About a year & a half ago I moved from Long Island, New York to Vancouver, Washington.  Since I don’t fly, I had to drive the 3,000 miles, just me and my two cats.  They were a bit stressed the first day, but I simply played opera loud on the radio and drowned them out.  After that, they actually seemed to enjoy themselves in all the motel rooms. 

One of my biggest stressers before the trip was how I would get the cats safely across the US.  It turned out to be no problem at all.  My cats are leash trained and I kept a figure 8 braided leash on them the entire trip, never once taking it off.  So even in the motel rooms, if they were hiding under a bed or behind a chair, it was easy for me to spot the colored 6 ft. leash and it was easy to get hold of them when I needed to.

I had bought a locking covered cake pan for their litter box and I made them get used to it a few weeks prior to our trip. 

They really had fun exploring the different rooms once they got used to the idea of traveling.

Wow! I wish my cats were that calm! Then again, the only times they’ve ever left the house was to go to the vet or when we evacuated for hurricanes! We took two cars 1) so we wouldn’t have the other one blow away and 2) so I could drive the “kitty car” and keep them up in the front seat with me. They were too freaked out to let wander loose in the car, so I stacked their carriers on the passenger seat and strapped & belted them in. I kept crooning to them and reaching thru the slots to soothe them, but the yowled the whole way to and fro. After enough trips they did start to recognize that the second time the were packed in the car they were going home and whined a little less…

When they leave the house, I keep them in their harnesses full time as well. I had to take off the little jingly bells because they totally freaked out Mr scaredy-pants Mooshu. He slunk straight to the floor and didn’t want to get up. I’m eventually going to have the name tags chaged into name plates that lie flush to the harness, the dangling charms freak him out too, but they’re almost never used so I’ve never really got around to it.

Mine have never taken to the whole leash thing, but Peanut started to get the hang of it walking down the hotel hallways during our exile. After we’d been there a few days and the cats started to calm down, Peanut reverted back to her curious-kitty self and I got worried about her trying to duck out of the room. We had a suite, so we could lock them in the bedroom portion when we all left the room for food and used the living room area as an airlock, but that didn’t help when one of us ducked out to get something when the cats were roaming at large. So I tried letting her see what was going on outside. It was ok until she ran into her first yappy dog and screaming toddler encounters, then she wanted no more of it!

I’ve moved across the country many times, and my cat, Emily travels quite well. Most cats travel well, as long as you let them have some “car ,” time, before you start going.  ( meaning let them roam around the vehicle, or spend time in their cage, and just get used to the new place).  The only thing that you have to watch for, is if you let them roam the car, is that you have a place to put them, when you get out of the car.  Personally, I let my cat roam the car, but that;’s my opinion.  That way she can get really comfy.  But all cats are different. Just watch them real well! Their sneaky!