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The litter tray

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Take the cat with us?

7 replies

Jellykittens · 02/10/2021 08:53

We're having some urgent and noisy repairs being done on our house in a couple of days time. There's going to be a lot of disruption and builders in and out, and I don't think our beautiful cat is going to like it one bit. He hates noise except when he's making it by singing the song of his people at 3am.

Family are kindly letting us stay in their empty flat about 1.5 hours drive away during the building works and we're thinking of taking our cat. Are we crazy?

(It's a strange choice, I know, but he's a strange cat! He really doesn't like catteries because they can't give him constant human attention. On the other hand, a few times we've tried leaving him with a friend over the weekend and he's LOVED it. Friendly, playful, eating his head off and having 24-hour petting. He seems to care much more about having constant company - he doesn't mind who it is either! - than being in his own territory. None of the cats we've had before have ever been like this!)

So - are we crazy to take him with us? What do we need to do to make the 1.5-hour drive easier? We have an enormous cat carrier that's big enough for a litter box, and he's usually pretty fine with being in the car. Should we break the journey up? Feed him beforehand? Try and time it for when he's sleepy or stick some Feliway in the car somehow?

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 02/10/2021 08:59

What else were you planning to do with him?

Jellykittens · 02/10/2021 09:02

It's a good question! Put him in a cattery would be the only other option but I hate to do that when I know he'll be stressed there. Our friend can't take him at short notice so unfortunately we can't do that either.

OP posts:
Luzina · 02/10/2021 09:03

When I was a child we used to take our cat in the car for 200 miles (each way) every other weekend. She was fine in a normal cat carrier with a newspaper lining.

Frazzled2207 · 02/10/2021 09:03

Sounds sensible to me.
But you’d have to not let him outside as you may never see him again. Will he use a litter tray?

Chickoletta · 02/10/2021 09:07

I can’t see that the journey is a problem. Would your friends be ok with your cat being in their flat? Is he reliably clean with a litter tray? If so, I’d take him with you.

bonzo77 · 02/10/2021 09:09

Journey will be fine. Keep can securely indoors during your stay. My cat would much prefer to go to our usual cattery though, however they’re all different.

Jellykittens · 02/10/2021 09:12

He's happy using a litter tray, and the flat doesn't have a garden or outside access (he won't be impressed by that, but he will be safe). I think he'll be ok here, unless the journey upsets him. Thankfully the flat owner is fine with him being here, and has asked for cute pictures of him exploring Grin

I'm amazed at the cat travelling 200 miles every other weekend! I think I'm definitely being too over-cautious, I'm just worried that after 20 minutes in the car he'll decide he Is Not Fine with this anymore and become distressed.

The building works are stressing me out, and I'm sure I'm projecting that onto the cat journey because I can control it. Not the cat, though, he's definitely only under his own control Grin

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