Moving with 3 cats?

I moved with 3 cats. My husband carried one cat in one carrier and we put the two smallest together in another carrier. The airline was OK with that as long as we paid the fee for all three.
For pet-friendly hotels, etc., I would suggest putting them in the bathroom with a sign in both English and Spanish " Animals Inside. Do not open." I would just hand deliver used towels and pick up new ones. If it is just for a few days, I would prefer to clean the bathroom myself then lose my animals in a new place.
Tip: Be careful at teh airport security gates. They make you take the cats out of the carrier. Needless to say, this can make for a VERY ugly situation.

We also travelled with three cats. I took one in a carrier, my husband took another in acarrier, and we checked the third as baggage. On the advice of the vet, we gave the two older cats who were going as carry on a sedative that lasted almost all of the way here (from DC) but the little kitty girl going as baggage was not sedated (our vet had concers that she might vomit or have other life threatening complications where there was no one around to check on her). Believe me, I was really reluctant to send my baby (she was 18 months old then) into the luggage hold, but my vet assured me that with her outgoing personality and sense of adventure she'd be just fine and bounce back quickly.

We flew US Air, and their staff was extraordinary with the cat travelling in the cargo hold. A crew member personally carried her from one flight to our connecting plane (we could watch them through the terminal window), and he set her carrier in the shade under the wing so she wouldn't get too hot and could be the last item put on bard. The USAir crew in STX got her off the plane just as quickly, and took her into the baggage claim area right away -- she beat us there by at least 5 minutes.

All of the cats fared well even though none had ever flown before.

As far as keeping them in the room at a pet friendly hotel, it's not generally a problem if you're staying at a smaller hotel like Sand Castle on the Beach. We spoke to the housekeeping staff personally and told them about the cats and alerted them about the one who liked to try and make a break for it when the door was open. We also let the maintenance man/all around great guy Robert know of the kitties, and left a note on the door in English and Spanish that said keep this door closed at all times - cats inside. The staff were excellent and ended up spoiling the kitties rotten with loads of attention and the occasional Pounce kitty treat.

It helps if your cats see their carrier as a safe place to hide and sleep. They do get freaked by being in a new place, so we found that leaving their carriers open gave them a place to run and hide to when a new person came into the room.

HC
(And Woof, Moo, Meesha, and Pumpkin and Pudding, the two new Crucian kitties we recently adopted from the STX Animal Shelter.)

Thank you so much for the info!

Kendra

Hi Kendra,

We moved with one cat - she was carried on. We did not drug her. She is only about 2 years old and the vet didn't recommend that a cat that young be drugged, she would be able to handle it just fine. I put her in one of those soft sided carriers - my biggest recommendation is to bring a towel or a sheet of some kind to cover the carrier so she/he can't see out. When she was able to look around, she would freak out and cry. With the towel over her, she just took a nap. Our dog went by cargo hold and did very well.

We were only in a hotel for two days before we closed on our house - I stayed with the "babies" about 90% of the time, going out just for breakfast at the hotel. It wasn't much fun, but our dog is a big baby and didn't want to be left alone in a strange hotel. The cat was perfectly content to hide under the bed. When the maids came, I just sent them away. The one time I was going to go out with Stu, we wrote up a letter to put on the door to let them know there was a cat and dog inside and we didn't want maid service.

Let us know if we can answer any other questions - moving with animals can be stressful!

Janelle

I moved with TWO cats, does that count?

I stayed in a hotel for a couple of days while my house was still being painted, and I did what the previous poster mentioned about leaving them in the bathroom with their cage doors open if I went out. Maid service heard them meowing, so they didn't go in, but rather left clean towels and soaps on the bed. I *did* however, request cleaning products and paper towels and stuff to clean the bathroom myself when we left so that the maids did not have to clean up tracked litter (one of them was pregnant, so I thought I'd at least keep her from getting her baby sick), cat fur, and pieces of food (my cats were slobs when it came to eating). The both thanked me personally for that as I was checking out!

I did drug them on the way down. One of my cats had a heart problem that would shoot her heart rate far up for no reason and she would have trouble breathing, so I figured the more relaxed she was the better. The other had anxiety issues anyway, so she got a little extra BuSpar and some Benadryl that day, where the heart defect kitty got a little Valium and Benadryl (both vet prescribed). They were both just waking up when we got there. They managed the trip just fine.

Both of my cats were hosses (both over 15 pounds), so they had to go into cargo. I chose Delta b/c they have a direct flight per day with air-conditioned cargo holds, so they would not overheat and then get too cold at altitude.

They lived long and happy lives there (both have since died), and I don't regret bringing them....they seemed pretty happy being island cats, too.