Moving / The Removal of a Cat Tree

[ghostlyy]

I'm about to move and today, we went through and threw out a lot of stuff that we didn't need. I didn't want to part with the cat tree, but it was in shambles -- my 5 cats had destroyed it. We only had it for about a year, but the second it was removed from my house (about 25 minutes ago), my second oldest kitty, Luna, is not taking it well. She has been crying incessantly at the door and growling, hissing, and running around the house, breathing really heavily, etc. I understand cats don't take change and I did the best I could with what money I had and did purchase a feliway diffuser about a week ago and placed it in the same room very near to the cat tree, as I knew we would be getting rid of it. Two of my other cats, the oldest and the youngest did not eat dinner tonight after it was removed either. My two middle kitties seem to be just fine (they are sisters and came to our household at the same time, though they have all been around since the cat tree was purchased). I did hold my Luna and try to coo to her, pet her, give her treats, etc, and while she did eat her food (she wolfed it down so fast and then immediately targeted the other cats' food with vengeance, looking quite panicked) I am quite concerned. We will still be living in this place for another 2-3 weeks and I wanted to try to do this in stages so not to drop all these changes on them at once, but what else can I do to help soothe them? I expected some negative behavior, but my Luna seems to be reacting extremely bad, so any advice is helpful! I know there's many threads on moving and I've tried to read through a couple (I did get the Feliway, we've been showing them extra love lately, and about two weeks ago switched to a new litter and litterbox, but they seem to be loving that as it seems to have eliminated some elimination issues we were having, so I'm not worried about that, however maybe that on top of these changes is too much for them?). I hate that I've done something to make them all so upset but moving is non-negotiable at this point.

 

[betsygee]

Oh, poor babies, how stressful for all of you.  Is there any way you can keep a part of the tree, like a shelf or something, that smells familiar to them?  Just an idea, I don't know if it would work or not.  

 

[raintyger]

Have you packed some of your things in boxes? Maybe you could arrange the boxes into into interesting configurations as a substitute.

 

[ghostlyy]

Unfortunately, my boyfriend already put the cat tree in a dumpster. We have been packing a little bit and some of our cats have enjoyed the boxes, however, Luna isn't one of them. Today she is still extra cranky and doesn't seem to want anything to do with me or my bf. She doesn't want us to pet her or anything. I can tell she's pretty upset with me, though the others seem to have chilled out more and are relaxing. Luna isn't interacting with any of the other cats either or she is hissing when they approach her. Sighhhh. She is such a temperamental tortie.

 

[raintyger]

Sounds like your gang is especially sensitive to change. Most people I know just pack everything up and let kitty go inside the house when they get to their new digs. But cat experts recommend putting them in a single room, trying to make the room look similar to an old one, and then opening up other rooms one by one. You might want to consider this with yours.

 

[betsygee]

I don't have a lot of experience with this.  We haven't moved for 20 years so all our cats have only ever lived here.  The cat we had when we moved here was young and she adapted pretty easily.  Hopefully some other members will come along with some suggestions for you.