@mycya4me Usually not a pretty sight. Way back when I was young my mom had a calico that would love to ride in the car as long as she could see out the window. She didn’t even need to be in a carrier or box.
@mycya4me@yakkoTDI Driving, he tolerated it. Not sure “enjoyed” but we got by. In younger days he would sometimes lay down on the dashboard but then stopped doing that. Mostly traveling in Winter, he found a place on the rear floor behind the passenger seat. There was a heater outlet there and also I had a 12V heated pad I could use if really cold. Yeah for when nature calls you do need a catbox.
I don’t there used to be rear-facing seats, like in a station wagon, but I don’t recall sideways seats being a regular thing. Or half-sideways steering wheels.
But then again, I don’t remember those colors in cars, so probably I just lived a boring life.
I haven’t flown with a cat but I did take my cat on a train into Manhattan to the Animal Medical Center. That was interesting. I also used to show cats, so I have spent a lot of time driving with them in the car long distance.
Seems like no one voted for flying with a cat, except me!
I brought my cats, Burt and Mow, with me to the Azores, Terceira Island. It was a long and mostly unpleasant experience, especially for Mow. We had to change planes in New York after a lengthy delay in Cincinnati. The cats settled in during the flight time but neither me or them liked the airport.
I bought two Siamese kittens while I was visiting my parents in Florida, and flew them back to Nebraska with me. Since they were kittens they both fit in the same carrier, and they behaved perfectly.
It was like a cheat code for making everyone around me happier lol. I’ve never had a “good” experience with TSA other than this time I had to carry my two kittens through security. Everyone’s mood just brightened up when they saw kittens in the airport lol it was strangely beautiful
@chienfou Had to hand carry them through the regular human metal detector, the luggage scanner is too powerful and can damage living stuff is what they said. Which was the trickiest part cuz I was worried carrying two kittens would be challenging and they might run off but it ended up fine.
Flying? Just once. About 30 years ago. I’d left a Truck in Colorado and my wife was there. So I was going to fly one-way and then we would drive back, but I needed to take the cat. Not sure how we ended up in different places but anyway it worked. I had a hard-sided low-profile plastic carrier that fit under the seat. Really was not a problem and just about a 2 1/2 hour flight. This was before 9/11 and TSA (was it even called that then?) was not an issue.
Since then have just been driving, including in a camper where the cat and I were mostly happy. Sadly the cat passed away a few years ago, and I’ve resisted because might want to do more travel including international. But I do like to claim (not an exaggeration) “I had about 50,000 miles on that cat”
Edit: to clarify, the cat in question here was not the same one from the flying story.
When my husband was in the army we were sent to be stationed in Hawaii I took my cat with me and had to play it with me on the way back. For some reason they put the cat in cargo on the way back and then they couldn’t find it at the airport when I went to leave so I had to come back the next day so my poor kitty spent over 24 hours in the same box without him food or water. She was not happy but she survived. Glad we’re not in the army anymore.
I drove around 2300 miles one way with my cats in a very large metal dog crate where I put in a shelf some years ago. Had a kid in there too. Are we there yet? Meow. That took 4.5 days (so they were in there both directions) in that crate. Here is a photo from the recent trip with all 4 on the shelf (hard to see all 4 - orange in the back is the clue to #4; the string is left over from when one was a kitten in the earlier long trip, would turn her head sideways, slip through the bars and escape. Never got around to removing it all). Also some photos with 3 of the 4 up there. Had take them this time as the person I trade cat sitting with moved and haven’t found someone else where I can take them to their house (not allowed to leave them here and have someone enter my apartment to feed them. That sucks as they’d be happier with that.).
@Kyeh Cripes my then young oldest grandkid crawled into a medium regular cat carrier and had me shut the door. He then pretended to be a cat in there. I’ll see if I can find one of those photos. Not sure I easily can. It might be on a memory card.
@Kyeh Actually the kid I referred to in the original post wasn’t in the cage. She was in the back seat yapping about wanting to fly and not drive, are we there yet… She resorted to counting bridges (when she was younger she’d count cows) at one point. She did appreciate the beautiful sunrise we had one morning in the Rockies that we saw from our minivan (we slept in it) in a Walmart parking lot.
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh I have fond memories of long road trips with my parents. Each Summer they would go North to British Columbia (Nanaimo) to visit an old friend. They were actually divorced at the time. We sometimes stayed in a tent (heavy canvas maybe military surplus; I can still imagine the smell; musty but comfortable and nostalgic). Or often motels.
This was long before phones or video games and I learned so much looking outside or looking at the maps or AAA guidebooks you used to be able to get. Sometimes one of us got cranky but it sometimes was my father instead of me….
@Kidsandliz@pmarin I think the value of long stretches of “boredom” is underrated! I remember on long road trips I’d make up elaborate stories in my head (of course I can’t remember them now) and wonder about stuff I saw outside the window … I’m curious whether kids are less imaginative now that they get all the screen time to fill up their boring moments.
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh on that topic it’s amazing how “kids these days” don’t know how to look at a map or paper atlas. Maybe even understand directions like North South and those other ones. “so complicated. Why does my phone not just tell me? No signal? OMG what do I do?”
(Actually your phone or watch will give you compass headings even without cell phone data. And new ones may connect by Satellite or Starlink so basically no hope for our youth being technology-independent)
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh I loved that silence and isolation in places like Wyoming in Winter. Early morning driving into a Sunrise looking at outdoor temp like 4°. As the song lyric “you can listen to the engine moaning out its one-note song” (internet lyrics a bit ambiguous on this exactly).
Then later on audiobooks but damn you GRR Martin for not finishing Game of Thrones the right way.
Safety disclaimer: don’t take pictures while driving!
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh was too late to edit; that was actually Idaho. It can symbolize great hope and optimism for the future. Or maybe an accident at one of the old Idaho nuclear facilities.
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh@pmarin
When I was in college in Boulder Colorado I would drive to St Louis to visit my folks now & then. About a 900 mile trip, pretty much due east and west. This was in the days of the 55 mph I -70 speed limit, so it was about an 18-hour trip. I would try to time it so that I left in time to be at either destination (going or coming) without ever having to drive into the sunrise going to St Louis or sunset going to Boulder. Staring at the sun for an hour and a half was way too uncomfortable.
@chienfou@Kyeh@pmarin My parents took one month car camping trips with us each summer (in a tent top trailer after several years with the 5 of us sleeping in a station wagon, when there were 6 my parents bought a van and a tent top trailer). We saw a huge part of the USA, sometimes driving 3 days straight (my parents were possible insane doing that with 4 kids in the back, either that or they went insane while doing that ).
As kids we did some of the, “are we there yet?” stuff but we also read books, put crayon gun sites on the van’s windows and shot trucks with our fingers as they passed us, waving at them and hoping they’d blow the horn (some did)… We’d play the alphabet game using on what was on license plates, tried to be the first one to say, “bridge” when we saw one (we did a lot of anticipating one would come up soon due to the landscape too )… and, of course, waiting for dad to ask mom if we could stop at a DQ. That was the big treat that we never, ever got to do except on the summer trip.
@Star2236 That’s nice! I tried to get one of my cats to adapt to a leash and harness but he never would. He started out as an outdoor cat and I had to start keeping him in because he had pancreatitis, but he always longed to go out again.
@Kyeh@Star2236 Two of mine (haven’t tried it with the others) from years ago were leash lovers (they were otherwise indoor only), The one freaked out when I first put a harness on him and did flips running around dragging the leash. Leash got caught on the dinning room table, brought him up short while he was mid air, he crashed the the ground and suddenly decided not to do that anymore. He used to quiver with excitement when I’d take the harnesses and leashes off the hook by the door to take them outside.
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh@Star2236 mine didn’t seem to hate the leash but 2 challenges: (1) wind yourself up around things as much as possible or (2) the Houdini where the challenge is to wriggle out of the harness as fast as possible. Every time he managed to escape (or by breaking out of the camper door) he seemed to take great pleasure in the game.
@pmarin
Did your cat at least hang around close to the RV when they escaped?
We have a couple of rooms (like SWMBO’s office space/media room) we don’t let our cats in and it’s a constant game of can I-close-the-door-before-they-dash-through-it at our house.
(It’s funny though, sometimes if THEY win the battle they will dash in and immediately go behind the furniture to be irretrievable. Other times they will just go in and flop down on the rug with a “see, I can do it” kind of attitude.)
No but I have driven with a few.
@yakkoTDI Same here! It is not a pretty sight. I have to put a towel over the carrier!
@mycya4me Usually not a pretty sight. Way back when I was young my mom had a calico that would love to ride in the car as long as she could see out the window. She didn’t even need to be in a carrier or box.
@mycya4me @yakkoTDI Driving, he tolerated it. Not sure “enjoyed” but we got by. In younger days he would sometimes lay down on the dashboard but then stopped doing that. Mostly traveling in Winter, he found a place on the rear floor behind the passenger seat. There was a heater outlet there and also I had a 12V heated pad I could use if really cold. Yeah for when nature calls you do need a catbox.
/showme traveling with a cat in a Car
@mycya4me
/showme traveling in a 1970s era car with three cats one of which is black
I don’t there used to be rear-facing seats, like in a station wagon, but I don’t recall sideways seats being a regular thing. Or half-sideways steering wheels.
But then again, I don’t remember those colors in cars, so probably I just lived a boring life.
@Cerridwyn @mycya4me must be some new math where three is five.
Interesting car.
@Cerridwyn @kittykat9180 @mycya4me if you are a member they sometimes send you bonus cats.
@Cerridwyn @mycya4me @pmarin is that how the entice you to sign up?
@mediocrebot Someone can’t count there are 5 cats & one is black
/showme a cat piloting a plane with lots of scared passengers
They don’t look that frightened, especially considering the pilot is in the middle of the aisle!
/showme a cat piloting a plane with lots of scared passengers
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
/showme a cat about to deep fry a penguin
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I haven’t flown with a cat but I did take my cat on a train into Manhattan to the Animal Medical Center. That was interesting. I also used to show cats, so I have spent a lot of time driving with them in the car long distance.
i have not flown with any cats.
i did try once to fly with birds, but couldn’t keep up with them.
@phendrick
“I just flew to Chicago… Boy are my arms tired…”
Although not technically a cat, we did fly to the Caribbean with Bandit one time as we would’ve had to pay more to board him while we were away.
@aetris is that a monkey?
@kittykat9180 A dachsipoo.
@aetris
gesundheit
I am a Kat.
@kittykat9180 I haven’t fun with you either sorry
Seems like no one voted for flying with a cat, except me!
I brought my cats, Burt and Mow, with me to the Azores, Terceira Island. It was a long and mostly unpleasant experience, especially for Mow. We had to change planes in New York after a lengthy delay in Cincinnati. The cats settled in during the flight time but neither me or them liked the airport.
@accelerator
Did they have to quarantine on arrival??
@chienfou They allowed in home quarantine in the Azores at that time. This was back in 1988 so who know now.
I bought two Siamese kittens while I was visiting my parents in Florida, and flew them back to Nebraska with me. Since they were kittens they both fit in the same carrier, and they behaved perfectly.
It was like a cheat code for making everyone around me happier lol. I’ve never had a “good” experience with TSA other than this time I had to carry my two kittens through security. Everyone’s mood just brightened up when they saw kittens in the airport lol it was strangely beautiful
@greyseraph
Did they hand check them or run them through the luggage scanner?
@chienfou Had to hand carry them through the regular human metal detector, the luggage scanner is too powerful and can damage living stuff is what they said. Which was the trickiest part cuz I was worried carrying two kittens would be challenging and they might run off but it ended up fine.
@greyseraph
So, did you have to take them out of the carrier??
@greyseraph
So, did you have to take them out of the carrier??
@chienfou Yea I had to hold one in each hand to walk through the scanner, and they make you put the carrier through the luggage scanner
@greyseraph
yikes! That just seems like it could go wrong so many different ways
Flying? Just once. About 30 years ago. I’d left a Truck in Colorado and my wife was there. So I was going to fly one-way and then we would drive back, but I needed to take the cat. Not sure how we ended up in different places but anyway it worked. I had a hard-sided low-profile plastic carrier that fit under the seat. Really was not a problem and just about a 2 1/2 hour flight. This was before 9/11 and TSA (was it even called that then?) was not an issue.
Since then have just been driving, including in a camper where the cat and I were mostly happy. Sadly the cat passed away a few years ago, and I’ve resisted because might want to do more travel including international. But I do like to claim (not an exaggeration) “I had about 50,000 miles on that cat”
Edit: to clarify, the cat in question here was not the same one from the flying story.
@pmarin and the flying cat didn’t get frequent-flier miles!
@pmarin
Nope… Pre-TSA you could just walk straight to the gate, as could your family to say goodbye.
Maybe - something a few rows back was making a lot of noise and I’m not sure if it was a cat or a baby.
@macromeh noise-canceling catphones!
When my husband was in the army we were sent to be stationed in Hawaii I took my cat with me and had to play it with me on the way back. For some reason they put the cat in cargo on the way back and then they couldn’t find it at the airport when I went to leave so I had to come back the next day so my poor kitty spent over 24 hours in the same box without him food or water. She was not happy but she survived. Glad we’re not in the army anymore.
@jkawaguchi Sounds like first day of kitty boot camp! I heard it doesn’t get better.
I drove around 2300 miles one way with my cats in a very large metal dog crate where I put in a shelf some years ago. Had a kid in there too. Are we there yet? Meow. That took 4.5 days (so they were in there both directions) in that crate. Here is a photo from the recent trip with all 4 on the shelf (hard to see all 4 - orange in the back is the clue to #4; the string is left over from when one was a kitten in the earlier long trip, would turn her head sideways, slip through the bars and escape. Never got around to removing it all). Also some photos with 3 of the 4 up there. Had take them this time as the person I trade cat sitting with moved and haven’t found someone else where I can take them to their house (not allowed to leave them here and have someone enter my apartment to feed them. That sucks as they’d be happier with that.).
@Kidsandliz
Your kid fit in there?!?
/j
What compatible and agreeable cats to all snuggle in there together!
@Kyeh Cripes my then young oldest grandkid crawled into a medium regular cat carrier and had me shut the door. He then pretended to be a cat in there. I’ll see if I can find one of those photos. Not sure I easily can. It might be on a memory card.
@Kyeh Actually the kid I referred to in the original post wasn’t in the cage. She was in the back seat yapping about wanting to fly and not drive, are we there yet… She resorted to counting bridges (when she was younger she’d count cows) at one point. She did appreciate the beautiful sunrise we had one morning in the Rockies that we saw from our minivan (we slept in it) in a Walmart parking lot.
@Kidsandliz
I didn’t think you really meant a kid was in there - but that’s funny about your grandkid.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh I have fond memories of long road trips with my parents. Each Summer they would go North to British Columbia (Nanaimo) to visit an old friend. They were actually divorced at the time. We sometimes stayed in a tent (heavy canvas maybe military surplus; I can still imagine the smell; musty but comfortable and nostalgic). Or often motels.
This was long before phones or video games and I learned so much looking outside or looking at the maps or AAA guidebooks you used to be able to get. Sometimes one of us got cranky but it sometimes was my father instead of me….
@Kidsandliz @pmarin I think the value of long stretches of “boredom” is underrated! I remember on long road trips I’d make up elaborate stories in my head (of course I can’t remember them now) and wonder about stuff I saw outside the window … I’m curious whether kids are less imaginative now that they get all the screen time to fill up their boring moments.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh on that topic it’s amazing how “kids these days” don’t know how to look at a map or paper atlas. Maybe even understand directions like North South and those other ones. “so complicated. Why does my phone not just tell me? No signal? OMG what do I do?”
(Actually your phone or watch will give you compass headings even without cell phone data. And new ones may connect by Satellite or Starlink so basically no hope for our youth being technology-independent)
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh I loved that silence and isolation in places like Wyoming in Winter. Early morning driving into a Sunrise looking at outdoor temp like 4°. As the song lyric “you can listen to the engine moaning out its one-note song” (internet lyrics a bit ambiguous on this exactly).
Then later on audiobooks but damn you GRR Martin for not finishing Game of Thrones the right way.
Safety disclaimer: don’t take pictures while driving!
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh was too late to edit; that was actually Idaho. It can symbolize great hope and optimism for the future. Or maybe an accident at one of the old Idaho nuclear facilities.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @pmarin
When I was in college in Boulder Colorado I would drive to St Louis to visit my folks now & then. About a 900 mile trip, pretty much due east and west. This was in the days of the 55 mph I -70 speed limit, so it was about an 18-hour trip. I would try to time it so that I left in time to be at either destination (going or coming) without ever having to drive into the sunrise going to St Louis or sunset going to Boulder. Staring at the sun for an hour and a half was way too uncomfortable.
@chienfou @Kyeh @pmarin My parents took one month car camping trips with us each summer (in a tent top trailer after several years with the 5 of us sleeping in a station wagon, when there were 6 my parents bought a van and a tent top trailer). We saw a huge part of the USA, sometimes driving 3 days straight (my parents were possible insane doing that with 4 kids in the back, either that or they went insane while doing that
).
As kids we did some of the, “are we there yet?” stuff but we also read books, put crayon gun sites on the van’s windows and shot trucks with our fingers as they passed us, waving at them and hoping they’d blow the horn (some did)… We’d play the alphabet game using on what was on license plates, tried to be the first one to say, “bridge” when we saw one (we did a lot of anticipating one would come up soon due to the landscape too
)… and, of course, waiting for dad to ask mom if we could stop at a DQ. That was the big treat that we never, ever got to do except on the summer trip.
I was in Ft. Lauderdale airport in March and say some lady walking her cat around the airport on a leash
@Star2236 That’s nice! I tried to get one of my cats to adapt to a leash and harness but he never would. He started out as an outdoor cat and I had to start keeping him in because he had pancreatitis, but he always longed to go out again.
@Kyeh @Star2236 Two of mine (haven’t tried it with the others) from years ago were leash lovers (they were otherwise indoor only), The one freaked out when I first put a harness on him and did flips running around dragging the leash. Leash got caught on the dinning room table, brought him up short while he was mid air, he crashed the the ground and suddenly decided not to do that anymore. He used to quiver with excitement when I’d take the harnesses and leashes off the hook by the door to take them outside.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh
Not that I’d never seen a cat on a leash before but I didn’t expect to see one walking around the inside of the airport.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @Star2236 mine didn’t seem to hate the leash but 2 challenges: (1) wind yourself up around things as much as possible or (2) the Houdini where the challenge is to wriggle out of the harness as fast as possible. Every time he managed to escape (or by breaking out of the camper door) he seemed to take great pleasure in the game.
@pmarin
Did your cat at least hang around close to the RV when they escaped?
We have a couple of rooms (like SWMBO’s office space/media room) we don’t let our cats in and it’s a constant game of can I-close-the-door-before-they-dash-through-it at our house.
(It’s funny though, sometimes if THEY win the battle they will dash in and immediately go behind the furniture to be irretrievable. Other times they will just go in and flop down on the rug with a “see, I can do it” kind of attitude.)
@Star2236 This is Elmer on his daily walk around the block. It never got old. /https://photos.app.goo.gl/9RPdGFMWvxCkcVMf7