Cat fun fact (may not apply to all cats).
Long read…
We travel somewhat regularly with our two cats. They are kept in a cat carrier (actually a small dog crate), this is for their safety and ours (cat ejected in rollover or cat under brake pedal in an emergency situation). My wife’s Honda Element with rear seats removed, provides ample space for the cats and our 4 dogs. Even though the cats are provided Composure (a natural calmer; valerian, tryptophan, etc.) inevitably one of our them gets loud and often times followed by motion sickness.
We recently purchased a used Class C Motorhome as our normal pet sitter (who stays at our house) was not available and our son was getting married half way across the country. Missing the wedding and/ or having a stranger stay at our house with the Fur Babies was not an option. Hence the purchase. We have tent camped a lot in our younger years, old knees and what not caused that to stop. Now we can Glamp, which helped justify the expense. 800 miles from Wisconsin to Maryland, 4 dogs, 2 cats and 2 people. The motor home is open from the drivers cab to the living space so communication is easy.
We use harnesses on our dogs that attach to seatbelts for the same safety reasons mentioned above. The thought was to place the cat carrier under the dining room table between the bench seats with pillows surrounding them to dampen noise and they would feel as if they were in a safe den. Silly humans…. This time both cats experienced motion sickness, threw up on each other and just not happy. We decided to see what would happen if we let them out to roam. We were able to block off the drivers area to prevent feline foot/ control pedal interference. Cleaned up the cats and started back on down the road.
Our female cat Zinnia (the most often sick one) headed up top to the ‘cab over’ sleeping area and settled in almost immediately. Woody our male nestled near the dogs under the bench seat. We were able to travel there and back with calm kitties and no throw ups. Neither cat showed interest in the drivers cab area while the vehicle was in motion. Woody did enjoy the driver’s seat while parked. We did purchase cat harnesses and will design a safe tie off system for their preferred locations shortly.
So the long-winded point being; our cats motion sickness is most likely exasperated by being in a small confined environment. Allowing them more movement and the ability to ‘feel free’ instead of confined just made traveling with them more enjoyable. We also did not have to dose them with Compsure (which in hindsight) MAY have contributed to anxiety - feeling “doped up” isn’t always a pleasant experience for everyone. Couple that feeling with movement and being in a small house rolling down the road and - who knows?
Side note: neither feline showed interest in bolting outside when doors were opened. Pretty sure we are going to get ‘smarts collars’ for them in the future. If they do get out and get frightened we should be able to easily locate them.
