Kat in a Tin_Can

Planning a road trip in our RV, always presents us with a dilemma: Do we board our cat, get a pet sitter or neighbor to come in, or take her with us.?   

We have tried all four solutions and none of them are entirely satisfactory.

Boarding KAT is the least desirable option.  She absolutely goes nuts in a cage, is terrified by the other animals at the animal hospital, won’t eat, and shows sign of post traumatic stress syndrome for weeks after we return.

A pet sitter and neighbors  coming into our home works out a bit better, but it is expensive (for the sitter)  and feels like an imposition on the friendship to ask of a neighbor   Plus, at best,  the caretakers only come in for a few minutes once a day so KAT gets very lonely, and acts very neurotic and needy when we get home.

Taking her with us usually works out the best  as long as it is not a long road trip

The good news is that unlike most cats she doesn’t yowl, scream, and fight to get out, or hide.  Instead KAT actually seems to enjoy traveling with us in the RV.( or maybe she just remembers how unhappy she is with the alternatives.)

As soon as we take off she hops on the back of Bruce’s head rest and settles down to watch the road.   

If we come to a city or other stop-n-go traffic areas she hops on my lap to look out the window. (I always take a clothes brush when traveling with Kat)

A full stop (like at this Florida toll booth) will have her stretching to look out the front window.

And she loves to smell at the air vents for the different scents of the areas we are travel through.

When we arrive at our destination she settles down in the front  window of the RV to sleep or enjoy a sun bath,   

or she looks out the side windows, 

and  even ventures outside with us  (on her leash and harness). I usually take her for a walk on the leash and harness at both dawn and dusk, which seems to satisfy both her curiosity and her need for exercise.

Taking KAT with us seems to work out well as long as the trip is shorter than a week, she gets exercised regularly, and we are not around other animals.

The bad news is that the longer the trip the greater the odds that we won’t be able to keep her mentally and physically stimulated.  Then she starts behaving like “a cat in a tin can” (That’s what one of my friends calls RV traveling with her cat.).

I can’t always walk KAT… sometimes there are too many kids and/or dogs in an area, or too much traffic and she gets scared and wants to get back in the RV.  Sometimes the weather doesn’t permit us going out, and/,or we don’t arrive until late at night.  Unless she gets exercise she gets antsy, and keeps us awake at night trying to see out the windows next to the bed.

She also gets upset if she scents other animals on us.  She meowed all night after we visited ever so briefly with a friend who had multiple cats in her home.

And worst of all, she seems to get bored with being inside and wants desperately to go outside and explore without a leash.  I swear Kat used five of her nine lives on this last trip to Florida when she escaped from the RV three times.    The first two times were in Key Largo where she hid in a mangrove thicket.  Eventually she came home on her own volition…. But not before I got chewed up alive by mosquitoes trying to coaxes her out.

The third time was in St Augustine FL where she got away from Bruce at 5 am.  at got fed up with being confined to a "tin can" and ran away.  It took us another five days or searching door to door, and calling until we were horse, and two thousand additional miles of travel, but Yup, we did get her back.. Another RVer who travels with cats recognized her from the descriptions we had left and managed to trap her in their animal carrier.   We drove back to St Augustine   in the middle of the night to rescue her.  So at least the story has a happy ending

The Kat clinker

BJ  helping Kat jail break in the middle of the night in St Augustine FL

She is one lucky kitty.  She could be alligator or crocodile’s snack.