantly brighter, I can actually move back home!  You have no idea what this means to me, thanking you is not enough.  I should, at the very least, leave you Dudley in my will.  

The pods company don't work on Saturday or Sunday so I'll have to wait till Monday for my quote.  Patience and not getting my hopes up will be difficult between now and then.  I'm somewhat of an optimist and so suffer disappointment frequently when my forever 'next new' plan fails.  Disappointment sucks but that's the payoff for the intense excitement I feel when I hatch a cunning plan.  I know it will cost at least £1,000 to move & store me, which is more money than I have but my dad said he'd help me to get back to Edinburgh as he can see that my spark has gone and the life is fast draining out of me.  But this service is worth its weight in gold.  I'm getting too optimistic already, as the Isle of Wight is an odd location to move from, with an expensive ferry, and the storage depot is in Manchester, so that's across country twice.  And I have to be out of my flat by the 28th April at the very latest.  I hope they can squeeze me in.

A pet transport site is finding me quotes and will email them, presumably when the country wakes up, it's 6.50am here.   You might have just saved Dudley's sanity and future post traumatic stress behavioural problems.  And it means I can fly from Southhampton, where the ferry lands, to Edinburgh, as it's just as cheap, if not cheaper than the train!  I was having panic attacks about going into London and crossing the underground.  You've saved my life!  I can't thank you enough.  

I haven't been able to afford to even visit Edinburgh since I left, and have disappeared from my friends as I've been unable to deal with my drastic error and tell anyone.  I never want to come back to England again and hope Scotland manages to extract itself from the United Kingdom.  I'm theoretically English and my family all now live here.  But it's not for me.  I started watching a BBC drama just after posting my thread and instantly recognised it was filmed in Edinburgh.  I'm so homesick.  I can't quite believe that I'm actually going to make it back home at last.

I'm speechless.  I've just started to cry.  You're welcome in my home in Edinburgh, always. 

TCS IS AWESOME!!!

 

[foxden]

You are so very welcome. I am glad to be of service.

Your move will not be easy under any conditions, but I'm happy to provide options to help. I can already "hear" the joy and relief in your voice

I just could not imagine carrying Dudley and your belongings through the Underground in London.

It is so easy to be caught up in details that a bigger picture is not apparent.

I did recall that you are on Isle of Wight, but I don't know exactly where that is in the British Isles. My knowledge of geography for that part of the world is not very good.

I would not have thought about pet transport, except P pendragon said he did that.

The pods services advertise on television here frequently. Since they also store belongings, it seemed easier to only pack up once.

Keep working on this.
It still won't be easy, but with the pods service, I believe it will not be that difficult to be out of your current rental by the end of April.

I don't know if there is a "Craigslist" for Edinburgh, but many people advertise rooms and apartments on that collection of websites here.

AirBNB can be expensive, but we use it for vacation rentals. I know this is a global service. There are properties on that service that are offered for extended stays.

Ask the friends you left behind in Edinburgh to help find leads for a place to live.

Keep working on this. I'm certain this WILL work out, and you already sound happier and more confident.

 

[lalagimp]

Exciting and overwhelming. We spent somewhere around $6000 to move from the South West to the Washington DC area with three days driving, 2 overnight stops, and 12 animals and 3 adults in a two car caravan.
Every time Tommy gets in the carrier now he thinks it's the end of the world. It doesn't help that he's been to emergency 3 times and surgery the 4th in the last 6 months w 2 follow ups with the surgeon in the next state over. Poor kitten has had 7 round trips by car since we moved here over summer. #1 was for the regular vet who said he was in perfectly fine health after we arrived.

 

[pendragon]

Hi Brian,

Sorry if I am late, I saw the notification that I was mentioned only now (great feature by the way, or I would have certainly missed this post!).

First of all, all my sympathies to you.
It's far from easy to travel and organize a relocation with a pet, I know that well!
Luckily for me though, my Melody was staying at my parents house in Rome until I was ready to have her, so the situation was definitely easier on me (aside the whole foreign country/no job/no idea what to do with my life I guess).

Nevertheless, the service I used for the transport from Italy was www.animalcouriers.com
Their Van has huge cages, they allow you to put your kitty bedding, litter box and toys and you can give them the food they usually eat along with instructions on how to feed them during the journey (including meds if they are on some).
In my case for a full trip from Italy to Nottingham it costed me a small fortune, 525 pounds. However the alternatives by plane cargo were far more expensive, ranging from 1000 to 1500.

In your case the trip is much shorter and doesn't involve any international borders crossing. I would definitely try to call them and see how much they would charge.

For short trips (when I sent my kitties to the cattery during my holidays) I used a service called anyvan.com that has a section for living pet transport, it's very user friendly and allows you to create your own custom listing and wait for the better offer.

Aside from that, I think that in your case the best option would be to find a good cattery / pet sitter in Edinburgh (or nearby, I mentioned anyvan especially because sometimes the best catteries are out of the main cities/towns in the middle of nowhere, and you may still want to keep them as an option and use that website to book a far cheaper van for the shorter trip) and send Dudley there shortly before your own departure only to pick him up later.

Unfortunately I have never been in Edinburgh or Scotland yet, and I do not really have any cattery to recommend, the only one I heard good things about is called GayzetteBengals but it's located in Aberdeenshire, which seems to be quite far from Edinburgh.
However do reaserch properly whatever cattery/pet sitter you decide to go with, as I unfortunately had a fairly bad experience with mine. Appearances can be deceiving.

Concerning AirBnB, I agree with Foxden who gave you a great tip by the way, it CAN be expensive, but also amazingly cheap if you look hard enough, and sometimes especially if you are going to stay for a longer period of time, you can come to some agreements as I did to pay a single fee for the whole stay (they normally list only the tariff for a single night, sometimes they mention a discount for 1 or 2 weeks, but just try to contact the owner of the house and negotiate a price.
I used it for quite some times, and you can find a lot of different options, including incredibly small separate apartments at amazing prices. I would definitely check it out.

Besides the first placed I moved to when I arrived from Italy was also in the south, Plymouth. So glad to have left it. Probably just bad luck / coincidences, but I never felt wanted there. I guess it's harder to win the mistrust as a foreigner though.

In any case, best of luck to you and Dudley!

 

[Brian007]

So far I have been quoted around £400 to transport him.  The ferry is very expensive.  I don't have £400 extra, considering the £1000 (more like £2000 to £4000) to store and transport my belongings.  Plus the £200+ just to transport myself up there.   Then I need at least £1000 to secure a flat.  Plus pay rent on temporary accommodation.  And I have to do all this on my own. 

Thank you for your input though.

 

[foxden]

Hang in there.

These are just the first estimates you are getting.
Now that you know what kind of services to use, you have a bit of time to search for other suppliers of similar services.
Name brands can be expensive, and there are "copy cat" suppliers for almost everything.

You might also find moving services to be a little less expensive a few days earlier in the month. EVERYONE wants to move exactly at the end of the month. There can be a significant difference in prices.

Keep looking. A service like AirBNB can get you temporary lodging without a large security deposit. I'm certain there are more resources and services available.

 

[Brian007]

It's getting worse.  More expensive and fewer options, stoopid optimism.  Hey ho.  

 

[foxden]

Ok, take a deep breath.

Make a list of the things you need to do, and break them down into small steps.

Look for other service providers. Ask your vet if they have any recommendations for pet transport.

Call or e-mail your friends in Edinburgh to get some help with finding a cattery and finding temporary lodgings.

You've said you enjoy helping other people. Don't be afraid to ask your friends for help with specific tasks. Most people enjoy being able to help others.

You knew this move would be expensive. You already gave notice on your current rental.
Even though it is not what you want to do, would you be able to stay another 1 or 2 months? Perhaps if you book services with more notice, you could get a lower price.

More time before your move would also give you time to go through your collections to decide which are essential and which things you might be willing to sell.

Moving fewer things will reduce your costs and give you more flexibility in choosing a new apartment.

Keep an open mind. Get out of your head and search the web for things like "cheap moving ideas", "...property storage locations", "how to move a cat", "relocation help"

Look at the suggestions that come up in the search engine. You might find useful information in the related searches.

I think you will find all the things you need and some lower prices. You might need to be somewhat more flexible with the timing of your move, however.

I think you can get the optimism back by stepping back and rethinking the timeline you've set. Postponing the move by one month gives you a lot more time to organize everything.

 

[Brian007]

I can't postpone.  My landlord is already showing people around my flat.  I've already postponed since October, I need to move asap.  I'm on the case though.  A bit disheartened but I'm used to that.  Dudley had fun with some boxes today, which was very funny and was a relief that he wasn't getting too stressed.  However, I've plugged in a stinky valerian diffuser and am spraying valerian on his stuff, as well as giving him treats and spot-on!!!!

 

[foxden]

I guess that isn't an option then.

So -- Dudley sounds as if he's on board. You just need to catch your breath and keep going.
As the saying goes
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" Lao Tzu

 

[foxden]

Sorry, that sounded insensitive when I looked at that last post today.

Keep working at this. You will get it figured out, and get back to Edinburgh for a fresh start

 

[Brian007]

Not insensitive, no.  

Things are becoming increasingly more difficult and out of my price range.  And time is ticking on...  I wish I had a chum to help with all this. 

But at the very least a friend has offered to look after Dudley in Edinburgh for a couple of months, so my temporary digs won't need to accept a cat.  This is one worry off my mind.  Although I'm not sure how well he'd cope without me.  We've been virtually together 24/7 since he was 8 weeks old.  And would he think I've abandoned him and then not want me back again when the time came?

But getting him there is still not resolved.  Neither is my removal or storage situation. 

I'll keep you afresh of further happenings......  

 

[foxden]

I'm certain Dudley will want to be with you.  You'll be visiting him, and he is imprinted on you.

Good luck hunting for services.  The easiest way is to have your belongings stored at a moving company (as in the pods system...) and not have to move them twice -- i.e. into a storage locker, then move them a second time to your new rental.  I guess the pods system is far too expensive for your needs.  I never looked at prices before I suggested that option.

Check the cost to store your belongings in Edinburgh, as it may be more cost effective to have things moved to Edinburgh (or nearby) immediately, and put them in storage there until you are ready to retrieve them.

That way, you'll not require a trip back to part of England just to pack and move things from a storage locker into a lorry.

Best regards

 

[Brian007]

There is only the one POD company in the UK, unfortunately, otherwise I'd have definitely gone for that suggestion.

I have decided to get an Edinburgh removal and storage firm to do the move, so that we are all up there together from the start.  Still going to cost £2000.

GOOD NEWS:  I have just accepted and paid a deposit for a pet transporter lady, who will pick Dudley up from my door on 26th April and take him to her home in Dumfries 80 miles from Edinburgh.  She will board him with her until I get there, which will probably be on the 30th April (my birthday), and then deliver him to my door (or the door of my friend).  The transporter lady owns ragdolls too.  This means Dudley will be out of the way of the stressful removal goings on.  It's costing £244 but that includes everything.  I'm so relieved.  

 

[foxden]

I'm very happy you have the arrangements resolved for Dudley. The plan sounds perfect there.

I hoped your move would not be that expensive. You know that this is the right thing for you to do. You will get it done, just hang in there and take it one step at a time

 

[pendragon]

I am so glad to hear the good news

It was frustrating to watch from the sidelines as I was really short on ideas :/

It will be expansive but I believe there is nothing as precious as happiness and peace of mind, and your first post you made it pretty clear that a move was needed.

The beginnings are always hard and the only thing you can see in those moments are the negatives, but once you have settled in again, I am sure you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Best wishes!

 

[Brian007]

Thanks.  I don't actually have anywhere to go yet.  But the ball is rolling and something's bound to turn up.  Hopefully, something more comfortable than sleeping on a park bench.  But at least Dudley's sorted.  He's already getting freaked out by all the things being moved around.

 

[Brian007]

Dudley is showing sign of distress, he's meowing more often and is sometimes nervous of me, which he never is normally.  I'm doing what I can to lessen this but there's not much I can do about all the chaos and not being able to spend enough time focusing on him.  I'm really worried about the prospect of him having to stay with my friend whilst I flat hunt for an unknown period of time.  I know my friend will give him the best of care, but he's ever so attached to me and there are lots of visitors to my friend's flat.  I don't have many visitors, so Dudley is not used to people.  Perhaps it will be good for him, but I don't like the thought of throwing him in at the deep end.

There's so much stuff I'm having to deal with alongside my move.  I'm trying to keep in mind that time will pass and so will all the stress...

It's calming to have this site as a distraction.  

I wish everyone and their cats well.