Camping with a cat

[sparkydave]

Thought I'd ask, I've never taken my cats camping. I have a new cat, but he has some special needs, namely he's missing one leg and has to take blood pressure medication daily. He doesn't mind traveling to the vet's office in the car and he's very relaxed when we're at the vet's office. Knowing him, he'd probably be happy as a clam stretching out on the bunk soaking up rays. Just wondering how many others take their cats camping and what experiences they've had.

[tvfrfireman]

We take our cat everywhere. She has been to Arizona seven times from Portland Or. You could start her out by spending time in your unit in your driveway. One of our main reasons for the rv lifestyle is that we can travel with our pet.

[sue_t]

Fang took her first trip with us when she was 5 years old, tent camping through Yukon & Alaska. She figured out the routine and settled in. She taught numerous dogs how to camp well too.

She enjoyed many extended camping trips. Her last trip was in 2008, she was 19 years old.

And still a stellar campsite guard cat at 19...

[Handbasket]

I 'travel' more then 'camp'. Madame Plushbottom (aka 'Miz Plush') travels OK, but loves the little Tiger's upper bunk when we stop for the night. She gets up and looks out occasionally when driving, but almost always only in the dusk or dark. She's spent as long as 3 weeks in the camper when we made a trip from home to AZ to visit Meteor Crater & Grand Canyon.



Jim, "Dogs have 'owners'. Cats have 'staff'."

[LastOfTheBohica]

We take two of our cats with us all the time. They love being in the trailer and doing some exploring around the campsite.

We even have a pet stroller so we can take them on longer walks.

[fpresto]

We travel with two cats and a Lab. On the road one cat and the Lab immediately go to sleep, however the other starts to complain as soon as the truck starts. I think she is saying "we are all going to die". I tell her that my driving is not that bad but she doesn't listen. As soon as we are set up in the 5ver they love it.

[WandaLust2]

TURNKEY wrote:
We travel with two cats for the past ten years. They love the camping and are starting to get used to the 'catch and release' requirements of most parks. They want to be outside but we didn't want them to run free. It took a while but we now have a great system for leashing them.
We run a 'highline' from the trailer to a convenient tree....

Please stay with your cats when you do this. Some dog owners allow their dogs to run loose and some slip out of their owner's RV... your cats would be sitting ducks in such a situation. Keep a broom handle and Pepper Spray on hand.

[WandaLust2]

Our 4 cats go everywhere with us. We wouldn't think of leaving them behind.

[Code2High]

Comfort Zone is great but you need electricity (shore power) for them to work. The spray can be used without that.

[TURNKEY]

We travel with two cats for the past ten years. They love the camping and are starting to get used to the 'catch and release' requirements of most parks. They want to be outside but we didn't want them to run free. It took a while but we now have a great system for leashing them.
We run a 'highline' from the trailer to a convenient tree.
1-I toss a weighted line over a branch, have the line drop down to easy reach then put a slip knot in the line and attach the end of the line to the slipknot. That way when the line is loosened the knot will drop down to my level rather than be drawn up to the branch and get stuck there.
2-I run the other end of the line back to the trailer and attach in under tension to the rig. This results in a rope run higher than head height across your campsite.
3-This is the key-we hook retractable leashes to the highline via clip that can slide up and down the line. We fix the stop point or a pivot point with a clamp on the line on either side of the clip. The other end of the leash is clipped to the cat harness (duh)

What makes this set up great is the leash is always under tension and as a result doesn't drag on the ground and get caught on everything. We can add extensions to the 25' leashes if we have a big enough site or if we are in a small site we have 15' leashes.

We use a variety of spring clips like on the end of a leash for weights or connectors for two leashes etc.

like I said this system has worked very well for us for years, we get very few complaints about tying to trees(I have a long tent pole I can use if necessary) We've never been asked by rangers about the leash length because they are so amazed to see cats camping.

[catmancando]

we travel with 2 cats and a yorkie the cats own the bed and enjoy it very much

[Free_Range_Huma]

BarbiO wrote:
We pick up our 39'FW in two weeks and plan to gradually introduce them to it while it is parked at home. Has anyone here used the Comfort Zone plug-ins in their RV and do you think they work?

Haven't found them to be effective myself, but I have something else you can try. Cats are calmed by their own scent, so for several days you can put a sock on your hand and rub it against your cats' major scent glands--cheeks and under the chin (you can use one sock for both cats). Before you head out, rub the sock on upright surfaces on the inside of your trailer, at about the level of a cat's nose.

[fly-swatter]

We took our Manx camping for years and she loved it. Would peer out the screen door and watch us by the fire at night. She was scared of the outdoors and would howl when moving from the truck to the fifth wheel but otherwise was fine. She passed away this winter so we will see how our new Manx/Bengal cross does.

[BarbiO]

Danny, our camping kitty, crosed the Rainbow Bridge in February. I really like the idea of having my cats with us, they are our family. My other two cats are 14 year old brother and sister and they went camping with us when they were younger, but we went seven years RV-less and once we started back up we only took our younger one as he was the most laid back. We pick up our 39'FW in two weeks and plan to gradually introduce them to it while it is parked at home. Has anyone here used the Comfort Zone plug-ins in their RV and do you think they work?

[WoodGlue]

When I start to fulltime, I'd like a cat - however I'm not sure the cat would be happy in my 19' trailer box.

WoodGlue