[A/S] Traveling with cats

[Tuna <rctowns@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I full-timed and traveled across the united states for ~ 3-4 years in the
'70's with my best pals, Moogus and Mikey (a.k.a. 'Mouse'). The
'complaining' stopped after an hour or so on the first day, as they
habituated to the new surroundings. Properly 'ignored', the yowling and
meowing faded, with a resurgeance each morning for the first few days,
decreasing in duration and intensity with each day. Completely gone by the
end of the first week. Placing them in any sort of 'confinement' (even a
large carrier), however, resulted in persistent complaining - it doesn't
seem to fade at all. I suppose the idea that there is a larger area within
the car to 'explore' is too much for a cat.

It also might be a good idea to take a day or two ahead of departure to get
the cat habituated to riding in the car, and staying inside the trailer at
night. In preparation for this summer's road trip, I took my cat on errands
around town for a few days, and spent the night prior to departure in the
trailer with her.

NB:  If you have power door locks in your car and stop for a short while
while the cats are loose inside - Always take your keys with you. (See
earlier posting detailing my cat locking me out of the car at a gas station
for about 45 minutes the other week).

When on the road in the '70's, Moogus and Mikey rode up front with me in the
'59 Bentley S-1; each had their own pillow, a communal water-dish, and some
dry food. In the trailer, they had a litter-box and were always fed their
canned ('wet') food inside the trailer. But to keep your cats from straying,
the next piece is MOST IMPORTANT:

 I'd learned in my youth the 'ButterPaws Technique'... this is essential, in
my opinion, for traveling with felines: When arriving at a new destination
(overnight or longer, presuming that they wouldn't be going outside for
shorter stops), I would escort each cat back to the trailer during 'hookup'
and put them inside. When I was done hooking up the utilities, leveling the
trailer, etc., i'd go inside the trailer, open the fridge and take out a
stick of regular salted butter that i kept separate just for this purpose.
I'd then go up to each cat and take one forepaw and gently smear some butter
on the back of it, then do the other forepaw. As soon as they'd finished
licking the butter off their paws, I'd open the trailer door so that the
outside sights, sounds, etc. were available. Watching them closely, I'd let
them explore the immediate surroundings until one of them showed an interest
in going outside our trailer park/campground space. As soon as each one did
that, i'd put that one back inside the trailer, and do a second 'butterpaws'
treatment. The whole thing takes about three minutes, and can save a lot of
potential heartbreak.

I left the east coast from New York City about this time of year in 1976,
and was staying a couple of nights in a small, largely unoccupied trailer
park near the railyards midtown near the Hudson River. The only other
occupant of the trailer park while i was there was another single gent
traveling with his cat - only the cat had scarpered the night he'd arrived,
about 10 days earlier. It was only meant to be an overnight stop for them,
but the guy was stuck there waiting and hoping his cat would return, or be
found. He was spending his days between the trailer park and the New York
City animal shelters. It was a heartbreaking situation. I taught him the
butterpaws technique, and share it with others who travel with cats, at
every opportunity.

My current feline counterpart is Dr. Katz, a full-grown female (spayed) grey
shorthair who tips the scales (actually *tips* the scale) at 20lbs. I've
spent the last few months getting her habituated to wearing a harness so
that we could travel this summer... but with the afore-mentioned
tried-and-tested techniques i haven't had to use the leash at all. Cats make
wonderful traveling companions, and can themselves come to genuinely enjoy
the experience.

A side-note: I don't know if it's common among cats, but Dr.K is extremely
sensitive to something about both high-tension power lines and/or large
bodies of water, especially rivers and such... She'd been catnapping on a
recent ride from Las Vegas to Tucson when she suddenly looked up, made a
querulous sound, jumped into my lap and assumed the Toonces Position
('Toonces: The Cat Who Could Drive A Car') and began looking around very
interestedly... as the highway wound down towards the Hoover Dam, she went
back and forth to each side of the car, looking out the window... when we'd
crossed the dam and come out on the Arizona side, she settled down and went
back to sleep. Same thing happened on the return trip. And whenever we're
approaching a point on the road where power lines cross the highway, she
invariably looks up and around until we're about a mile past them...

Tuna
WBCCI#8862/VAC
'48 Trailwind behind '49 Jeepster (in progress)
'79 Dodge 'Champion' (RV)
'83 Burro behind '99 Prowler
Reno, NV