Moving my 9-year-old cat while also adopting 2 new cats?

by Gabi

My old girl Bella

My old girl Bella

Moving my 9-year-old cat to my place while also adopting 2 new younger cats. Conflict? I just moved from my parents' house to my own place and I wanted to bring my old cat with me. My apartment isn’t cat-safe yet and I won’t have time to make it so and also bring my old girl over before I have to leave to go adopt my new cats.


I’m adopting a 1-year-old mama cat and one of her kittens from a friend who can’t keep them anymore. I would prefer to bring my current cat to the apartment first and let her get used to the place before I introduce new cats, but since I have to travel overnight to adopt these other cats and I can’t find a sitter for her, that’s not an option.

She’s lived with other cats before but she was fairly neutral towards them, not aggressive but not buddy-buddy either. Essentially, what would be my best course of action to minimize conflict and keep everyone as happy as possible?

Advice on transporting cats in the car over long distances would also be appreciated. Sorry for the long post. Thank you!

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starstarstarstarstar 		Bring your old cat first, if possible. Use separate rooms.
by: Janine J.

Moving one cat and adoption 2 others at the same time seems like more than I'd like to take on, but if I had to do that, here's what I would do.

Bring the old cat to the new house and set her up in a room. She should be fine for an overnight trip with extra food and water and a clean litter box.

If that's not possible, leave her where she is and go get the new cats and set them up in one room by themselves. Then go get your old cat and do the same.

Either way, your old cat has her room, and the new cats have their room. Nobody meets anybody yet.

Then do the usual long, slow introductions and scent/room swapping routine to get them to get along. I would let your old cat have the run of the house first, though, before the others, so that she can scent it all up and be the queen of the house.

For the long trip, just put them in carriers and drive straight through if you can.

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