Moving day
You can't really prepare an animal for a move I think. Every day a few more boxes appeared in the home, packed and more cabinets were emptied. But they never experienced a move such as this one as they stayed with us from a very young age. We planned on taking as many things as possible the first day, even though we'd get the keys at 5.30 PM, which is a little late. Depending on how much we'd be able to bring to the new home, we would decide if we'd bring them here the same evening to sleep in the new home with us, or let them stay in their known environment and pick them up the next day.
While getting boxes and walking in and out from the entrance to the apartment carrying as many things as possible, I noticed quickly that they were a bit stressed. Actually, mostly Maesi was because Luna quickly decided to just sleep it off and see what was happening once she woke up. Maesi needs to know and understand while if Luna were a human, she'd shrug and say ok, whatever, haha.
Lots of cuddles and head butts
At some point, Maesi started to constantly ask for my attention and talking to me while giving head butts. She normally isn't such a head butter, but usually she just demands petting when she's going to make biscuits in the soft blankets (her tic, lol). I definitely noticed she didn't understand and she didn't like not knowing what was going on. This is the reason, even though we were far from being done that evening, we took them with us that evening. So at least they'd be able to understand a bit more and have more space to walk and explore.
So many new scents
Not only did they instantly have more rooms to explore, but the area to explore in general is also much bigger than we had. I noticed it was still a bit confusing for them being in between boxes everywhere but we had to work with what we had, which is a small car and just so much time.
As soon as they arrived in the new apartment, Luna was the one constantly giving us love. She was head butting and cuddling clock round, which was cute. She seems really happy with the new space, which we also discovered the first night while they raced through the hallway like a bunch of crazies. Not ideal for the neighbours.
Some adjustments
While the first night was so loud when they used the litterbox as well as them racing through the hallway which turned out to be very loud, adjustments for the night were made. I slept in the small bedroom taking both cats in, including food and water & the litterbox (yes, I know, not ideal but I was tired lol) and decided to think of a solution the next day.
I don't want to have any trouble with the neighbours and I know we will buy carpets soon, which will surely help with the sound of them racing through the apartment when they have the zoomies. They kept me awake for half of the night and I knew this was going to be exhausting every night if not solved differently.
Tired!
As if we weren't tired enough, I decided to just adjust to their needs for the time being because we surely weren't going to get all these boxes unloaded in the next week or so, as we needed to figure out where to put the items as well as buy new furniture for some things first. Therefore, I emptied the biggest bedroom so only a chair and bed was left and slept their with them so my boyfriend could at least have a good rest at night without them bothering him. They kept me awake for 5 nights or so until they decided to snuggle up against me and sleep it off instead of keeping me awake. So far so good.
Happy cats
Both cats seem to be much happier here, Luna could be a little terrorist in the other home, probably just from not being able to race out the energy enough, while here she's much calmer. To release that energy, we bought a cat harness for both, but they yet have to agree wearing it. We will let them get used to the home for a few more weeks before trying again. Especially my daughter is looking forward to walking them outside, lol. Actually, so is my boyfriend as his first cat was raised like a dog, she went everywhere with him, even when they went on a boat in summer.
Let's see how they behave in a few weeks when we hopefully have the house in order!
Thanks for stopping by :)