I recently read a story that was on google, about a woman w/cancer that had
to give up her cat because she was unable to care for it and hubby would NOT
take care of it, it was adopted by someone in Missouri (the cat was
originally in Washington).  It was transported by a company called
Pro-Pet-Transports.  For more information on them, you can go to their web
site http://www.pro-pet-transports.com/.  Probably about as expensive as a
plane ticket or two, but with less stress.  I know that if I ever have to
travel within the US and have to take pets, I would use them.  In the story
I read, the experience was favorable.

Please excuse my typos... I have a really horrible connection at the
moment so it's hard to correct them all (and there are a lot).

I drove my cat from Atlanta to Seattle when I moved out here. This was a
super timid cat that I was really worried about ehr going feral like again
after the move.I don't remember how long we drove each day with her, my
roommate thinks 10 hours, but we took the long southern route and took 7
days to do so. She seemed to do fine until the last hour each day (and
finally got fed up the last day, though my dad pointed uot what she might
have been doing was learning that if she holwed a lot we stoppped the car
so she was trying that method the last day after figuring out what she
thought was a way to stop us).

She managed to do fine, meowing every hour and otherwise just keeping low.
She even took very well to the new appartment when we got there.

I can tell you she didn't take flying veryh well as I had her shipped to
me. It's not a fair comparision cause her flying to me was her coming from
some one she knew to some one she didn't and having no one she knew around
her while she was on the plane (would you be with the cat if you flew her
or would she be in cargo?).

My friend moved from Texas to here and let her cats free roam the car
while driving (I would never do this.. this can cause a driving hazard and
leaves the cats unsecured in case of an accident). My cat had a custom
made cage that fit half the cargo space in the SUV I had at the time
(partly because she was not allowed out of it cause she is such a timid
cat I  nknew if she went out we'd never see her again). It fit her bed and
a small litterbox. And probably gave her familiar surroundings during the
trip amongst all the changing surroundings (you might think of making a
carrier to fit a good size chunk of space yourself olr buying a large dog
carrier. The advantage of making one yoruself is you canm take full
advantage of your vehicle's space as you can make it fit all the
countours).

Alice

Any of these options will work. Whatever you decide, please don't ship
them on an airplane in cargo. I have seen for myself what goes on
"behind the scenes" at airports wtih regards to shipping pets while
trying to rescue a cat that had, through airline negligence, escaped
from its carrier after it was thrown from a baggage cart and broke open.
I found the cat up in the ceilings above the baggage carousels, but I
was unable to get to it and it disappeared never to be found, even
though I set several traps up in the ceiling and monitored them for
quite some time. I would NEVER put a cat on a plane unless I could take
it on board with me in a carrier. Every single airline employee I spoke
with said they would never ship their pets in cargo either. That says a
lot.

Megan