Can you travel comfortably in a moving vehicle with two cats? (moving truck, truck)

[deegers]

In the spirit of discussing pet and travel, I would add to the dog questions with cat travel since I'm not receiving any feedback in the cat forum right now and was curious as to what you guys would say:

So, you are moving across country with two cats. If I choose to drive myself and all my belongings, this means using a moving vehicle. What if I pull my car on a trailer and keep the cats with me. Is the vehicle cab roomy enough for me and two cats to travel across country? I see lots and lots of meds and defusers for my cats on this one.

I thought also that if I bought some good quality travel carriers. (granted, I'd have someone fly with me so each cat would safely under our seats). I could fly with them, but that's still an all day trip for them stuck in a carrier (one or two hours min for waiting for plane, one hour to depart, 4 hours to fly, one hour to get picked up and taken to destination. This is random numbers for wait and depart with the wait time on the terminal)

The other thread on this spoke of meds and relaxers so I'm not asking about that. I just wondered what people know about the travel part.

Thanks!

[CosmicWizard]

YES you can!

In the summer of 2006 we drove from Virginia Beach to Prescott, AZ in 4 days, averaging about 600 miles a day. We had two cats, each in their own carriers. They did much better than we ever imagined. We didn't give them any relaxers. We only fed them at the end of the days drive. In the morning the female cat would start meowing after approx 50 miles of driving. We'd stop the car, put the cats on their cat leashes and let them take care of cat business. They were fine for the rest of the day.

blessings....Franco

[nicolepsy]

i dont know what to suggest. i didnt realize you could stow your cat under your seat on a plane? i thought they had to be in the luggage/cargo area underneath the plane. i drove from ohio to florida with my cat in an expensive soft sided and roomy carrier that i purchased specifically for his comfort. somewhere in kentucky i glanced down and saw my cat out of his carrier. this trip was during the summer and i had no air conditioning in the car and had to roll all the windows up so my cat wouldnt jump onto the freeway. i had to find another cat carrier asap, spied a walmart from the freeway, parked the car, ran like a maniac thru walmart, assembled the darn carrier in the checkout line as quickly as possible because i didnt want my cat to die of heat exhaustion since i had to keep the windows up. just make sure you stick with a sturdy carrier with a metal door (my cat chewed his way thru the screen door on this fancy carrier). cats will put up a fuss for the first few hours but then will sleep the rest of the way if youre lucky.

[GreenMachine]

It totally depend on your cat. I am taking my cat across country with me. I have a soft carrier for him to take him in and out of hotel rooms. Most of the time, I will let him roam loose in the car, so he can find a comfortable spot. He is microchipped and has a collar and tag. He is used to traveling but I'm going to see how it goes.

Greenie

[deegers]

I was reading somewhere a woman was taking her adopted cat home on a plane in the first class and how the cat howled the whole way. So, I figured putting small pets under the seat can be down with certain airlines.

Thanks for the advice. I know if I drove my car, I can easily figure out what to do. I was just wondering if I ended up driving a moving truck, how that would fair with two cats. My female stresses in teh car, but my male looks out the window calmly.

[seahawksweetie]

I'm taking 6 cats from San Diego to Seattle here in a few weeks. We have two large dog kennels/carriers. I'm going to put down a vinyl table cloth in the back of my GMC Envoy and put the two carriers back there with 3 cats in each one. I'm only going to feed/water them and let them do their business at the end of the day. If I let them out, they will escape. Hopefully that will work. It will certainly be an adventure, nonetheless.

[deegers]

Originally Posted by seahawksweetie

I'm taking 6 cats from San Diego to Seattle here in a few weeks. We have two large dog kennels/carriers. I'm going to put down a vinyl table cloth in the back of my GMC Envoy and put the two carriers back there with 3 cats in each one. I'm only going to feed/water them and let them do their business at the end of the day. If I let them out, they will escape. Hopefully that will work. It will certainly be an adventure, nonetheless.

Bless your heart, moving with 6???? WOW! That's awesome! Let me know how it goes. I'm really interested. Will you give them anything for the stress?

[goldenmom7500]

My cats don't get along, so we had to travel in two cars. The cat in my car (who is the least adaptable, most skittish) snuggled under some blankets and was very content. I had used some homeopathic drops.

The cat in my husband's car ... he kept the cat in the carrier and had non-stop meowing. I had traveled with that cat in a mini-van, out of a carrier, and had no problems.

But that said, it would be dangerous to have a cat get under your feet while you are driving. That's my main fear with letting them out of the carrier (which probably no one could really recommend doing anyhow).

[Fat Freddy]

Originally Posted by seahawksweetie

I'm taking 6 cats from San Diego to Seattle here in a few weeks.

I hope you keep in touch and let us all know how it goes.

We will be moving our six cats from Sacramento to Washington in June. It's only a two day trip, but we want to make it as easy on them as we can.

I have a pickup with an extended cab so I plan to take out the back seat and make that whole area into a kennel with a litter box, food, water, and individual boxes for each cat to hide in if he wants to.

Last summer we made the trip with two of them who were too small to go to the Kitty Hotel with the rest of the group, and it really was no problem. They shared a large carrier and went into the motel at night with us.

But, they are big cats now and six cats in carriers is a bit difficult to deal with. We plan to leave them in the truck this time and maybe we can drive straight through.

Thinking about how the cats will fare is the most stressful part of our impending move.

[CosmicWizard]

Fat Freddy wrote:

Thinking about how the cats will fare is the most stressful part of our impending move.

I'm with you. We gave ourselves alot of needless stress about the same thing. Our cats handled a 4 day cross country drive far better than we ever imagined. Just relax and trust your cats. See my post ( #2 ) above.

blessings....Franco