Advice requested for moving kittehs

A week from Monday we will be packing the truck to move from our rental house (where we've been
since our house burned down August 2007) to our new house.

Here's the history: Mouse and Simba are 12 years old. They survived the fire because we always
put them out at night and at 4:30 in the morning when we discovered the fire we didn't have to try to find them in the house. Simba came back to the house that night; we found Mouse at the house the following morning. The cats had to be boarded (at a place they knew)for several days until we found temporary shelter at a neighbor's home who was going out of town and lent us the house. We kept the cats inside for that entire two weeks. Then we moved to the rental house, which was within about 100 yards of the house that burned down. We kept Mouse and Simba in for several days, went out with them for several more, and then let them go outside on their own. Mouse would go visit the burned down house
for months--leave after coming in to eat in the morning and come back late afternoon--until we demolished the house. After that, he would just hang out at the rental house.

One more thing, we had to take our elderly dog, Tanya, to the vet to be put to sleep in June.
Since she's been gone, both cats have spent more time with each other during the day in the house,
and have wanted more petting from us. They clearly miss her.

When we move a week from Monday, we will move into a house on the same street where our house
was that burned down. Here's the question:

Should we take the cats for their annual baths (they roll in pine needles and get matted fur) and board them the day we pack the truck and then bring them home to the new house with everything moved in--

or

Should I put them in their travel crates and let them see us moving all the 'stuff' out of the house
and bring them with us to stay in the house the night before the movers bring the furniture (we're packing the truck one day and moving into the new house the next day) and crate them again to watch
us moving all the stuff in?

I'm leaning towards taking them for their baths on Monday, boarding them overnight, and bringing them
home to the new house on Tuesday when the truck will have moved all our stuff there. They won't be crated watching the moving out/moving in, but will come home to an entirely new house.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

:kick:

to move Mouse and Simba: they've been through a lot in the last year.

The less moving prep they see you do, the better, IMO. They freak out when they see boxes pile up, but as long as they're not around to see the actual move, they seem okay with it. The last time was the move from Houston to Montreal, and we shipped them ahead of time and boarded them up here.

Once we picked them up, we set up a Feliway diffuser in the new apartment, and it seems to have done the trick of mellowing everyone out.

Good luck!

with the truck on Monday, so they're going to see boxes all weekend. I do think it might be easier
for them to board in a place they've been previously for Monday and come to the new house with everything
moved in on Tuesday.

Thanks for the response.

:hi:

the night before a trip out of town, so I know what you're going through. They can be nervous and clingy, that's for sure.

From my experience, seeing the boxes is not nearly as bad as having people move stuff around in front of them. Board the kitties before the movers show up if you can, and bring them to their new home once the movers leave. That way, they'll be spared the noise and movement, and they'll see that sometimes boxes can be good.

:hi: