Re: First weeks of 1999 rear kitchen ownership!
Reply #3 –
Cats, we have 2. One is bold and in your face. The other, like most tortoise cats, is more sensitive to notices, being bothered by her sister, us moving around, etc. so she likes to have her own spaces where she is safe. To travel they like to be under the passenger seat in the cab (pic attached, you can see two cat butts sticking out of the seat). It took one or two trips, but they have the routine down. They quickly settle down after we stop (which means come out and be cats) but sometimes they know we are just stopping for lunch and they just stay under the cab seat the entire time.
We do a cat count before we leave any area just to make sure they are with us.
They are great fly and bug catchers. They like to investigate anything brought in, stare out windows, lay around, and bug us for petting or food.
Many people say their cats love the bed over the cab, ours will go explore up there (this is our storage area) but don't spend lots of time up there, but depending on how your cab area is configured... for ours they climb up the blanket hung between the cab and the coach. We have not tried the nail caps, but we do work to stay on top of what is allowed to be scratched, bitten, or wrestled with (their toys) and what is not (furniture, our stuff). Our bold one loves to chew tape (all kinds) so we have to watch that, she also chewed thru a headset cord I recently got - just a cheap one but with such nice spongy cord material she couldn't resist. They need toys, scratching areas, etc. Not so important for shorter trips, but for longer ones a must.
There are sprays like Bitter Apple spray that keeps them away from cords/things they like to chew. One cat wasn't phased by that so we found Ick at a pet store but I can't find a link to that. It was worse, but if it got on you and in your mouth (even days later), it was bad. [We had a cat at one point that would sit at my desk/on my lap and check on the phone cord I was talking on, the computer mouse cord, any electrical cord, etc. etc. Days later, if I touched the cord I would get ick on my hands, wipe your mouth and ... well Ick. ] They don't like citrus or vinegar or strong smells like tea tree oil either so that might work.
You need to watch where they go - our brave one likes to hang out inside cabinets, the shower, join us in the bathroom when we are there and has gotten shut inside the bathroom a few times before she learned to quickly run out when we stood up or faced the door. But in the middle of the night if the door was left open a few inches I will find her sitting on the toilet or in the shower - who knows why. She liked the cabinet under the oven best (the door didn't shut securely so she could open it). We didn't use that cabinet and one day I said I better check that out and in the back it opened into the tray that held the electrical cord curled up in (so the cat was laying on a 30 amp cord). It immediately became a no cat zone and that latch was fixed. So like a regular house, you have to watch curious cats to make sure they don't go where you don't want them to go.
Same with watching the doors and windows as some cats are out in a second if given a chance. We have to watch our bold one even though she knows not to go out (current cats have always been indoor only cats). We forgot last week and left a cab window open in the afternoon and DH came home that night and found the bold cat on the hood of the cab, he yelled her name and she ran back inside. She was is the same in a brick and stick home, the evening of a move in she explored the fireplace (new for her) and standing on all 4 paws suddenly whoosh she was up the chimney like Santa Clause while we frantically split up one going outside in case she made her way to the roof, the other trying to peer up the chimney - it turned out she had jumped onto a shelf just above the fireplace opening.
Many people give the cats a designated cat area - we have a few of those, the main one being the cab area when we are parked as we rarely go up there when parked. But we place cat beds and cat carriers around so they have places that are theirs so they don't get kicked or bumped as we walk around. We recently moved to collapsible cat carriers and leave them out also for a hiding place and so the cats are familiar with them when they are needed. Oh, and we buy only fluffy soft cat toys so when we step on them, especially the middle of the night, no yelling happens.
Lots of people have cats in their RVs. For a short trip (2-3 days) I would leave them at home as I could leave food out for them, but longer trips I would take them with me.
Give it a try and give them some time to adjust (like a couple trips, maybe the first one a short drive and a longer stop).
Jane
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