I have learned two important lessons from having to move 12 cats a distance of 200 miles.

1) Don't have 12 cats.

2) Don't move.

Oh, yes, lesson #3:

3) Individual carriers are better than stuffing multiple cats into large cages.

Here is the epic ordeal of Moving the Moggy Horde.

Saturday, I lined the guest bathroom with cardboard on the floor and against the walls, put in a couple of catboxes, water and food. Then I hauled the entire Horde up, one cat at a time, opened the door a crack and quickly shoved them inside. Nefreet was confined by herself to the main bathroom.

Here is where I had my first surprise. The cats I figured might be a problem were fine and the one cat I didn't anticipate having trouble with -- Sly -- went totally psycho on me. He howled and carried on the entire day while the movers were removing everything from the house. Given that there were 10 other cats with him in a confined space, the psychic fallout was not good.

During the afternoon, as the movers worked, Randy and I drove to Fresno where I rented a van with all the seats removed. As soon as the movers had completely emptied Randy's office, I lined that room with cardboard, added catboxes, etc. and began to transfer one cat at a time out of the guest bathroom and into the office where they had much more space. I left Sly to be freaked out by himself in the bathroom. Poor Diva was in the throes of a nervous breakdown after a day trapped with PsychoSly. Puck was his usual carefree self. "Oh, a new room. Cool. Check it out. What's over here? Interesting. Say, is that an open carrier? Cool, I'll just get inside it and look around. And there's a cardboard box. Cool, I can play in that, too."

I drove another 20 minutes north of town to borrow a couple of large cat cages from a woman who runs her own cat and dog rescue home, to go along with the five carriers of my own.

It was evening before the movers and Randy headed south to the new house (about a 200 mile drive). I spent the night in the empty house with a lot of upset cats confined to their respective spaces, except Nefreet who got to hang out with me. Sly howled non-stop ALL NIGHT. It was so bad, the only way I could sleep was to shut the bedroom door, go into the main bathroom and close that door, and from there into the walk-in closet and close that door. I slept inside the closet (which thankfully is quite large).

Sunday morning, I set about packing the van with a large amount of left-over stuff. I laid down plenty of cardboard on the floor and against the walls to protect the van. I spent a long time considering who to put in carriers and who to combine inside the cages. After many permutations, I decided that Nefreet, Sly, Knobby, Theseus and Diva would go into individual carriers. The largest cage held Owl, Querida, Kate and Tosca. The smaller cage held Puck, Tribble and Blue.

Then began the catch and capture phase. Fairly soon, I had the five cats in their carriers, though Sly was berserk about being confined. I had the large cages placed inside the van. I would catch a cat, walk outside to the van and insert cat into cage. This went fairly well until I tried to add Blue to the cage with Puck and Tribble. Blue went medieval on me. For a full minute, he twisted and bucked and fought while I tried desperately to maintain a hold on him as he inflicted damage on my wrist. It was like trying to hold a dervish covering with razor blades. He got away.

With the rest of the cats in the van, I was faced with what to do about Blue. I was so stressed, I was ready to tell the new owner he had inherited a cat. I continued packing the van and about ten minutes later I caught a glimpse of Blue under the back deck. I sat down on the steps to the deck where I spent about ten minutes gently talking to Blue until I had coaxed into the open. He came up to me, I gave him to scritchies, waited until he had relaxed, then carefully picked him up, took him to the van and got him into the cage before he had time to think about it.

I wish I would have had a tape recorder for the drive that followed. I heard every single sound a cat can make, in abundance. Howls, yowls, mrowls, screeches, squeaks, cries, complaints, demands...you name it. For three hours. There was one five-minute pause near the end of the drive, but that was it.

Much later than intended, I finally pulled up to the new house. The movers were gone, but the house and my new office (the garage) were stuffed to the gills with boxes. The cats were SO ready to be set loose. Sly quickly returned to normal once he was free and able to move around. I have to say, all in all, the Horde adjusted to the new space pretty well. Nefreet, as before, is the sole cat in the house. We let her sleep with us the first night, given how uncertain she was about everything.

Mon. we had to turn around and make that long drive again, first to return the cages I'd borrowed, then to return the van.

For the first few days, the cats gathered around the office door to make a break for it, though the only one that actually succeeded, about a week after we moved in, was Tosca. She darted past me and into the yard between the garage and the house. She quickly came to a stop, perplexed by the strange surroundings, and I had no trouble picking her up to put her back inside. She hasn't tried again.

They have one window, unlike my previous office which had four. I've set up shelves in such a way that they have an open platform for looking out the window, for those that can reach it. As soon as I get more boxes unpacked and things moved around, I want to set it up so that even Owl (who can no longer jump), will have the means to get up there.

My other first order of business was to locate the nearest vet. It turns out there's only one. Her office is about 5 miles away, which is good, but for after-hour emergencies, we'd have to drive about an hour, which is not so good. When I asked around for a vet, I was told that this one was very expensive. Other people swear by her and say she's really good. I've been told she's so attuned to the animals that she'll remember the cat's name but not the cat's person's name.

I located her office and stopped by one day, so I would know where it was, get the hours, etc. It's a gorgeous place, with a good-sized atrium in the center of the receiving area containing unusual birds that she's rescued, including one bobwhite pheasant that apparently arrived having been packed along with a truck transmission. At any rate, it's the classiest vet office I've ever seen with a very dedicated staff. Her standard office visit didn't strike me as terribly expensive, only slightly more than my previous vet. I've brought with me the medical records for the entire Horde to have handy for the new vet. Sooner or later, I'll be meeting her.