[1] As a rule, the received wisdom is that cats don’t adapt easily to travel of any sort.  However, it has been our experience that if you are prepared to take a little trouble and invest a little in appropriate equipment, cats pose no greater difficulties than dogs. In fact, due to their generally sedentary nature, you could even argue that they are easier to accommodate.

Actually, Tiggy and Foggy are pretty seasoned travellers now. They were just over a year old in 2008, when we took them on our first overseas trip. Over a five week period, we took six ferry trips, visited three countries (four if you count the Isle of Wight), and stayed in five different houses. Since this is probably more than the majority of cats travel in a lifetime, we have put together this travel log for the benefit of others who may be considering taking their feline fiends (?!) on holiday.

Car travel

[2] Unfortunately, it is a fact that the very sight of the standard plastic carrier invokes images of the vet’s surgery. If you think any cat is going to be happy sweating away in one of those for hours, think again. If you are thinking of undertaking regular car journeys in excess of an hour’s duration, you need to consider providing Club Class comfort. I ordered[3] our tent-like Car-Go shelter and a matching collapsable pet carrier from [4] Sturdiproducts in the US. The “large” pet carrier is really a little too small for both cats, but is useful for transport to and from the car and it is fully collapsible making it easy to stow in a packed car.

The Car-Go, on the other hand, is relatively roomy. It has two compartments, which can be separated by a zippered partition.  We don’t use the zip, but the cats can travel comfortably in one half with a covered corner litter tray fitting neatly in the other.

The cats liked the Car-Go shelter on first sight. I made a couple of thick foam cushions for the base and bought a cheap washable fleece blanket to make it a little more cosy, then set the shelter up in the living room so the cats could get used to it. At first they didn’t take much notice of it, but one day, while Hoovering, I plonked the shelter on the return side of our L-shaped sofa. That, needless to say, made it completely irresistable. Of course, at the time, the cats had no idea that they were going to have to spend up to 15 hours cooped up in it.

As recommended, I secured the shelter to the back seat of the car using the seatbelt straps, and took the cats on a trial run to a neighbouring town in the Car-Go. Unsurprisingly the both hated it … and boycotted use of the shelter for several days after. The judicious use of a few hidden snacks under the cushions soon re-established the shelter’s popularity.

Before leaving on holiday, I took the precaution of spraying the interior of the car with [5] Feliway. Feliway, for those of you who don’t know, is an artificial cat pheromone, and can help to make cats feel more in tune with our surroundings.

The first couple of hours of our first trip from our home in SW France to Calais were the worst. Foggy yowled almost incessantly, but eventually settled down. But poor Tig was panic-stricken, hyper-ventilating and drooling all the way to Boulogne. We feared for his health.

Fine tuning the car environment took a bit of trial and error. We adjusted the temperature, vents and fan speed on the air-conditioning until we were all reasonably comfortable, then faded out the rear speakers on the car’s sound system. In truth, however, it took the cats a while to accept music in the car. Radio worked best: Heart or Magic in the UK, RFM or Traffic in France: you know, middle-of-the-road stuff. The shuffle function on the MP3 player was a disaster. We would just settle down to Debussy’s tinkling “Claire du Lune”, only to be deafened by Led Zepplin on the next track.

At the ferry terminal I managed to tempt the cats with a little home-made chicken stock and some biscuits, and they managed to sleep a little on the crossing. Somehow, the journey to London wasn’t nearly as bad, and they were almost back to normal by the time we arrived at John’s mother’s.

Subsequent car journeys have not nearly as stressful. Both cats now settle down quickly and seem to sleep for most of the ride.

Other people’s houses …

The Sturdishelter Car-Go has long-since become the cats’ home from home. Every time we arrive somewhere new, it is the first thing to be installed in the bedroom … along with the litter tray.  The covered corner-type is reasonably discreet and the doorflap ensures that the litter does not track too far into the room.

In the early days, the next thing would be to plug in one or two electric [5] Feliway diffusers in whatever rooms the cats would be spending most time in.

Worried that the cats might damage other people’s furniture by scratching, I did initially buy [7] Soft Claws. Typically, an American invention, they are little plastic false nails that fit over our own claws. They do the job, making it more or less impossible to get a really good grip on even the most tempting corduroy sofa cover but, in retrospect, I wouldn’t recommend them to others unless scratching was likely to be a major problem. They may save your relationships with friends and relatives, but only you will know whether the stress of applying them is worthwhile in the long run.

It took both of us several attempts and many wasted claw covers, before Tiggy had a full set on his front paws. But, once the supplied SuperGlue had set, they lasted about four weeks before, one by one, they started to drop off as his claws grew. Both cats are actually very good about having their claws clipped, so we never bothered with these again. To be honest, if you can hold the cat still enough to apply the claw-covers, you can probably clip their claws just as easily.

[8] Being indoor cats, ours had no particular problems staying in other people’s houses. Their needs are simple: familiar food, bedding and toys, a daily game or two of pokey-paw, and a good view from at least one window. Each house provided new and interesting toys.

Each house also brought its own hazards. Be especially alert for flower vases containing potentially harmful flowers. Lilies, particularly, can be lethal to cats. Also look out for windows and doors that are routinely left open. One of our biggest fears is always that Tiggy and Fog will escape into a strange and/or dangerous environment and not know how to find their way home.

Above all we did our best to make the cats’ surroundings as familiar and homely as possible. In particular, I always make sure that we travel with a good supply of their usual food and the type of litter they prefer. For the first couple of years after the cats moved on to adult food, I fed a raw meat diet, but this proved impractical when travelling, so I now [9] home-can cooked chicken with [10] Instincts TC supplement for use on holiday and at boarding kennels.

[11] Pet Passports

To travel within the EC, pets have to be micro-chipped and hold Pet Passports showing that they have been vaccinated against rabies amongst other things. The process of getting these when the cats were only a few months old. Seeing that we were English, the French vet asked if we would be wanting to travel back to the UK with our cats. Just as well, as not only did they have to have two rabies jabs, but they also had to have a blood test after 6 months to show that they had built up enough rabies antibodies. Poor cats seemed to spend the first eight months of their lives being jabbed, snipped and generally drained of blood at every opportunity. And then we wonder why animals hate the vet!

In France, all the vaccinations need renewing annually* and pets also have to be de-ticked and wormed as well, no more than 48 hours (and no less than 24 hours) before entering the UK. There is no vet check-up at the port. You are simply handed a scanner to read the animal’s microchip and it is then checked against the vaccination record in the Passports. *Rabies vaccinations given in the UK generally last for two years.

Tiggy and Fog do not normally wear collars. Although both cats can be identified by their French microchips, I always worried what might happen if they should escape while in the UK or Ireland. As there would be no-one at home in France to answer the phone if they were found, I ordered a couple of safety collars from [12] Kitty Collars, pre-printed with the message, “I’m lost!” and a UK mobile number.

Luggage

[13] John joked that the cats had more luggage than he did. Luckily the Sturdishelter came in a useful canvas carry bag, into which I was able to pack everything else. Here is our list of essential holiday packing:

Disclaimer

Cats are capricious animals. What suits one cat will not suit another. While it does not claim to be authoratitive, the above log is provided as an aide to other owners who may be planning to travel with their cats. It represents a humourous, though accurate, account of our preparations for a five week trip, during which our two, 14-month old, neutered male indoor cats, travelled from our home in south west France to London, the Isle of Wight, Ireland (via Wales), and back. They stayed in five very different homes and experienced varying levels of freedom. We believe that our care and sensitivity to the cats’ needs paid dividends in that we experienced no major issues and both cats returned home safe, healthy and unstressed. How another cat might react in the same circumstances is anyone’s guess.