Moving with baby, 2 cats and a dog. Atl to NYC (movers, cheap)

[rubyfruitradio]

Hi my partner and I are moving to NYC from Atlanta in a couple of weeks. We have 2 cats, a medium sized dog and a baby.

One of us is going to fly to NYC to let the movers in and deal with all that while the other one drives up (we will be enlisting the help of someone else to help drive).

The drive is roughly 14 hours. The plan is to put the cats in a crate and leave the dog out. One adult and the baby willl be in second row seat and the animals will be in the back.

Would it be better to just drive straight through (it would probably take 16-7 hours) with stops to take the baby out and also let the dog out. Or should we stop halfway? There seem to be a fair number of dog friendly hotels but they tend to only allow small dogs (under 25 pounds and our dog is 40) and don't seem to allow cats.

I'd like advice from people who have taken on the task of moving a long distance.

thanks!

[Oobie119]

I can offer you some advice: We drove 1600 miles with our 3 cats (from Chgo to FL). I can't offer advice on the dog, and our daughter flew with my mom..
For the kitties, keep them together in the same cage yes. Lay down some old towels or a blanket and ball some up loosely so they can snuggle in and hide. Adjust them comfortably each time you stop. Bring extras too in case of accidents (you can get cheap ones at Kmart or even a dollar store). Keep the cage covered with a blanket, this will keep them calm. Whenever you stop, make sure to visit them, maybe even open the door a bit and pet them. Chances are they will howl for the first hour or so, then they'll settle down and sleep. There is no need to feed them or give them water. I also suggest, not feeding or giving them drinks for about 5 hours prior to your departure. This should prevent accidents..I suggest staying overnight once at a cheap hotel. This is what we did. We smuggled our cats in (in the cage) and offered them some wet food (IN the cage, don't let them out or they will not go back in!). Everything went smoothly, just remember to comfort them and reassure them and they shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[frogandtoad]

That's a call you can make along the way when you see how things are going.

From my own experience traveling with babies, I think you will find you will want to split it up. 16-17 hours is way too long (in my opinion) to have a baby strapped into a car seat in one day. And once you factor in stops for changing diapers, walking around, eating, gas, dog having to pee, etc., I think you'll realize it's more stress on everyone to get it done in a day than is necessary. Seems kind of mean actually if you don't NEED to have it done in one day.

When I travel long distances w/the kids (which I do once a year), I generally play it by ear. I know I'm going to do a minimum of 10 hours a day (for 3 days). If everything is going really well at the 10 hour mark, I just keep going til it's not going well. Whatever extra I've gained that day is less to do the next day. But over 10 hours is really tough on a baby from my experience anyway.

Also, not everyone is comfortable with this, but...our cat did NOT like cars at all and would pee/poop all over the cage and meow the whole way. He was really stressed. We got a tranquilizer from our vet and he didn't go to sleep but was very relaxed the whole way (and did not pee/poop/meow). It made it nicer for us, but more importantly made it nicer for him. Our dog didn't mind the trip so we didn't do that for her, but I know plenty of people who have done that for the dog too.

[libbykt]

I think you'll definitely want to stay in a hotel. I'd recommend a Residence Inn or someplace like that where you can get a 2BR suite and they take all pets for a small fee. I usually buy a disposable litter box that comes prefilled with litter and the cats are happy to see that when they get out of their carriers and into the hotel.