I was forced to take my Siamese cat with when I went full time when the people who said they would adopt her backed out.....on the day of closing!
Same thing herem Mine is elderly also. I put him in a very large airline crate and he screamed was scared and eventually got sick with diarrhea from it all when traveling.
What finally worked after many tries at different ways to transport him was a large soft collapsible dog crate from of all places Walmart. It has soft screenings on three sides and the nylon material it is made of lets the light in. I think this is the key for the cat they don't like being closed in and that feeling of being trapped. They ARE a prey animal unlike the dog that 'likes' a closed in den feeling.
A towel on the bottom and the litter pan in the back gives him plenty of room to do is business and move to the other side to eat/sleep and enjoy the view thru the screening.
Once he was in the new soft crate he never uttered a peep and has been enjoying full time RV'ing with the rest of the crew.
I started out with the large one but for long time driving on the road it was too small for the litter box comfortably.
I ended up with the "X-tra Large Tan SportPet Soft Crate" works great. You can usually find them at Walmart folded, into a flat 12 inch square on the top shelf near the food isle.
Here's what it looks like. http://www.doortosummer.com/products/sportpet_popopen_soft_crates.htm
* This post was
edited 04/15/12 02:30pm by rockhillmanor *
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us".
our cat did not go outside or camping until he was over ten. He loved it. He traveled on my lap or on top of his litter box in the back seat where he could look out the window. He would not use the litter box while the truck was moving.
He got used to being in the trailer while it was parked at home. He even learned to walk on a leash around the campground or lay, tied up, in his chair by the fire.
When he knew it was time for bed he would go to the door and sit on his leash to tell us he wanted to go for a walk around the campground first.
We got our then 14-year-old cat used to travel by first getting a wire cage and securing it in the Jeep back seat. We then drove around for a couple hours, down roads that did not go in the direction of the vet hospital. Once he realized he could sit up and look outside, he stopped fussing. We did that several times, just so he'd understand that the wire cage did not mean the vet. In fact, he never saw his "going to the vet" carrier until we got moved into our retirement home seven states away.
Then we moved him into the MH, while it was parked by the house. Three nights before we finished moving out of the house, we started sleeping in the MH. Very quickly, he decided this was home. The day before we closed on the house, we moved to a campground, where we stayed until my retirement a couple weeks later. Then we started our trek home. Alex rode in the wire cage between the MH front seats, where he could watch or nap as he chose. When we stopped, he wandered about the MH, usually sticking right beside one of us, in case we had food (he's super food oriented). From the day we left the old house to the day we moved into our retirement house, he was happy to stay inside the MH.
He's quite comfortable in the MH now. We've moved into it a few times, when the S&B heat pump went on the fritz and the temps were over 100. Our 2-year-old took to it like it was home in the first place. Moved right in and made himself comfortable.
We took a 19-year-old with us on an emergency trip, because we were afraid he'd die while we were gone. No ramp up, just put him in there and went. He did fine, and his health improved so much that we had him another five months.
A cat's age doesn't matter, when it comes to getting them used to RVing.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -- Mahatma Gandhi
DOTL Spec. Alexander the Grrreat--tuxedo cat
Spot--Christmas cat
Bobbi Socks--tuxedo kitten who's missing, but we're not giving up yet
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