We are moving across country and one we had planned to have both cats fly with me but were just informed that only one pet per passenger! My husband will be driving across country so now we're going to have to have one of the cats with him. He doesn't want to leave the cat in the kennel the whole time while driving because what if she needs to use the bathroom. I feel she should be in the kennel and probably won't be using the litter much because of stress. Does anyone have any suggestions or been there done that ideas?
Michelle

Hi Michelle:

Personally, I think it is much safer to travel with the cats in a kennel. You do not have to worry if the cat will escape from the car with a door open or cause an accident by distracting the driver, etc.

I have only had one long (6 hour) trip with a cat – when I adopted Dusty. I took a medium dog crate and used it for the kennel. I made a litter box out of a shoe box. I covered the shoe box with plastic before putting in the litter. In any event, Dusty did not use the box during the trip.

If you cannot find a larger kennel, you could stop ever few hours to give the cats a chance to use the box, eat, stretch, drink, etc. Again, you must be very careful so the cats do not escape the car. The kitties may be frightened by what is going on and will try to run away and hide. You may want to consider putting a collar and lead on the cats before the car doors are opened (that is what I do with my puppy when traveling).

You may also want to check with AAA or a travel agent to make sure you find pet friendly hotels for the trip. Depending on where you will be, it may be too cold for the cats to stay in the kennel overnight in the car.

Good luck with your move. You will have to tell us more about your cats.

Mark

Hi Michelle.... I moved from Florida to upstate New York with 3 cats and two dogs. It was about a 26 hour trip. The cats were all in kennels with litter boxes but that was not a very smart move on my part.... there was litter all over the van and they had not used it, just tossed it around. (The imitation lambswool beds were used well...they loved them.)

My personal experience was that the best thing to do was as Mark suggested - stop every so many hours to let the cats out of the cages and use the litter box and get water (water was all over my van too, by the way - I thought they'd want that in their cages as well....). I had to stop for bathroom breaks for myself and the dogs anyway.

When we slept overnight (my husband was in the Penske Truck and I was alone with all the animals) I slept on the floor of the van with all the animals "loose" inside. The cats then slept with me after exploring. I kept their litter box on the floor of the passenger side of the van (front seat) and they just came and went as they needed. Muffin slept on the dash board though....

As long as your husband does not open any doors while the cats are loose in the vehicle, he should have no problems. I would not be afraid to travel with them like this again. In fact, I would be terrified to take them on a plane for all the horror stories out there about that....

Anyway, it was a very nice trip (after they got done "singing" to me the first hour....)