AIBU to think taking a pet cat on the bus is unusual

[Netcurtainnelly]

Is it strange to see a cat on the bus with it's owner?
A man boarded the bus yesterday with a cat. It was like his accessory fancy collar etc, and he was saying he was going to start taking the cat on the bus now.
Clearly enjoying it?

Has anyone else even seen someone board with a cat in arms?

They cancelled the app when we brought our cat in without the carrier had to rearrange. No reason given just that it wasn’t allowed

I think i must get the wrong cats. I've never had one chilled enough to a. Put in a cat box without a fight b. Be overly happy being carried around in arms.

I think there's a comedy film about that.

Chap I worked with years ago had a cat who did this. It used to get on the bus and go to the fish and chip shop two stops down the road. It never got the bus back though so he had to collect it each time (he received a lot of calls from the chippy).
I didn't entirely believe him until he brought a copy of his local rag in which had run the story. 😆

There were 2 ferrets on leads on my train once, I had a terrier with me. She was very VERY interested in them (luckily she was a puppy) so we moved swiftly down the carriage.

How wonderful , I would love to see a cat on the bus! What a loved little cat to be taken out and about. This has made me very happy. We should do more of this!

See this I can get onboard with, one of my cat loves the car 😂

No, but my cat loves to ride in the car to Starbucks. Probably because they give her a Kitty Cup (which I let her enjoy sparingly).

Having to cope with my cat loose on public transport is one of my recurring stress dreams.

There is a cat in Plymouth who travels around for miles, although he has a perfectly good home. Locals post photos of him all over the place

In my many years as a cat slave I've not had one that would have tolerated this. Maybe if you started taking them out as a kitten they'd get used to it, but I'm not sure how the cat would benefit from being carried around in public. He sounds like he probably should have got a dog.

She actually posted a clip of that on her insta about it!

I think the planes one has beaten you to it.

It is unusual. It's a bit foolhardy as well, especially as it wasn't in a carrier. What if dogs had got on the bus?

I got on a bus a couple of weeks ago and there were about 9 dogs on one bus. All well behaved and no problem, but having a cat amongst 9 dogs in a confined space would be ridiculous.

You wouldn’t get my cat on a bus - had he drugged it?!?

I lived somewhere where a cat was a regular passenger on a particular bus. It was a grave cause for concern if the cat missed a day or two of its rides, with much relief all over the Facebook page when it returned! In my adopted area, a cat is famous for having become a regular at the supermarket.

I had a university friend who used to have to take her goldfish home in a Tupperware box by train. She got a lot of funny looks for that!

I'm praying that the police never pull me over and ask if I have anything unusual in my car, as sometimes I have to take my tortoise to his holiday home at a family member's house on the odd occasion that we stay there. As he has outgrown the cat box, he now has to travel by laundry basket. Fortunately, my dogs are fine with him!

It's often more that Tibbles getting bitten in two by the rather large dog whose owner can't accept the vet dictating that all dogs are kept on a lead tends to upset owners (and anybody else in the waiting room).

There’s someone on my bus who regularly brings their rabbit with them

I think a lot depends on the cat.

Mine would be quite happy anywhere with a male lap to sleep on.

The famous street cat Bob travelled by bus.

I think Bengals quite like a walk on a lead but yes your average moggy would not be happy.

I do it I don't have a car so it's the only way I can get her to the vet 😊 I have a proper carrier for her ❤️

How did the cat react ?

We don't do that but we take the cat on a lead near a busy park. Then again she's used to the loud noise, my oldest is 11 and the house is rowdy most days. I've gotten the occasional strange look for it

Cat pram a few times first off I didn't realise it was a cat and thought that child sounds odd.

My cat when I picked her up in the street freaked out because of the cars, screamed and then ran across the road into the school playground. If she’s ever in her carrier there’s only one place she’s going and that’s to the vets where she gets very scared so no way on earth would she get on buses. Her sister (I didn’t own her) used to get on buses though, and we think that’s how she travelled to the next town on the small local street bus and met her new owners (their vet rang her old owner when she was scanned).

I saw a guy in central London with a cat draped over his shoulder. It was a very big, confident looking cat who looked totally comfortable, he had clearly been taking him out for years. I’ve also seen someone take a kitten out of a carrier to sit on their lap in the tube, that made me really tense.

My own cat would absolutely freak out, even in a harness for a quiet walk, she is scared of people, noises, the unknown etc. She is a rescue who grew up entirely as a house cat with just one person.

Yeah I guess that makes sense, also if it's anything like my vets there isn't a huge amount of seating but what there is is very close to each other so even two 'unboxed' cats next to each other could cause problems.
So it's not that they can't see the vet , it's they can't wait in the waiting room.
My vet set up a speaker system during covid so that people waiting in the carpark could be called .