More about cats in the RV

[OldGal3]

Question for all you with cats....I took my old girl into the trailer for the first time this morning figuring I'd do that each day a few times and let her
stay in while I'm on the computer or something. She did pretty good, I held her, we went into each room, then I put her on the bed (made up with things from the house) and she wandered around a bit...THEN she went to the window and her claws became affixed to the screen! She didn't panic, I was able to peel the claws out of the screen so all was ok. What I'm wondering is if any of you have replaced/changed/covered the screens to
prevent the claw/screen interaction. Thanks for any ideas.

[kittlecat]

My cats have all been declawed (I know, inhumane) so clawing screens has not been an issue. I have to watch my cat to be sure he does not push the screens out using his head or body.

[Restcure]

Sometimes Bella goes on a bit of a tear in the trailer (a good sign that some outside time is due) or we can hear her scratching at something she shouldn't (usually at night and her name, harshly whispered, is usually enough to get her to stop). No screen scratching though.

We can usually tell when she's ready for some outside time.

[Life Without Whine]

Time for soft paws ... rubber nail caps that you replace monthly & work great for the kitties....

[OldGal3]

Ha! Love the picture of Bella - I'm servant to Ella!
Ella spent about an hour in the TH with me this morning and did
pretty well. Investigated every corner and did lay on my desk for
a bit while I was at the computer. That's a familiar spot for her.

So, I think I'll just wait and see. She's 18 and has been in the
country both in the house and out her whole life. I live in a log home and she's never clawed inside the house (I think she read my mind) but does
have scratching posts, plus acres of forest outside. She'll get used
to the smaller house....hopefully!

Thanks for all the replies.

[karpcbk15]

They all travel in the truck in individual carriers. Except the bird. He travels in his cage. They all cry from time to time but settle down for the most part. One does have car sickness issues. We usually give him a very small sedative. It takes a couple of them a day once at the campground to settle. Once they do, they all enjoy looking out the windows.

[KyDan]

Cat on the road follow up-- We took Lucy to Gulf shores last week. After the first couple of days in the truck she settled down pretty good and by the end of the trip she knew her place was laying on a towel in the middle of the center console between us. No problem there!

At night it's a different story. She is definitely a night player. At home we have a 2 story house with full basement and she has the run of the house.
She rarely comes in the bedroom and we occasionally hear her "stampeding" around down stairs at night we sleep fine. In our trailer which is basically one room with no doors to block off the bed she didn't let us have much un-interrupted sleep. Every night she would play, jump, climb and occasionally scratch everywhere! We are re-considering the decision to not have her de-clawed but that's not the big problem. She just won't let us sleep more than a couple hours at a time.... We're looking for someone to keep her while we travel on long trips or we'll have to pony up $500 to board her this winter when we hope to head to AZ for a month.
Bummer....

[l001952119]

Originally Posted by KyDan

Greetings! I've just spent nearly an hour reading most of the "cat tales" in the Pets forum. Thanks for sharing your stories!

We have a 2 year old rescue kitty. Lucy is a Tortoiseshell short hair.
She is OK in the trailer once we arrive but not so happy in the truck. She just
wants to move all the time like she is trying to find a safe place. We just took
her on a 1 hour trial run to a state park for 2 nights. She was very nervous
in the truck with wild eyes and she mewed quietly every couple minutes. She is not normally a lap cat but my wife tried to hold her some and once managed to get her to lay down on the center console for 10-15 minutes but the rest of the time she was on the move.

Some of the previous discussions mentioned letting their cat ride in the
trailer. Not sure if we want to try that. She might burrow under the bed
blankets as she did at first arrival in the CG but I'm worried she might hurt
herself jumping around in the bouncy trailer.
Others mentioned keeping them in a cage in the truck. I guess we'll give that a try. We started with her in a cat carrier and she seemed to do a little better in that but she did cry some.

Still others mentioned kiddy benadryl. I'm going to ask our vet about that.
I think she might be more comfortable if she was sedated slightly. We need
to make this work as we're heading to Gulf State park for a week next month and hoping to spend a month somewhere in the south next winter.

Now the fact that she is a night player is another thing but we can live with
that I guess. She loves to chase her fuzzy ball at all hours of the night!
In a big 2 story house, that's fine. In a basic one room trailer not so much....
I'll attach a pic. We really love cats but didn't go looking for one as we were just ready to retire and hit the road! We were walking in the boonies and she jumped out of a soy bean field and started doing figure 8s around our ankles. What are ya gonna do?? We couldn't find anyone to take her so she adopted us!
Here are some pictures of her first camping trip. She was pretty wild eyed in the truck but adapted to the trailer right away. She was watching the deer out the door in the first 2.

Cat cages with open doors, offer a secure place. Works with our two cats!

[kittlecat]

I was going to suggest the same thing. Have you thought about putting Lucy in a crate/carrier at night? I got a new carrier for my cat that is larger than a standard sized carrier but not huge. I introduced my cat to the new carrier by putting it on the floor with the door open (at home), putting a cat nip toy inside and letting him come/go as he pleased. He was a little suspicious at first but he now views the carrier as his house and spends time in the carrier regularly so I leave the carrier on the floor for him when we are not traveling. I got the carrier at a thrift store for $5, rather than paying $35+ at a retailer. Another thought that occurred to me: do you have cat toys out for Lucy 24/7? If so, try putting them up at night as I do with my cat. He then settles down because he can't be batting and slamming his cat nip around the TT when I'm trying to sleep. I'd hate to see you have to board Lucy while you go to AZ; think of the adventures she will miss! But I also understand you need your sleep.

[Steinbaum]

Alexander the Grrreat started traveling with us at age 14. He rode in a cage between the class A front seats and was perfectly fine with it.

When Spotacus adopted us, he fell in love with the class A. On long trips, he'd make himself comfortable behind the sofa.

Now that we have a travel trailer, Alex and Spotacus both ride in oversized carriers in the pickup back seat. As long as we stop after 4-5 hours and let them go potty (or not) in the trailer, they're fine.

Spotacus likes his carrier to be open, so he can lay on the floor or just stretch out in his carrier. Alex, being 20, is too fragile to let out while we're in motion, so he gets extra padding in his cage.

Once in the trailer, they're fine. When Spotacus starts zooming, we know it's time to take him outside for a walk. Alex is happy to have the trailer to himself for a while.

[TLAK]

One 4th of July we were setting up our old Freelander and DW couldn't find the cat. I was outside the camper doing the jacks, and she could hear the cat crying someplace inside but couldn't find it. Opened every cabinet, pulled up all the seats but still couldn't find it. She sent me out to check all the compartments and when I came back she had narrowed down the sound to behind the dinette. With the slide still in there was about a 4 inch space between it and the wall, covered by a 'wood' trim piece.

Apparently the cat was on top of the slide and something scared it and it fell down the space, tumbling all the way down to the floor. If DW hadn't notice the cat was missing my next set up step would have been to run the slide out and the little guy would have been squished.

We tried to get it to climb a rope back to the top, rigged an 'elevator' that she wouldn't go in and finally, after an hour, I took the trim off and figured I'd bend the slide frame with a wonder bar. Luckily the frame was screwed to a chunk of particle board which I could easily remove to free the little varmint. The cat was good for month after that.

Now in our FR3 we still make sure to see the cat with our eyes before running the slides out.

[Steinbaum]

We've always had this rule: cats inside carriers before slides move. We may get other parts of our set up/breakdown checklist out of order, but not this.

[CathyFitz]

Royal lived traveling in the trailer. Always had him in hand while slides are being moved. After he passed we got a new kitten, Prince. Difference is that Prince is deaf so no calling helps. Training on a leash. Bought a large cage so he can sit outside with us. He can tell when we are getting ready to go somewhere. Loves to ride.

[jeff64]

Our cats really don't like to ride in vehicles. I'm thinking that they equate... ride in car = trip to vet! But, I did discover whilst living in the TT with two cats during a remodeling of our house a few years back... If I place one of those recycled poly door mats in front of the covered litter boxes, the amount of litter tracked through the TT was significantly reduced and contained more to the mat. Since then, we set up inside their home that way too.

[kittlecat]

I learned from my sister's mistake with the cat. Her cat rode in the 5th wheel while traveling, not in a carrier. They were setting up camp at one point and she was opening the slide in the bedroom. The cat had gotten under the bed and was somehow caught with his head about to be squashed by the slide. He screamed, she screamed, my brother-in-law wanted to know why everyone was screaming and since opening that slide was my sister's job, she too, always made sure she could see the cat before she opened any slides. The lesson for me is that I never let my cat out of the carrier and into the TT until the slides are open. And he goes back in his carrier before the slides are closed.