my Tricky situation (moving cats)

[LadybugSam]

the long and short of it is that when i moved out of my mom's house i left my cat Tricky Woo with her because we couldn't have cats in our old apartment. Since then we've got a new apartment and 2 new cats. We are moving in about a month to a bigger place and any advise on how to help transition my cats to that would be appreciated as well :heart

My mom is moving out into the country and is worried about Tricky going with her so she asked if i would take her. I said i would. She's a city cat and at least 8 years old and i don't think she would do well up in the mountains with REAL wild animals around. Plus she's my first cat and i love her to peices :heart

The thing is that my mom is moving next week and WE are moving next month. I don't know what to do with Tricky. She is primarily an outdoor cat (only visits inside and is then kicked out again), and having her adjust to living indoors with two unknown cats, one month before ANOTHER move seems like it would be really stressful. On the other hand, she'd have to do 2 moves if my mom kept her for a month too. Also, we really aren't supposed to have more than 2 cats :shifty but since we're moving ni a month i'm not worried about being kicked out because of it :shifty

there is the option of going over to my mom's old house and feeding her on the porch until we move to the new place BUT that would mean i would be driving across town everyday for the next month to feed her. And i worry about her running away from home now that her humans are gone.

another thing. my new house is about 2 blocks away from my mom's old house. I worry about her running away once we move. the plan was to keep all the cats indoors or the first month, but with being so close to my mom's old house i wonder if she needs more indoor time. and how to keep her indoors when she's been treated as an outdoor cat for the past 6 years!

any advice would be appreciated. :ty

[Amber]

That is a tricky situation :giggle

I think what I would do is bring Tricky over to your current house and have her stay in a a bedroom of her own, separate from your current cats. You could let them swap places during the day for a couple of hours so they could get used to each other scents. This would also (hopefully) help acclimate Tricky to living indoors. After a week or so you could see how all the cats get along together. I would keep them inside at your new house for a while to help cement where home is now.

Some cats do just fine moving from an outdoor life to an indoor one...other cats don't. So be prepared that it could go either way.

[LadybugSam]

as it turns out we aren't moving so far apart. My mom moved up yesterday and we're going to be moving in to our new house next week. She'll only be at my mom's house for week and they're leaving a window open to their side room so she can get in and out if she wanted to. (the other cats dont' go in the backyard because they had dogs, although the dogs will be going with my mom) SO, we're going to be feeding her at my mom's house for a week while she is away (we have the key) and then we're going to be moving her into our house with us once we get all the furniture in.

We plan on moving the cats all in at once so the house is a neutral environment.

[itzj]

We plan on moving the cats all in at once so the house is a neutral environment.

Even though it's a new environment you still need to do slow introductions. Everyone will be even more freaked out so it might heighten reactions. I would put the two in one room and the new one in another. Rub fabric on each cat and put it in the others' room. Allow them to explore the house independent of each other. If you have a baby gate do intros through that if you can. Lots of treats and rescue remedy.