Phx to Seattle w/2 cats - is it safe to drive it in 2 days?

[Joules21]

We made a big trip (1500 miles) and we did it slowly in 3 days. My cat was 13 at the time. She wouldn't eat or drink in the car, so we made the decision to limit our days to 7 hours max. We stayed in pet friendly hotels which she adjusted remarkably well to each night. I would just keep her leash on her so that if she hid under the bed, I still had a chance to pull her out. We also put her litter box in a rubber maid container with a lid on to keep everything inside.

My cat is a house cat and this was basically her first real car ride. She did great!!

[winterpromise31]

Joules, thanks for that encouragement and the tip about the leash. We have money budgeted for an extra night's stop if it seems like the cats are stressing out too much. I hope our cats do as well as yours did!

[mamacatnv]

Couple of things to be mindful of when traveling with cats. We came from an area with no fleas and were warned that the hotels as we got further south would likely have them if they were pet friendly type places also the leash in the cat is a great idea, I read a ton of horror stories of cats getting into small spaces in walls and under beds in hotel rooms.

We opted to keep the cats in the car at night but there were 3 of them to keep each other company.

[zitsky]

You might consider locking the cats in the bathroom overnight to keep them from crawling under the bed. I've done a trip from San Francisco to Eugene, OR. In my experience, my cats did not use the litterbox and did not eat or drink while in the car. They waited until they were in the house or hotel room before doing anything.

If you are driving in June then you definitely want to take turns watching the cats while one of you goes to the bathroom or stops for food. If you are driving along highway 5 in California it gets extremely hot. Even in Oregon it can be too hot to leave your cats in the car unattended.

Good luck! I hope your trip goes well.

[winterpromise31]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their great advice! We have safely arrived in Seattle and our cats are adjusting to being away from home. We ended up driving for 2.5 days as we had a tire blowout on day two that ate up so much time we ran out of energy in Salem, OR and had to stop for the night. The cats did well in the hotels, coming out from under the bed and exploring after only a couple hours. We had no trouble catching them and putting them into the carriers the next morning.

Our only problem was that my male cat peed in the cat carrier early in the day each of the days we were on the road (day one it happened less than a mile from our house!). I think he was just afraid and that made him empty his bladder. We had plenty of towels on hand and just swapped out the towels as needed, wiping down the inside of the carrier at the same time.

We also discovered that Mr. Bruno absolutely LOVES honeysuckle! A local petshop in Phoenix sold it to us as a possible method of calming him during the car ride. We showed it to him at home and he went crazy for it, trying to rip into the bag and indulge. It helped some during the ride, just sprinkling it on the towel inside the carrier.

Again, thanks! Now we just have to find a place to live...
Cassandra