Hi there!

I don't normally post in here, I'm usually in the dog or bunny forum

My brother & I both have cats who live with our Mum. We've both decided that it is time to move them out.. She keeps moving house & uproots the cats every time they get used to somewhere being home. She's moving in with her bf (She did this before, it didn't work out & the cats were dragged from one house to the other for months!). Her bf isn't a nice guy either

My brother has decided he wants them to live with him, only he is in London & the cats are currently in Leicester. I was hoping for some tips on taking cats on trains.

The journey he takes to his house now is roughly 2 hours long. One hour on a direct to London train & then the other hour on the subway/above ground train.

I'm a bit worried that this might be too much for them, loud noises & unfamiliar smells etc. Dusty, my cat, is almost 11 so I'm quite worried about how he might react to it.

We have 2 carry cages that we use to take them to the Vets in & I was thinking about putting some puppy training pads in the base.. But any other advice would be greatly appreciated! They deserve to be looked after properly & my brother can provide them with the care & attention they need.

My Misty cat (RIP) won a competition years ago when we lived in Derby which involved us travelling with her by train to London where she got her cat "Oscar" (don't ask!), but similar distance to what you are referring to.

At the time she was younger than your cats, but I found that she coped remarkably well on the train and travelling around London. I just made sure that we travelled off peak so it was as quiet as possible and just left her in the carry case but spoke to her frequently. You could always try covering the tray with a blanket as some may prefer this.

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Owned by:

Friday, Harry and Robbie - all rescue moggies; Spot and Lulabelle - both F5 Bengals

.... and love every minute of it

Bill, Charlie and Misty all playing at the Rainbow Bridge. RIP

as its only a one off trip, it'll be fine

as you said, they have had many moves

hope it goes well!

Personally, I wouldn't take my cats on a train, even though they're well travelled, and have probably moved house about once for every year of their lives (as well as staying in holiday lets). If I needed to take them somewhere and didn't have a car, I would look to borrow or hire a car for the journey.

But that's my cats, and I know they wouldn't handle it very well. Yours could react completely differently.

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Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

but with trains, you can have full attention on kitties - not road....

and many trains are very quiet.

havent had the kits on one, but if i needed to, i would.

I think the only part of the journey I would avoid is the underground, personally I dont even like travelling on it so wouldn't put my cat through it.

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You do have a point, but when I've travelled in the car with them on my own, I've usually been talking to them or singing non-stop. Nowadays, my OH gives all her attention to the cats while I concentrate on the driving.

I guess my cats are just very familiar with car travel and feel safe in the enclosed space surrounded by sounds and smells that they recognise. They get anxious even being carried from the car to wherever it is we're going, so even if the train itself was quiet, I wouldn't want to put them through the noise and bustle of stations.

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Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

Unfortunately the train is our only option. My brother can't drive because he has epilepsy & I don't have a license.

I really like the idea of putting a towel over the box to keep them calm, that will definitely be useful if we have to take them on the underground. The main train shouldn't be too bad.

I've found him a local Vet in Tolworth (Aspen Veterinary Surgery), would love some feedback if anyone knows them? They seem quite nice & are close to my brother's house.

I hope they're ok travelling down to London, it will be worth it in the end. At the moment they're being overfed (My Mum feeds them both Iams & Whiska's wet food) so they're both overweight, despite Vets telling her to feed them less/exercise them more. They barely get an average of 2 hours a day of human interaction. My Mum has recently had a maggot infestation that she wasn't even aware of (Her 84 year old neighbour cleaned them all up!) & I've no idea when they were last vaccinated/wormed/flea'd.

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www.gemspetcare.co.uk
Dog Walking, Pet Sitting, Small Animal Boarding Around Leicester

When we moved from from South West England to Scotland a few years ago we drove up with all our worldly goods in a long wheelbase van, including our cat in a dogcage! It was an 18 hour drive with an overnight stop!!

We sprayed the cats bedding with feliway spray and the vet gave us some herbal tablets for him to start taking a few days before the journey to chill him out. Have no idea what they were as it was about 5 years ago. It really worked though as I was amazed how calm Mr Kane was during the journey and when we got to the new house we plugged in a feliway diffuser. He settled in no time.

Might be worth asking your vet? Might not be needed for only 2 hours but you never know. Good luck with moving them!

Just wanted to say, good luck with the cats travelling on the train, I hope they'll be OK and it will be an adventure for them

They'll be happy to be home with your brother

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