How do you travel with a cat??

Large transport cage while traveling is how my folks did theirs, and free to roam about in their trailer.

With Yuki, we've been getting her used to be on her harness in the yard (she's not allowed outside without it), and once the new camper is done being built, we'll get her used to being in it with her cat box and what not.

She's riden with us in the pick-up on several occasions, and usually likes one of three places. On the misses lap, sitting on a perch in the area behind the front seats so she can watch out the window, or hunkered down on the seat to sleep.

A few cats are born (or otherwise raised) to travel; great but in my experience most (Esp. Siamese) cats (used to a house) are "homebodys," hate travel and will voice differing opinions as to your own travel plans. One cat did calm down only to bring me several live mice "presents" while tent camping in Sequoia; probably as a peace offering....

A good thing about cats is that you can leave them home with a stockpile of food and water and they'll be just fine when you return. Not so with dogs.

If you travel with a cat, try to get cat used to harness (not collar) and beware predators! (Birds of Prey, Coyotes, etc.)

Our cat travels to the kennel. And stays there.

FOld the back seat down, place cat bed in there, along with a small pet tote.
Install chest harness on cat, and a leash. tether the leash to a grab handle so the cat can't escape when the door opens.

Probably would have been much safer to post in Pets forum. Seems some of the TC crowd is rather hostile today.

Like this:

Naio wrote:

tonymull wrote:
Depends on the cat I suppose. I saw one that just sat on top of the camper, on lookout and came when called. Ours, on the other hand strayed away, with her leash. We looked everywhere, listening for a meow or something. Finally found her watching a moose and clicking her teeth, all wrapped up in some bushes. That night she had to pee and insisted on outside so I unzipped the tent and hooked her leash to a tent stake. I dozed off and woke just in time to yank her back as an owl swooped down to nail her. I felt the air from it's wings. That was enough cat camping for us. Never again.

Dang! Glad your kitty is ok!

She does seem to have some confusion about her own size in relation to prey and predators ;)

She did. When we lived in Anchorage we often had moose in the backyard during the winter. She would sit at the back door and chatter her teeth. She definitely wanted one. ;-)

I presented this question last in this forum because it related to TC's. We took ours on a 78 day trip to Montana and we enjoyed him very much. We have a harness and though he is not crazy about it he will walk at his own pace.
We did have an adventure a couple of times. On two occasions he escaped, we looked for him everywhere. Once I found him on top of the "A" frame. The next time it took it a little longer, he had crawled on top of the spare tire.

He is a stray so we have no history with him but he is very afraid of engine noises. Most of the time he slept in his cage on the back seat or on the console between us.

I found a plastic box with a lid that he used as a box which we would move from the truck floor to the rig when we stopped, no big deal.

We also bought one of those mesh cages so he could be outside without the leash. He hated the thing.

toedtoes wrote:
If you have an accident, etc., while on the road, do you really want to be spending 10+ minutes trying to capture your cat and get him in a carrier?

Again, it depends on the cat. Mine will howl incessantly if confined to a carrier.

This should be in the Pets forum.

Trying to walk our cat on a leash is like trying to drag a rock.
Not happening!

With a harness on, he just sits down and will stay there until you remove the leash.
On the other hand, maybe that's the way to get him to stay around camp.:B