Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Emilybh thanks for all the tips especially about the litter. I have seen sites about travelling with a cat and they rarely mention the litterbox. I did find out that they sell disposable litterboxes for when you travel.
I am like you, in that my cat's comfort comes before mine. When money is tight I will cut back on my food in order to make sure I have the money to buy his food.
I am planning on moving to Charleston with my best friend so maybe we can skip stopping and just take turns driving. I don't want to stress out my cat anymore than he has to and stopping at different motels might be too much for him. Just in case though I am going to look up the names of hotels/motels who accept pets.
Are you going to rent an apartment? What realtor are you with? Can they really find a place for you without you seeing it before hand? I had never thought of going through a realtor.
Is ABF expensive? That is the next problem, finding a good moving company that won't rip you off. One of my friend's told me that when she moved to Florida she and her husband only took what would fit in their car and they sold the rest. She said that way it was like they were really getting a fresh start. I walked around may apartment thinking what would I take and what would I leave. I don't know if I can do that. But, if the cost of movers is more than replacing the stuff, I may just do that.
Emilybh thanks for all the tips especially about the litter. I have seen sites about travelling with a cat and they rarely mention the litterbox. I did find out that they sell disposable litterboxes for when you travel.
I am like you, in that my cat's comfort comes before mine. When money is tight I will cut back on my food in order to make sure I have the money to buy his food.
I am planning on moving to Charleston with my best friend so maybe we can skip stopping and just take turns driving. I don't want to stress out my cat anymore than he has to and stopping at different motels might be too much for him. Just in case though I am going to look up the names of hotels/motels who accept pets.
Are you going to rent an apartment? What realtor are you with? Can they really find a place for you without you seeing it before hand? I had never thought of going through a realtor.
Is ABF expensive? That is the next problem, finding a good moving company that won't rip you off. One of my friend's told me that when she moved to Florida she and her husband only took what would fit in their car and they sold the rest. She said that way it was like they were really getting a fresh start. I walked around may apartment thinking what would I take and what would I leave. I don't know if I can do that. But, if the cost of movers is more than replacing the stuff, I may just do that.
Unfortunatly my best friend is allergic to cats so I won't be able to ask him to come with me on the trip. I was half thinking of renting a U-haul van and loading it with some of my furniture and having him drive it but then when we get down there, I have no way of knowing if his asthma might flare up if he stays in the condo or house with me. PLUS, although he's had regular check ups every six months with blood work mind you, he managed to have a heart attack and had to have a stent put in to open the blockage (so much for having regular check-up as a preventative to heart disease). Evidently, conventional medicine doesn't check for homocystiene levels which would have indicated something was wrong. Instead they just let you wait until you have a heart attack. Only the Naturopathic doctors really know about prevention of heart disease and what to look for.
Ok, back to the subject. Regarding movers and moving options, I decided on ABF after having someone from one of the better national moving companys come and walk through my house two years ago when I thought I'd have sold both my places and would be off to SC quickly . Back then they they quoted me something like $4500 and they weren't even going to be able to give me a date when my stuff would arrive.
I thought about selling my furniture but I like quality furniture. I paid $1800 for a Pennsylvania House sofa about 16 years ago, so iIm sure it would be a lot more now and that is just for one sofa. I think it would be MUCH more expensive for me to buy all new furniture when I get there than to just move most of what I have.Some of what I have can be dismantled such as three butcher block tables that have legs that easily unscrew. Taking what I can apart will take up less room when its moved. I decided on ABF because they take all the stress and potential headaches out of doing it yourself because THEY DRIVE and they don't charge you by weight -- only by how much space your stuff takes up. They either drop a 28 foot trailer at your house for you to load and then they come pick it up when you are done. Or, they drop off containers that are 6 feet wide by 8 feet long by 7 feet tall that evidently fit into a parking space. If you do the first option its less expensive per square foot but then you have to put up some huge divider after you finish packing the 28 foot trailer, assuming you don't need the whole space, so they can rent out the rest of the space on the truck to someone else. With a container you get your own. They are a little more expensive but I think nicer. Also, if you don't mind driving your stuff to the nearest terminal, you can save a few hundred dollars at either end with terminal to terminal service, rather than door to door service. You can also save if you don't move on a weekend or at the end of the month. You can get estimates at their website. The quote they gave me was around $1700 for door to door service for two containers (and I'm going to try to get away with just one by using ever square inch of space). They also link to another site that supplies movers if you need them . But there are also local moving companies in SC that hire out men and some of the smaller ones charge as little as $50 an hour for two men including travel time. The ABF website is Move with the Truck Rental Alternative - ABF U-Pack Moving
I found my realtor(s), just surfing the net for homes for sale and trying to find sites with MLS listings down there. I visited last winter for a week and met one of the Realtors who's with Keller Wlliams but he admits that his Forte is Charleston and Summerville and said he's find someone else if I ended up in Mount Pleasant. The other woman, really knows the Mount Pleasant area best, so I thought I might use her for that and have spoke on the phone to the other who specializes in Mt. Pleasant. Both send me emails with the newest listings in my price range.
But I think I've learned more about the area from the agents on this board. If I were you, I'd probably choose one of them... and I told one of them, that if I didn't feel beholden to these two agents, I'd choose him or someone like him who has proved that they are willing to go a little out of their way (or a lot) to help newcomers.
I also have learned a LOT on my own just finding good sites with comprehensive listings of properties for sale and for rent and by subscribing to the Sunday Post and Courier. These are two I really thought helped. ► Charleston Real Estate Guide This first one has a property search by neighborhood which has been really helpful. There is a drop down list of just about every neighborhood in the whole greater Charleston area. This second one that lays out the neighborhoods in Mt. Pleasant, has been really helpful too and this is just an agent's site. Pambishop.com: Neighborhood Map (http://www.pambishop.com/DEV_mt_pleasant_sc_map.php - broken link)
We just moved to Summerville, from NJ, with 4 cats. It was a 14 hour drive (with several stops). So we bought 3 dog crates and, 2 medium and 1 large. They're the metal ones that fold down flat. They worked out great and cost a total of $110 at Petsmart.
Lilly and Sammy are 12 years old and each got their own medium sized crate. And each one was roomy enough to put a food bowl, little box and blanket in.
Rosie & Willie are just under 1 year old, brother & sister, so we put them together in the large crate, with food, litter and a big blanket.
They all did fine for the ride. We hardly heard a peep out of them and every time I peeked at them they were sleeping. (But I was told that if they did cry or meow that a towel covering the crate would help calm them)
We stayed at the North Charleston Inn for 1 day, until we closed on the house. And they did fine there too. But PLEASE don't forget, if you stay at a hotel, tell the staff that you have a cat and not to open your door. We told the hotel when we made the reservations but didn't remind them when we got there and the room cleaners almost opened our door when we were at breakfast. (Luckily we could see our room from the restaurant and were able to stop them)
On another note: Our cats haven't been outside since we got here, which is fine with me, because one of our neighbors told us about a hawk that carried away a small dog a few weeks ago.
We just moved to Summerville, from NJ, with 4 cats. It was a 14 hour drive (with several stops). So we bought 3 dog crates and, 2 medium and 1 large. They're the metal ones that fold down flat. They worked out great and cost a total of $110 at Petsmart.
Lilly and Sammy are 12 years old and each got their own medium sized crate. And each one was roomy enough to put a food bowl, little box and blanket in.
Rosie & Willie are just under 1 year old, brother & sister, so we put them together in the large crate, with food, litter and a big blanket.
They all did fine for the ride. We hardly heard a peep out of them and every time I peeked at them they were sleeping. (But I was told that if they did cry or meow that a towel covering the crate would help calm them)
We stayed at the North Charleston Inn for 1 day, until we closed on the house. And they did fine there too. But PLEASE don't forget, if you stay at a hotel, tell the staff that you have a cat and not to open your door. We told the hotel when we made the reservations but didn't remind them when we got there and the room cleaners almost opened our door when we were at breakfast. (Luckily we could see our room from the restaurant and were able to stop them)
On another note: Our cats haven't been outside since we got here, which is fine with me, because one of our neighbors told us about a hawk that carried away a small dog a few weeks ago.
Thanks tgava, maybe the metal cage or "crate", if they are called that, is the way to go. (I always think of a crate as being made out of wood.) Then I wouldn't have to worry about opening it often.
Stories, like what you heard from your neighbor, about hawks flying off with people's pets, was what I was trying to find out about (and was afraid of). I wonder how often that happens and how bold the hawks are? Do you think they'd have the nerve to swoop in and grab a cat sleeping on a front porch that was not screened in or would the cat have to be out in the grass or by a marsh -- far away from the house for a hawk to do that?
If the porch is covered I don't think it would grab it. Hawks and eagles etc swoop down and grab their prey. The only time you cat might be in danger if it is out in the open.
I wonder if the hawk was having to go further to find food since its' habitat is being taken away by all the housing developments.
We have a screened porch and last summer one of my cats contracted the West Nile Virus. The vet said it was highly unusual for a cat to contract it but it does happen. He now is only allowed to go out there during the day on occasion but once the sun begins to go down I make sure he's inside. I don't want to go through that again.
Well, now I'm afraid of bringing my 2 dachshunds down to Charleston next year. I do plan on getting a house with a fenced in yard, but I would die if anything were to eat my dogs!!!! I presently have to worry about coyotes getting them at night, so I never leave them outside alone, but when I move to Summerville or Goose Creek next summer, I was hoping to have a doggie door so that they could go out in the yard alone, but I would think twice about it if I thought an alligator could snack on them!!!
You don't have to worry about that in Summerville or GC. I live in Goose Creek myself and the only water nearby with alligators in it is the reservoir. The gators only live where there is a body of water close by.
I had never heard of cats getting West Nile Virus. I am glad mine is strictly an indoor cat.
Here in Florida they used to have trucks going around spraying for mosquitos but I haven't seen one in years. Is the mosquito problem bad in the Charleston area?
I don't want to have to use Off when I want to go for a walk in the evening. Is there a natural way of fending those nasty bugs?
We still have those mosquito trucks. I see them once in a great while, usually after an extended rain.
Yea, mosquitos and gnats are pretty bad but mostly in the spring and summer. This time of year you hardly see any and they die off in the winter.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Abf
