Sue's notes to self

The first thing to say is…. Don’t do it! Moving with cats is hard enough as it is, what with having to keep them in for three to four weeks. When we last moved it was October and none of us minded having the doors shut and only small windows open. In July, in a heatwave, it is stifling. Having very few small windows to open and massive by-folds which we daren’t open more than a crack is torture. The cats actually don’t seem to care. This is possibly because they have little involvement in meaningful unpacking. All they need is to have regular food and water and a cool place to hide. Dooky’s is among my dresses in the new wardrobes, which have no doors on yet. They won’t have doors till we can get to where they are stashed, behind a pile of stacking boxes. I shall just have to give in to having furry, ginger fringes on my clothes.

Why no doors on the wardrobe, you say? That would be because hubby lost two days of preparing the house when I got heat exhaustion trying to do some packing. Now, I am not built for heavy lifting or hard physical activity at the best of times, but in a heatwave! There’s another reason for not doing it. I’d like to state here that we, categorically, will not be moving again. The next move will be to whatever care home my kids decide to put us in, or in a wooden box.

The cats largely sleep all day, except at meal times. That means they are awake at night more. Not used to having us around all the time they are making the most of it. This also involves waking us up with the sun, which is, of course, very early. Dooky, being fluffy and a mummy’s boy, still likes to sit on me while I’m still in bed. This is another thing that doesn’t work in a heatwave! It was made worse when we had no curtains up. The reason for which, please refer to my previous paragraph. In the end he caved in and put them up before putting the wardrobe doors on, resigning himself to my suggestion of moving the cups in to where we thought the doors would reach. I did concur that the doors need to open fully, but I refused to allow cardboard at the windows in the meantime. There are standards to be maintained, you know.

Moving with cats has another downside. They are both naturally nosey, and sometimes a bit timid. Small spaces become a fascination. So far Darcey has got herself stuck behind the wood burner… obviously not on in this heat. She also hid behind a toilet, when we shut them in the bathroom while the furniture arrived. It’s hard to believe there was room for such a stocky (aka fat) cat. We really hope that the bit of grey plastic that came out with her is nothing important.

The image above, of the less fearful Dooky, brave mountaineering cat, shows another pitfall of moving cats. What was once inaccessible is now an easy target because of all the packing cases.

It is hard to predict how long it will take to get straight. We downsized considerably for our retirement, except on the garden size. We thought the cats also deserved a nice garden…. when they are allowed out, that is. Finding homes for everything is proving difficult, but the heat is making the task harder. This has not been helped by my continued upset innards, resulting in an overnight stay in the local hospital to be rehydrated. We’ve only been here a week and I’ve already been there twice, once out-of-hours and once to A&E. I can recommend going early in the morning for this latter visit though, much cooler and hardly anyone up yet. The outcome is a day of enforced rest for both of us, loads of weight loss, and instructions to take it easy, which is what I’m doing, blogging instead of unpacking. I begin to think that two boxes a day might become my maximum. 😉

Anyway, back to the cats, if you are forced to move cats in a heatwave, consider moving them to an empty house with just a bed enough for you. Get them used to the place by having their familiar toys, cat trees, beds, mats and scratching boxes about the place. Let the other half pack the old place and move the rest when the cats have already been escorted round the garden a few times. Of course, you could try the butter on the paw trick, but it would only melt in the heat.

Sue, July 2026