# Taking your cat on vacation



## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

We just survived moving our cat with us on vacation and wanted to share what worked (and what didn't):

*Sentry Calming Collar*. It is sold at PetSmart (right now on sale $12, but usually $16 I think) or if you have time, order on Amazon for much less. I put it on him a little before loading him into his crate (we had a 4 hour car trip) and in retrospect, think I should have put it on him a full day ahead of time. 

*Comfort Zone with Feliway *I bought this at Amazon for about $20. You plug into the wall socket at your destination (it says to put it in the room your cat will be in the most). He is very very laid back here (in fact more so than at home!), so am not sure if it is the calming collar or the Feliway or both.

Not sure if this worked or not as I saw no difference:

*Whisker City At Ease*. I bought this at PetSmart and used it to acclimate my cat to the car and the crate the week ahead of travel. I sprayed it in the car and crate 5 min before putting his food in the crate and setting the crate on the back seat of the car with the door open and letting him go into the crate to eat at mealtimes. I am not sure the product worked or maybe the car is just too stressful a place for him because he was always highly anxious in the car.

This did not work for my cat

I set his crate on the front passenger seat so the door faced me, and tried covering his crate lightly with paper towels so he couldn't see out-thinking he would do better if he couldn't see anything. He meowed continually and after about 10 minutes "lost it" and started hitting the paper towels with his paws (stuck through openings) and then turned "crazed" spinning around slamming his body against the crate. I had to pull over and uncover him. He seem.ed to calm down when I put my hand against the door opening mesh-as he started rubbing his face on my hand. He still meowed almost continuously for the next 1 1/2 hours but then calmed down.


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## coppers-mom (Jan 9, 2009)

Glad you got there and sorry the trip was so stressful.

Glad Mercury is more laid back there and hope he enjoys the vacation as much as you guys do.


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

Oh, it was NOTHING compared to last year. Last year about 30 min into the trip, Mercury had diarrhea all over his crate and bedding. It was over 100 degrees, so I couldn't open the windows as I drove so had to endure the odor for the next 3 hours. I thought about stopping at a rest area but what could I have done there anyway? (let him out in my car so he spread the diarrhea all over the seats while I tried to clean up the crate? besides it was SO HOT even getting out of the car for a couple of minutes was awful.
So by comparison, this trip was a piece of cake! (but see my photo post in this forum to hear what Mr Sneaky did today)


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## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

My cats stay home vacation time. I think they actually look forward to it. My parent's neighbor's kids watch them because they their dad is allergic. Both cats gain weight while I am gone. The girls love how friendly they are. Mika gets groomed several times a day which she loves and Tallulah gets to play all day which she loves.

I tried desensitiving them to the car as kittens but they didn't buy it.


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