00:00:00:02 - 00:00:15:21 Unknown
What's happened in my friends? You know, what's funny, I was thinking about this today.
There was a time in my life where and it was a long time in my life where I moved probably
once a year and I'm talking about over the time
span of about 17 years. 00:00:16:00 - 00:00:32:00
Unknown You probably would have loved to be my cat.
But I learned a lot of lessons and plus I do what I do. So today we're going to be talking about
moving with your cat. Moving is known to be the second biggest stressor in a human's life,
second only to a death in the family. 00:00:32:05 - 00:00:43:11
Unknown And it's a big
deal for your cat as well. And that's why I'm here, because if you do it wrong,
then you're looking in not only a lack of confidence in their new space, but it may
go on for quite a while. 00:00:43:11 - 00:00:58:22
Unknown So it's one of those things where it's like,
You know what? It doesn't take much to get it right the first time. So let's get it right
the first time. So we break this down into three very distinct phases, and the first one is before
very succinctly preparing is caring. 00:00:59:08 - 00:01:11:04
Unknown What's the best thing that you can do for your
cat? Well, I'll tell you the number one best thing that you can do for your cat is get all of the
goods necessary to establish a great base camp. 00:01:11:05 - 00:01:36:14
Unknown Now, base camp is
something that I lay out in very granular detail in this mini. This this one, this video right
there. Hi. VIDEO But the upshot is that we want to get as many of what I call sense soakers
really important pieces of property for your cat all gathered up, all properly
marinated with their scent in 00:01:36:14 - 00:01:50:15
Unknown your current place. So
things like cat trees, cat beds, blankets, litter boxes for sure. We'll get back to that later on.
Anything that's a sense soccer. Additionally, take an old sweatshirt of yours and
put it on the bed. 00:01:50:15 - 00:02:06:03
Unknown Any place where they tend to lay now,
put it inside one of their favorite cat beds. Put it there and get that nice. And so gather
up the goods for base camp. Gather up the sense ogres. Gather up those things that are like
signposts for your cat that I smell it. 00:02:06:04 - 00:02:19:01
Unknown Therefore,
I own it, and it signifies home to me. Now, to that end, when it comes to litter boxes,
bring them all. If you've got one cat, you've got two litter boxes, two cats,
three litter boxes, et cetera. 00:02:19:02 - 00:02:34:21
Unknown You don't have that yet.
Get it now. Get it marinated. I know, I know how it sounds. Just, you know, play along. But
in the meantime, if you put out these new litter boxes around the house now and your cats use them,
that's gold when you move to your new place. 00:02:35:18 - 00:02:50:01
Unknown Trust me. Here's
another little tip. one of the things that I find is if you rely on just one flavor of food,
you know, there's these two different types of cans and that's what we rotate.
Start expanding your cat's palate. 00:02:50:01 - 00:03:03:10
Unknown I mean, this is given,
you know, if you have enough time before you move to start expanding their palate.
A lot of times, what we see when cats move is that they shut down a little bit and then they
just won't be hungry enough. 00:03:03:11 - 00:03:20:19
Unknown And one of the dangers
when it comes to cats is if they don't eat for something like 24 hours,
they're subject to something called fatty liver disease. It can be fatal. It's no fun,
and one way to help get around it is to just make sure there are plenty of flavors that are
kind of irresistible to your 00:03:20:19 - 00:03:33:14
Unknown cat. And that
way you can try a couple of different things. Make sure that you have your jackpot treats,
as I call them all set up those things where your cat smells and they go,
whatever that is. I got to have it. 00:03:33:16 - 00:03:50:16
Unknown And maybe for the week before you leave. You don't
give it so that when you get where you're going, you can break everything out in this new location,
including this really yummy treat and go your home. one of the most important things, period,
when it comes to you and your cat. 00:03:50:16 - 00:04:09:03
Unknown But here it becomes
much more important is their carrier every time they get into the carrier,
every time they go into the car. It can only mean one thing bad things are about to happen,
so it's truly important to get your cat to associate their carrier, their crate,
whatever you want to call it, with a good place 00:04:09:03 - 00:04:22:16
Unknown , a safe place so that by the time
they're in the car, they're moving. Or whether you're flying or whatever it is, it becomes that
place that signifies, OK, I'm cool, everything's cool. I'm in my den. I'm surrounded by things that
smell like me and my person. 00:04:22:16 - 00:04:38:10
Unknown I'll be OK. I'm stressed, but I'll be OK. The
way to do that, really. And again, there's a whole video on this with with many carriers, especially
the hard sighted ones. You can take the top off it. You take the top the door out and you put a
really nice comfy bed or a bed that they tend 00:04:38:10 - 00:04:54:17
Unknown to use inside this
thing. Now it just becomes this nice kind of semi covered bed, a place where I hang. I remember what
I was just telling you about jackpot treats. Dish out the jackpot man jackpot. It's jackpot time,
but only if they're in the bed that way. 00:04:55:01 - 00:05:10:03
Unknown You know, once they get comfortable when
they're not looking, sneak that top back on. We're creating a great association with the carrier. So
when the day comes that you have to close the door and get them in there and carry them around, it's
not going to be the end of the world for them. 00:05:10:15 - 00:05:26:22
Unknown Like I said, man, if you care, prepare
and one of the biggest pieces of preparation here, your microchip. If your cat's not microchipped, do
not passcode. Microchip your cat. If your cat is microchipped, don't forget to put the new address
in the information on that microchip. 00:05:26:22 - 00:05:45:03
Unknown Call the microchip provider,
give them the new address. Make sure that you do that before you move, just in case
something happens along the way. You know you just want that information there. OK. Moving boxes.
We know if it fits, I sits so cats love boxes. 00:05:45:03 - 00:05:56:10
Unknown We know that.
So let's make boxes, fun zones. We can, you know, you can put crinkle pieces of
packing paper in there. Let them run around. Take it little. You know, those little ball
toys. Chuck them in there. 00:05:56:11 - 00:06:07:02
Unknown Do something
fun. Use the boxes for a fun time so that when it comes to actually putting
the stuff in there for moving time, not a big deal. The boxes have been here for a
while and we love them. 00:06:07:02 - 00:06:27:17
Unknown They're fun.
By and large, cats are going to stress it doesn't have to be catastrophic.
It could just be manageable stress. And that's kind of what we're shooting for here.
All right, now, we're on to act two of our moving drama, and that is the daring phase,
and I'll start that about two days before. 00:06:27:21 - 00:06:41:14
Unknown What I'd love for you
guys to do is think a little bit ahead. So let's just call one room that's not your master bedroom,
but a room that we can clean out fairly easily. That's going to be their temporary
base camp in the old place. 00:06:41:16 - 00:06:58:06
Unknown So basically, what you
can do is just get that room packed up and the boxes and whatever. Get that stuff out of there
and all your cats. Good stuff. All of those sent sofas, all the base camp stuff that goes in this,
you know, pretty much empty room at that point. 00:06:58:10 - 00:07:14:16
Unknown And then on the day that the movers come,
they're in their base camp and the movers are moving. All that stuff was
taken out of that room already. And that's why really, in terms of temporary base camp,
you don't want it to be your master bedroom because that's where a lot of the big,
you know, clunky furniture 00:07:14:16 - 00:07:24:17
Unknown is and you don't want
have to move them twice in a day. If you've got a moving company coming over or even
friends coming over to help you move, tape something on the door saying,
Do not open this door. 00:07:24:18 - 00:07:39:00
Unknown Cats inside,
open the door and we'll kill you. Yeah, whatever, you know, just make sure that you're not giving
the cats an opportunity to run out because don't forget, the front door is going to be wide open.
So now we're on a moving day. 00:07:39:01 - 00:07:54:10
Unknown Boxes are packed. You're
ready for the movers or you're moving yourself and all of that big, heavy noise and all of that.
Don't forget how connected cats are to territory all of those markers that are territory like this
chair, the bed, the couch. 00:07:54:11 - 00:08:12:04
Unknown Oh my, the
what? All that's leaving now. This one is a little depending on whether you're driving or flying or,
you know, hiring a service to move your stuff or whatever. But I got to say this
litter boxes are one of those sort of golden tickets when it comes to making your cat
comfortable in their new spot 00:08:12:07 - 00:08:32:11
Unknown . And so being able
to take your litter boxes with you do not sanitize them, do not clean them out with,
you know, with some kind of detergent or whatever. If you feel the need to use a little hot water,
but try to avoid that right before you move because they're sent in,
that litter box is just so 00:08:32:11 - 00:08:52:20
Unknown important. So get those litter
box is moved, if you can. Now here's the part that you're going to be like, Oh, seriously, Jackson.
Look, you can scoop it, you don't have to be traveling with poops and whatever,
but the smell of that litter man, if you're driving or like triple bag it,
put it in six garbage bags 00:08:52:20 - 00:09:06:16
Unknown for all I care.
Get over it. But I got to tell you, if you get to that new place you set at that base camp,
you put down their litter box with their litter in it. That's going to help your cat energetically
and mentally and everything. 00:09:06:16 - 00:09:24:07
Unknown Get a little
bit over that moving hump. So call me crazy. I'm the crazy cat guy. Bring it on.
OK, fine. Stop it. That is what it is. No excuses. But here's the things I would
like you to think about. 00:09:24:09 - 00:09:36:16
Unknown Number one,
if you're getting into a car, sure, it'll help out for that first couple of hours, then you're
probably going to have to re administer it if your cat is freaking if you're flying,
depending on the length of the flight. 00:09:36:21 - 00:09:50:16
Unknown You could wind up,
you know, giving them some kind of medication. But by the time they're mid-flight, they'll
be coming out of that. So not having to rely on that would be great again.
If your cat is one of those cats. 00:09:50:17 - 00:10:07:02
Unknown Totally cool.
I may align flower essence remedies. I've got a few. one called Easy Traveler, one called
stress stop. Or These are great in combination. For times like this, you can miss the carrier,
miss the back of the car, those type of things. 00:10:07:08 - 00:10:25:19
Unknown And if your cat needs it,
you can help them out. I think that that's better then than using drugs if you don't have to. Also,
when it comes to the ferryman sprays, the plug ins or whatever,
try it before it's actually Travel Day, so you can see if your cat has an adverse
reaction to any of these 00:10:25:19 - 00:10:41:14
Unknown things. You don't want
to just try for the first time that day when you're moving. So the last part of this during
phase is once you get there, first thing you want to do, especially in base camp, is
check the screens, make sure your cats can push the screens out, make sure there's no
weird little escape routes 00:10:41:14 - 00:10:56:23
Unknown out of the house. You just
don't want to lose your cats. The first couple of days you're in your house, like I've said before,
that's a nightmare. Another thing I would tell you to do, especially if you're renting,
but if you're moving into a place that has carpets, you know that the people
before you had animals and 00:10:56:23 - 00:11:15:08
Unknown sometimes
even if your landlord may be lied to you or somebody lied to you.
I would take the earliest convenience before you break your cats out of their base camp
is take a black light. If you don't have a black light, get one, you can buy one on my website and
just go around the whole house and 00:11:15:08 - 00:11:28:23
Unknown find places
that might even have the remnants of pee on them. And the way you know, this is
a couple of ways. When a cat first pees on something on carpet, let's say
it will fluoresce like an orange yellow. 00:11:29:00 - 00:11:45:11
Unknown Then over the days and weeks,
it goes from there yellow across the spectrum to white. And you know, whether you're a
couple of weeks later or whatever, it'll be pretty much white. Even if you clean it,
it'll still fluoresce white and you're going to know there was a cat there or a
dog there before you who was 00:11:45:11 - 00:12:01:15
Unknown eliminating on this carpet. And that could be a
problem when it comes to your animals, and this is a long story for another day. If you're renting,
talk to your landlord. If you're buying, then you may want to check under those carpets and
how saturated is the area. 00:12:01:16 - 00:12:18:23
Unknown But in the meantime, use a black
light. Use the right cleaner. Hello Jackson Galaxy stain and odor remover. Not that I'm saying,
but I'm saying and just make sure that your cats are are starting with from a smell level, a clean
slate so you've arrived at your destination. 00:12:19:00 - 00:12:30:09
Unknown I would say
one of the very first things you do is, and I know you want to relax,
you want to just kick it. At this point, you're exhausted. You're spent mentally, I'm the cat guy
on the cat channel talking about your cat. 00:12:30:09 - 00:12:44:21
Unknown So take that with a
grain of salt if you want. But when you get there, carriers and all the base camp goodies, those go
into a room that is, you know, whether it's going to be your bedroom or whether it's a temporary
base camp, whatever it is. 00:12:45:00 - 00:12:57:05
Unknown Base camp. Now
they're going to be surrounded by things that smell like them. You can open up the carriers,
you can feed them their meals. Obviously, the day you get someplace, it's not a normal day.
I'm not going to pretend it is. 00:12:57:09 - 00:13:12:13
Unknown But the more
you can act as if the more you're going to get your cats to be able to decompress themselves,
don't feel bad about putting them in their base camp when you first get there,
because there's part of you that's going to be like, you know, they've had a really
stressful couple of days. 00:13:12:14 - 00:13:30:14
Unknown It's going to make them more stressed
being in this room by themselves. I'm not saying that you have to quarantine them away from you,
but the place right now is really important and you're important as well. But like I said,
if you want that that that first shot of confidence and a new space,
that's the way to 00:13:30:14 - 00:13:57:15
Unknown do it. So that covers us from before
right before the move to congratulations. You've moved now on to our final section after the move.
So congratulations, you are the new occupant of fill in the blanks and your cat or cats
have made the move with you, and you should notice within the first 24 hours
that they're chilling 00:13:57:20 - 00:14:11:15
Unknown . They're getting into the
fact that I've got all this base camp around me. You've set it up so that they're nice and chill.
Their schedule is the same in terms of feeding. And you'll probably notice that
they're ready to start venturing out. 00:14:11:22 - 00:14:28:21
Unknown Now it's time to expand base camp. Now
it's time to take all those wonderful marinated objects and start spreading them around the house
signposts like all of the belongings in base camp. Those are signposts that say,
I live here too. 00:14:29:08 - 00:14:45:12
Unknown So whether you
move those things to a different location later, whatever you want to do. But those first few days
in a new location, I'm just telling you, just bend against your esthetic and towards your
cat. You'll be happier in the long run. 00:14:45:16 - 00:15:02:11
Unknown But in the meantime,
we're going to we're going to break out some of the belongings of Base Camp,
a cat tree that you will put where, well, if you've been following your cat ification,
you'll put it in a window so that now they can explore the visuals of the new neighborhood and,
of course, the sense of the 00:15:02:11 - 00:15:17:19
Unknown new neighborhood from that safe place.
I'm here in my cat tree. It's safe, it smells like me and other cats and my people,
and I'm looking out at something that is strange and a little foreign
and maybe a little scary. 00:15:18:01 - 00:15:33:21
Unknown But this makes me feel safe. So break that
out. Take the lid back off your carriers, and now you've got instant beds that you can put around.
Things like that. Of course, leave some things in base camp if you're going to relocate base camp to
your master bedroom or something. 00:15:34:00 - 00:15:46:09
Unknown Now your beds set up and all that
safe to bring them in there. But just be aware of how you're bringing stuff out of base camp,
and you can always do this thing that that it's
like the marinating cycle. 00:15:46:09 - 00:16:05:12
Unknown You know,
break some stuff out of base camp. Bring some new stuff in. Let it marinate,
bring it out. Rotate around the house, you know, until everything, says Cat. And also, by the way,
at this point, you're like, You know, I can't wait to throw away that old
ratty scratcher slash tree slash, whatever. 00:16:05:22 - 00:16:17:19
Unknown Well, now you have my permission now that
everything has been since soaked and everybody feels good about everything. But just like I said,
put the esthetics on hold. But the cat's not on hold and you will be happy.
00:16:20:08 - 00:16:38:06 Unknown
So now we're coming full circle, all of the stuff that have been setting up for you before is,
you know, coming to the fore now. So the last thing I want to talk about is the resurrection
of the three hours, because don't forget, you know, the resuming of rituals in your home
doesn't just make your cats feel 00:16:38:06 - 00:16:49:00
Unknown better, makes
you feel better. It makes you feel like this is your home, not just the place you move to.
So if you are feeling nice and chill and home and happy,
your cats are going to feel it to man. 00:16:49:00 - 00:17:06:12
Unknown So get those
rituals back into gear. Commit to them. Make sure that you're playing with your cat. Because again,
I don't know how many times I've got to say it. Not only is it about exercise,
not only is it about tapping into the raw cat and say Home Catskill eat, but
where I hunt, catch kill eat is 00:17:06:12 - 00:17:22:04
Unknown where I own and ownership
is key. And whether it's base camp and smells or sights or sounds or the actions that we do, the
rituals where I sleep, all that good stuff, the more you can get back into a sense of ownership,
the faster your cats are going to adjust. 00:17:22:04 - 00:17:39:08
Unknown I'm not here just
to make it like we're putting your cats in the bomb shelter so that when you finish moving,
you can open it up and go, you know. All right, I'm safe. This is about thriving. This is about
saying, you know, we can pick up where we left off,
but we can make a better self 00:17:39:12 - 00:17:51:06
Unknown . We can make
a better life and a more confident life for our cats. Taking a look at your new place and going,
OK, let's clarify. What are we going to do? Where to celebs go?
Where the new cat trees go? 00:17:51:07 - 00:18:04:13
Unknown What can I do for
my cats? Of course, that's why Kate Benjamin, I wrote to count them two design books where
we talk all about designing your space so that you and your cats meet in the middle
and everybody's happy. 00:18:04:16 - 00:18:18:19
Unknown But environmental enrichment,
man, we're talking about a better life. We're talking about all the projects that you were like,
you know, when I got the time I'm going to do x y z. As far as my cat
is concerned, it's x y z time. 00:18:18:19 - 00:18:37:19
Unknown Now's the time to do it. So take it from
me. And as somebody who has moved too many times in their lives, I wish that I would have taken
some opportunities to land somewhere, just start clean, start feeling like I'm taking advantage of
my new space and this new time in my life. 00:18:38:01 - 00:18:52:00
Unknown I'm saying this because it's about you,
but it is definitely about your cats and living their best life with you. But whenever they're
off doing their own thing, so that's about it. Hey, you guys, if you have moving tips,
I want to hear about them. 00:18:52:00 - 00:19:03:00
Unknown Put them in the comments below
so that everybody can read them. Maybe I'll do a follow up in a few weeks.
Don't forget to comment anyway. And of course, subscribe, because whether you're here
or there, I'm here for you. 00:19:03:00 - 00:19:17:11
Unknown And you know,
to that end, you should know when something's coming your way. All right. Here's hoping for
a good move. A safe move. A zen move. It's OK, man. It's all going to be OK and you've got a
better life ahead of you. 00:19:17:15 - 00:19:22:01
Unknown Believe it. All
right. Until next time, I'll light and I'll love. I'll majority.