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[quote=Anonymous]I have indoor cats. First of all, I would never do this for a trip or for fun. It will be fun for exactly no one. The only time I would do this is to move. And that - that I had to do. I moved a 22 hour drive away, split across two days, with my two cats, and a year later, I moved back (same deal). I spoke to the vet in advance, this is what he recommended: 1) Cats can hold their pee (and in fact pee much less frequently that people anyway) for a fairly long time. He recommended not worrying about the litter box on the journey. So I just put them in their carrier and off we went, and 11 hours later we got to the half way point (stayed with a family member), let them out to run around in their house, and I had a temporary litter box all ready to go (basically just a plastic bin with litter that had a top so it would travel). They both had very long pees when we arrived, but were fine on the drive. They had all night to run around, stretch their little legs, eat, pee, poop, etc. Then it was back in the carrier for day two. 2) I had initially intended to let them out of their carrier (but keep them in the car) at rest stops (so they could pee, stretch their legs, drink some water, etc) but my vet STRONGLY advised against this. They don't need it, and it has the potential to be a disaster. What if they slip out of the car? What if you can't finagle getting them back in the carrier from inside the car? The vet was ABSOLUTELY right about this - honestly, the hardest part of the trip was getting them back into the carrier on day two (it took like 30 mins and I almost got scratched) and I can't imagine having to do that in a car at a rest stop! 3) The vet also strongly advised against letting the cats roam in the car during the drive. It's so easy for them knock the gear shift, freak out and jump on you at a weird time, or most dangerously, get behind the pedals, making it difficult/impossible for you to break. Also, in some cars, it's possible for a cat to actually get up into the hood/engine of the car from the area behind the pedals and you do NOT want that. Also, once I decided to drive a UHAUL, the vet said that they absolutely would be able to get into the engine area from behind the pedals and under no circumstances should they be allowed out of their carrier in the cab. 4) My cats were car criers (as I knew from our 20 minute drives to the vet). I asked the vet - he said to prepare myself, that there was a non-zero chance that they might just cry the whole way. I was steeled for that - but they cried about 45 minutes when we started in the morning, then went to sleep. They wake up and cry another 15-20 minutes at each rest stop as well, but then back to sleep. So the bulk of the trip was really fine - I think I only stopped twice a day both days. Overall, it was totally fine, I'd do it again if I had to move, but never, ever for fun. It was very stressful for them, probably took a solid week after, each time, for them to calm down and return to "normal" and it took way longer to adjust to their new homes after the move than it did after short, cross town moves (which we had done a lot of). [/quote]
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