I moved my 2 cats last night from my parents house, where they have lived with me and my parents cat, Casper for the last 9 months. It was always going to be a bit traumatic as they hate the car and literally wail like they are being tortured the entire way (20 mins drive) but actually the thing that upset me the most was separating them from my parents.
My parents have always been cat people and our first cat was the most amazing creature, totally docile and loved laps. When I was around 20 and still living at home, we got Casper as a 12 week kitten and he unfortunately grew into a huge tom cat who will tolerate the odd chin rub from time to time but refuses point blank to sit on anyone's lap or take very much fuss.
My cats by contrast are total people cats and will sit on you as soon as your bum touches any kind of seat (including the toilet). They are affectionate in the extreme (I've often had to remove cat hair from up my nose or in my mouth or eyes.) and my parents got very attached to them during their stay. My Dad and Amber had a particular bond, I think she reminded him of our first cat and he cried when he said goodbye to Amber and went out when I actually came to pick them up.
Now I feel like a terrible person because the 2 of them were very attached to each other. I'm not sure there's anything I can do to make the situation any better as I think its highly unlikely they would take on another cat of their own permanently as Casper was never 100% accepting of the girls and he is also fairly high maintenance as he lost a leg in an RTA.
Not sure why I'm posting TBH but I think I needed to vent, got very little sleep last night, partly because of this and partly because the cats refused to settle and instead decided to spend the night opening my chest of drawers and removing the contents!