Make Moving Easier Complete Guide - Make Moving with Pets Easier | Page 10

Ease your pet into the new home by making it a little more familiar. Put their
familiar objects—bowls, litter boxes, scratching posts—in the areas they’re
used to. For example, if their bowls were in the kitchen in the old place, keep
the bowls in the kitchen in the new place. If their litter box was in the
bathroom, keep it in the bathroom in the new place.
Keep the litter box set up in the sanctuary room so your cat will always have a
safe place to return to if he isn’t comfortable venturing too far out of his
comfort zone. If you don’t plan on keeping the box in the sanctuary room
located there permanently, wait until he’s totally comfortable with the other
box location(s) and then you can gradually move that box a few feet a day
toward the new box location. You just don’t want to shock him by having the
box disappear suddenly.
It’s important to stick to their schedule once you move, too. This helps reduce
some of their stress. Everything looks different and they have no idea what’s
going on, but at least they know they’re getting fed at the same time everyday.
Petfinder suggests keeping your own stress in check, too:
“Let your animal’s behavior be your guide,” Schultz recommends. “To that end,
it’s important for you to be as calm as possible. A lot of the stress that your
animal feels comes from you. If you’re falling apart, your animal’s reaction is
going to reflect that. If you have a relatively calm demeanor, that’s going to
brush off on the animals, too
Finally, if you’re changing phone numbers, don’t forget to update your pet’s ID
collar when you move, too. It’s kind of a given, but when we’re caught up in