In today’s episode of the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show, Stephen and one of our top agents here at the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group, Pam Kirby, talk about moving with pets.
Many time when we are moving with our family, everyone is prepared to get the kids in the new school and make a change but sometimes our pets are forgotten. We need to start being prepared with a move with pets even when we are looking for our home.
Here is a list of resources to help when moving with pets:
- https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/moving-successfully-pets
- http://www.petswelcome.com/moving-with-pets
- https://mostlymutts.org/resources/moving-with-pets
- https://www.cesarsway.com/dog-care/routine-care/when-and-how-to-update-your-dog-microchip
For more useful information watch this video:
STEPHEN: Hello I’m Stephen Cooley and welcome to the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show. I’m very excited to have two special guests on today’s show – one’s Pam Kirby. Welcome to the show Pam.
PAM: Thank you Stephen.
STEPHEN: As a lot of you know, Pam is one of the top agents here with the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group buying and selling real estate and helping folks find their perfect home and sell their home. We have another special guest and that is a new puppy in your family, and this is Gunner.
PAM: This is Gunner and we just moved him from his mom’s home to our home.
STEPHEN: Yeah, welcome to the show Gunner.
PAM: Say ‘Thank you’
STEPHEN: He’s wondering who woke him up this morning.And so today I wanted to bring Pam on because I’m a pet lover as everyone knows, and you’re a pet lover and I want to talk about moving with pets because pets are very important to us, they’re a member of our families, and we really want to make sure that pets acclimate to the move and that kind of stuff, and I’m gonna hold Gunner while you tell me about that because I’ve been dying to get my hands on him. Still, he is gonna be very jealous when I come up. He feels like a stuffed animal.
PAM: He does. He looks like the stuffed animals that my son Taylor had called Buddy.
STEPHEN: What kind of dog is Gunner?
PAM: He is a golden retriever.
STEPHEN: Okay, so you’re moving with your family, everyone’s prepared to get the kids in the new school, everyone’s prepared to make a change and sometimes our pets are forgotten. So I wanted to bring Pam on today’s show because she’s done a lot of research on moving with pets, so tell us about if we’re moving in, what we need to worry about if we’ve got Gunner on the move with us.
PAM: Well, we need to start being prepared with a move with pets even when we’re looking for our home. You know, we have small pets we need to think about that with a home that we pick and if we have large pets we need to worry about the home that we pick – do we need acreage, do we need a fenced yard, do we need dog park or sidewalks and all that needs to go into our decision process as we choose the right home for ourselves.
STEPHEN: And I want to agree on that because nothing’s worse than a dog that’s made to be outside, wants to hunt, wants to herd cattle and you’ve got it in a condo all day.
PAM: That’s right.
STEPHEN: And it causes misery, so if you’re out there pet hunting even if it’s a rescue pet make sure you get a pet that’s kind of designed for your lifestyle in the home or make sure you buy a home that fits the pet’s lifestyle. I’ve always said that to folks.
PAM: That is correct, and then when we’ve made that choice for the right home, we need to start preparing ourselves for the move and one of the first things that you need to do is go to your vet and be sure you have all of your records with you that you can take to your move, particularly if you’re moving out of town or out of state. You want to get those records and you want to be sure you have your pet’s microchip updated to your new address. Because this is a prime time for pets to escape and try to go back to their prior home. They want to go back to the old place, and what they know is familiar. So you want to be sure that you’ve done that. You also want to be sure that you have a recent picture of your pet so that if he does get lost you can identify him easily.
STEPHEN: Absolutely and we all shop for new doctors and their dentists when we change towns. We definitely need to shop for a new vet, also at the same time. You don’t want to look for a vet once you need one.
PAM: That’s right, and you need to go visit him before you’re sick before you need him. That’s another key thing because you don’t want to only see him when you have an emergency.
STEPHEN: Absolutely, now there when you mention emergencies, there emergency rooms now, so also knowing where the closest emergency room is if it’s after hours or weekends. I’ve got Stella at my home, and I’ve already got the whole map. I’ve got it mapped out on how to get to the emergency room in like 11 minutes.
PAM: That’s right, and we always want about new things for our new house. But one thing you don’t want to buy new is a new pet bed or new bowls because your pet needs to have something that is familiar to him or her in that new house. So you want to be able to take your old things with you or either buy him a new one well in advance of the move so that it is familiar to him.
STEPHEN: And what about when do you introduce the pet to the new home, Pam?
PAM: You want to do that as soon as possible and even if the sellers are agreeable to have you take him over prior to moving in that would be wonderful because you can take him in and introduce him to room by room, you and him, just you and him slowly, room by room.
If that’s not something that’s allowed that you can agree on doing you can do it when you get there, but you want to do it just you and him, take your time, maybe even with him on a leash so that you can just let him smell around get all the things that are all from there, getting them familiar to him now and say that he is comfortable there.
STEPHEN: And I’ve read that you shouldn’t have anything else going on that day. It shouldn’t be the day that a lot of chaos, a lot of moving, painters, repair people. It should be a day that’s just for the dog to go over there and meet the new house.
PAM: That’s right. And another good suggestion is that on moving day that you either hire pet sitter or get a good friend to take care of your pet, and if that’s not something you can do to at least a point one person in your family responsible for the pet because there are so many distractions that it is easy to just have the pet forgotten and then they could slip out again and be scared with all the commotion and all the strangers in your house.
STEPHEN: And as we’ve talked about before we started filming, moving is a lot of times when pets get abandoned and when they get turned into shelters so make sure that when you’re planning that move that you’re really planning to take the pet with you.
PAM: That’s right, because there’s a lot of resources online, there’s a lot of resources from your vet that all can help you make this move smooth for you.
STEPHEN: Absolutely, and one of the best places to give money if you really care about our animals is the Humane Society of York County. They are a no-kill shelter and when you give locally the money stays local and when you give to the National Humane Society no money comes here locally, and I think Gunner wants his Grandma back and so it was great to hold him today. Pam is also representing us well and buying and selling real estate people love working with Pam. Pam you’ve been in the Rock Hill area for how long.
PAM: I’ve been in the Rock Hill area since the early 80s.
STEPHEN: So you know the area, you know all of York County and you’re giving great advice to our clients and customers. If people are interested in buying or seeing a home, how do they reach you Pam?
PAM: They can reach me on my phone at 803-417-6286 or you can email me at pam@stephencooley.com and I have a website pam.stephencooley.com.
STEPHEN: Thank You Pam from being on today’s show. Thank You Gunner for being on today’s show. I hope you’ll come back. Maybe we’ll bring him back when he gets a little bit bigger and watch him grow. Thank you so much for that valuable information about moving with pets. Please stay tuned, we’ve got beautiful homes for sale in your area, and we’ll be right back.
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