Hi all… I really need some advice here. I’ll be taking my cat to the vet next week and I’ll definitely ask them, but I also want to see if anyone has tried doing this and if so, what their experiences were. I’ll be moving 2,500 miles away in a month and a half. If all goes according to plan, we (brother and I) will be driving my van out and pulling a UHaul trailer. I also have to take my cat. My brother and his gf moved in the winter with 5 cats, and they had no problem. They just kept the cats in cat carriers and stayed in Motel 6’s, where the cats were allowed to stay in the bathroom overnight.
My question is how to make sure my cat’s safe in the summer. My van does NOT have air conditioning (I don’t think it would be a good idea to use it while pulling a UHaul anyway.) I don’t care, because I don’t like it. (If I don’t miss having it in Nashville during the summer, I definitely don’t think I"ll need it in Portland.)
But will my cat be okay riding with me in the front seat of the van with open windows in a cat carrier in August? (big question.) (Clearly, I wouldn’t be dumb enough to leave the cat IN the van at any point.) It’s going to take about 4-5 days to drive.
Also, do any casual restaurants (Shoneys, Cracker Barrel, etc., or even McDonald’s) allow you to bring in a cat in a cat carrier? Does anyplace allow this? Would most places even notice it if I just went in and out quickly?
My first instinct is that you shouldn’t try it without AC. What might be moderately warm for you could be dangerous to the cat. But I live in Arizona, where lack of AC is basically a medical emergency in the summer. I don’t have much experience with temperatures further north, so take it with a grain of salt.
No restaurants will allow a cat, even in a carrier. I can tell you that right now. Health codes and potential disturbance galore.
That all said, I have a friend who’s made two cross-country trips with her cat, once from North Carolina to Arizona, then from Arizona up to Washington state, three days each. It’s difficult and unpleasant, but doable. You’ll want to give your cat as many rest stops as you have yourself; give it time to stretch out of the cage (you will need to keep it in a cage for everyone’s safety) and use the litter box. I recommend making as few stops as possible before you get to the next motel. Once the cat’s safely in a room and not in the van, that’s the best time to resupply.
A rubber hot-water bag, but filled with cold water & even ice chips, then covered with a towel and placed in the cage will really help to cool a cat down. They can control their own temperature, laying on it when needed or laying elsewhere when they are cool enough.
Remember that open windows and a breeze help you, but they won’t do as much for the cat – they are covered with fur, and don’t have the expanse of skin to perspire and cool off in a breeze like you do.
And tranquilized. As it happens, I have driven about 1500 miles. I had my 8 year old daughter, three cats, and a hamster. The hamster was no trouble. I gave the cats the vet-prescribed tranks, and they were considerably less trouble, but they still didn’t appreciate any part of the moving. And you really, really need some AC. Cats CAN pant, but you are going to need to keep the windows closed.
NO restaurant is going to allow any animals in the place, except for service animals. And they will notice. It’s a health code violation, and they could get their license suspended or revoked for allowing animals. When I drove, we went to drive throughs to get our food. I locked up the car for a few minutes and took my daughter to the restroom.
You can also get animals shipped. This means paying for the cats to be boarded and then shipped, to allow you traveling time.
Just taking our cats on the 20 minute ride to the vet seems traumatic for them. I know some cats travel well, if they have had experience with it.
I used to work in air cargo, saw quite a few animals and looked after them when necessary (cleaning kennels, trip to fire hydrant). Lots of dogs, cats were few and usually curled in an unhappy traumatized ball. The airline had a strict policy against tranquilizers.
The advice given so far is good. You could invest in one of those fans that works on DC with the van’s lighter. Cat’s cannot cool themselves by panting like dogs do. When cats pant, it’s usually from extreme fear or from being so hot they’re already overheating. One of the things cats do to cool themselves is to lay sprawled out on a cool floor - like the ceramic in the bathroom. If that’s not enough, you may have noticed your cat licking himself so his fur is wet in good-sized patches. This is how they cool themselves. If you keep a rag handy, that you can wet down from a water bottle and then rub on the cat, that will be one of the best ways to keep him cool, in addition to the fan plugged in to the lighter. Don’t spray him with a spray bottle, though that would be the easiest way to not have to open the carrier!
Is the van going to be loaded to the gills? You could set him up in the rear with a larger kennel (like the size of 2 cat carriers), with a small litter box. Strap the kennel down like cargo and clip the fan to the kennel.
Cats can handle heat just as well or badly as dogs. What’s restrictive is you can’t take them for a walk and then take a leak yourself while on said walk! Drive-thru eating is probably your best bet, or pack a cooler each morning with your food for the day. Have an extra van key that’s always on your person, and if you need to make a pit stop you can leave the windows cracked, the fan on, and the engine running? You could probably manage taking the carrier in with you at the state highway stops, where there’s no restaurant.
The best way to cool a cat down, though, is a wet rag and a fan if there’s no a/c available.
Leave cat with friend. Have friend put cat on airplane for overnight flight on an airline that provides a climate controlled pet cargo area (Continental comes to mind - I am planning to use them to ship my cat from coast to coast this summer). Pick cat up at airport. Do not sedate the cat unless it’s absolutely necessary and your vet says OK. Sedation interferes with thermoregulation and maintenance of important things like blood pressure.
When my family flew cross-country, our cats traveled in the cargo hold, awake, with no ill effects. My mother and I happened to be remarking about this to a grocery cashier, and he responded – swear to God – “When I flew here my cats were so nervous I had to seduce 'em.”
Oh, God! This is a lot more complicated than I thought. Manduck, how do you have a cat shipped by rail? Do you mean on a train, or by Greyhound?
Everybody thinks I’m nuts for not having AC in my van. Nobody in their right mind would go without it in Nashville in the summer. I don’t know… it just doesn’t bother me very much… But it’s really starting to sound like I just shouldn’t try to drive with the cat in the van without it. I’m having my mechanic check out the van right now to see what needs to be fixed so we can drive it with the Uhaul at all, and I could ask about the AC, but the thing is that I just have a very bad feeling about driving with a full Uhaul AND AC running anyway.
Any other ideas for shipping a cat 2,500 miles away??
Can you rent a truck and tow the van instead of towing a U-Haul? When we moved, we rented a Penske truck that had a little door between the cab and the back. Because a pet carrier wouldn’t fit in the cab, before we loaded the truck, we positioned the carrier with it’s opening in the doorway, which we just kept open, and we were able to swing the carrier door open and load/unload the cats fairly easily.
Even with air conditioning, it still seemed rather uncomfortably warm in the carrier for them, so we had to adjust a couple vents to blow directly into the carrier.
The truck and towing option is $1400 (yes, one thousand, four hundred dollars) more than renting a U-Haul trailer. It is not going to happen.
My brother said that his gf’s parents might be willing to take my cat until Christmas, when he’s going to fly (to Jasper, TN) with her to see them. That’s when he’d get the cat and bring him back. I’m supposed to “find out about fixing the AC” first. :rolleyes: (shakes magic 8-ball…) The magic spirits just told me that it’ll cost at least a thousand dollars, so we’ll obviously HAVE to choose the taking-the-cat-to-Jasper option. Amazing how accurate these 8-balls are…
This has been discussed before here. Whether any individual restaurant allows animals depends on (a) the jurisdiction, and (b) the restaurant. There are plenty of jurisdictions out there where it is perfectly legal to bring animals into restaurants, and in those jursidictions you will find plenty of restaurants which welcome pets. The OP didn’t mention their location, so it’s hard to say how much success he will have. If he’s in the US, then he may have a tough time. In many parts of Europe, it won’t be a problem at all. In the UK, Germany, France, and Austria it’s not at all unusual to see cats and dogs in restaurants and pubs. I just got back from a two-week road trip across Europe with a ferret, and never had a problem taking her into restaurants and hotels.
When the OP talked about Nashville, I just assumed that she meant Nashville Tennessee, which is in the US. I don’t know of any places in the US which allow animals (other than service animals) in restaurants. And here, service animals are generally dogs. While there’s no national health code that I know of, I’ve seen signs prohibiting animals in restaurants in every state that I’ve been in…and I’ve been in a lot.
(sorry)
