With a love of road tripping and a love of cats, naturally you road trip with cats. Here’s are a few lessons learned from road tripping with cats across Canada.
Now it is true that I may have a great love for cats, but I am not the crazy cat lady, despite what some people might think. We only had two cats in the car on our recent road trip across Canada, because there were two of us in the car, we each have one cat, and as we were in Ontario, the cats had to get home to BC too. You see, nothing crazy here, all perfectly normal. You can put away that lovely white jacket now.
Lessons Learned from Road Tripping with Cats
So we did learn several things from our first cat car caravan …
First of all, there is no fighting for shotgun, the cat gets that …
… and whatever other spot she wants in the car. You will after all have bigger battles to fight with her, like 4 am is not the time we wake up to start driving. Don’t blame her. Blame changing time zones and whoever it was that fed her breakfast at 6 am the week before you left.
Cats and ducks will travel surprisingly well together.
Tips for Road Tripping with Your Cat
A few tips:
- Put aside a space just for the cat with her own blanket or cushion.
- The floor of the front seat makes the ideal spot for the litter box, as the cat can easily get to it and it won’t slide.
- Use shallow containers with lids for food and water dishes (like empty sour cream containers).
- Be sure to have plenty of drinking water in the car.
- Carry wet knaps to clean out dishes with ease.
- Figure out some way of providing the cat with shade when they need it. They do get sunstroke and car sick, just like we do. (and yes, we found this out the hard way)
- Make sure your air conditioning is working.
- When parking, find a shady spot (even if it means you have to walk further) and leave the windows open a crack.
- If it’s a hot or cold day, or you are leaving the car for longer, have a cat bag and take the cat with you, when stepping out of the car.
Oh, and take out stock in lint rollers.
Happily the extreme shedding subsides after the first 24 hours.
And despite how the above might sound, it was actually quite easy and enjoyable road tripping with cats. But then we have pretty gosh darn special cats.
Cute. Quite a challenge actually, a road trip with cats!
Yeah, I need to figure out shade for her next time.
This is adoreable! Unfortunately, I would not be able to travel with a cat due to severe allergies, but I bet they make a great travel companion.
That she was Ellen. Loads of cuddles along the way.
Loved this! I once took a roadtrip across the US with a psycho kitty.
Sounds like there is a story there Christopher.
Great post! You’re so lucky to have cats that travel well! When I had to move mine from Barcelona to Berlin it was a nightmare for all of us, and we took a plane so it was just a matter of hours! Kudos to you & Roo!
Yeah, I know I am incredibly fortunate to have an easy going cat.
It’s quite exciting. Having cats that travel well is wonderful for all.
Lint rollers are a must! Thanks for sharing your cat adventures. We also live in BC, and we have 2 cats.
Melissa