I have been trying to keep this under wraps, although Howard thwarted me a little, but now that the decision is made, I can tell you: we are moving to Chicago. That is actually not quite true and sounds a lot more exotic than the truth. We are moving to the cornfields northwest of Chicago. I’ve accepted a job with Northwestern University to work at Fermilab on two neutrino experiments: MINERvA and NOvA.
It turns out that I am not very good at announcing major life events such as this. On Friday, shortly after I decided which offer to take, and after keeping the details of my job search secret for months, I wanted to finally tell everybody the news. But I realized there might be a few people in my life, e.g. my mom, who would prefer not to hear major news via Facebook (or via some acquaintance who checks facebook more often than she does). So I wrote to a few people, posted to Facebook, then got on a plane. It turns out that I forgot to inform one important person: Howard found out that I’d finally made my decision when his nephew called to congratulate him on our move. Whoops. Really, Howard knew what was going to happen. But, in case it ever comes up, if your boyfriend is going to considerable personal effort to sell his house and alter his employment situation in order to follow you around the country, it’s really best to keep him fully in the loop.
So, as you might imagine, life is a little chaotic right now. I have been imagining scenarios that involve moving myself, Howard, two cats and a dog and all of our stuff 700 miles and have so far been unable to come up with a reasonable scenario. How does one do this? Does anybody have advice on moving pets long distance?
2 Nov 2009 at 3:46 pm
Woooo!!!!
Congrats on the excellent job, and on making the extremely sensible decision to relocate to the Midwest.
When we moved from Ithaca, we got some sedatives from the vet for Susan. We only gave her one, though, because she seemed pretty miserable, plus disoriented. Once that wore off, we just put up with the waves of seething hatred coming out of the cat carrier in the back seat.
We broke the trip into two legs and stayed at a pet-friendly Super-8. (This is not to imply that all Super-8s are pet-friendly… Just that one in Ohio.)
You can read all about the adventure here:
http://www.blurrypicturesofmycat.com/?cat=5
Adding a second cat and a dog to the system complicates it by at least a factor of eight, though, so, I wish you luck!
2 Nov 2009 at 10:06 pm
Congratulations!
We moved four times with Remi – dogs are considerably easier than cats. Kinda like kids – you give them lots of bathroom breaks and food and water and they survive.
The cats? Well, we managed. When we moved to Oregon – we had the two cats, a rat, and the Weimeraner. I drove our car with our daughter and Andrew drove the Uhaul. The rat rode in a travel carrier next to the baby. The cats rode in a travel bag together on the floorboard, and Remi rode in the middle seat. We made sure that we only drove eight hours a day, and we bought a bunch of those disposable litter boxes with the rip-off tops. We put the cats in the hotel bathrooms with their set up. Everyone faired well throughout, except Wyatt who REFUSED to poop until TWO days after we got to Portland.
I know lots of people who use sedatives – but they made Remi “loopy” as opposed to sedated, and so we didn’t use them.
Can’t wait to hear how it went.
2 Nov 2009 at 11:10 pm
Congrats again!!
I guess you’re driving? As you know, we’ve moved with a menagerie quite a few times. La Quintas are always pet friendly (and no extra fees). Take a bag just for their stuff, in case you’re not in another house as quickly as you think–makes it easier to have it in one place. We crated the cats together for the drive and turned the open side AWAY from the driver (I learned the hard way as cat paws came scratching at me). Buy those disposable cat litter boxes (all-in-one) for the hotel rooms. The dog should be easy enough–potty breaks and little walks (do make sure that he is wearing ID tags just in case) and give lots of water (on trips to LR, I don’t feed the dogs in the morning–I just wait until we are there). I never use sedatives but I am usually traveling where it’s hot. It’s not a good idea in that situation. Keep paper towels and wet wipes in the car for pukey clean-ups. If the dog starts panting heavily, it’s time to stop for one of three reasons. I’ll let you use your imagination there. Hmmm, I think that’s about it. I will see you xmas though, right? 
Much love to you and Howard!
3 Nov 2009 at 5:35 am
Congratulations!
We schlepped two dogs and two cats across the country. Trixie didn’t poop FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP. We stopped in Dallas to see a vet and he said she was probably just holding it and didn’t charge us. He was right; when we got to California she pooped up a storm.
Tucker travels like Marco Polo, so no trouble there. Neither dog has ever been susceptible to motion sickness, unlike me.
The vet gave us Xanax for the cats. It made them a lot happier about being in the car for fifteen hours a day. We had their actual litter box with us but the disposable ones sound like a good way to go.
We stayed at Red Roof Inn. They permitted one dog then; not sure about now. We just didn’t mention the cats or the other dog …
27 Nov 2009 at 6:43 pm
Happy Thanksgiving!