Hi, I’m Christopher. To find out more about me and my silly Russian Blue cat, Olga, please read my about me.
Traveling with a cat can make your trip more complicated. Most rental properties only allow dogs, and even hotels with pet-friendly policies are less likely to allow cats. Campgrounds also accept dogs, but if you like traveling with your cat, you can find cat-friendly accommodation if you look hard enough.
Cat Restrictions
It may seem odd for a property manager to think of cats as more destructive than dogs, but dogs are less likely to make a mess because they don’t use litter boxes, and they don’t like scratching furniture as much, so this is probably the main reason for ruling them out. Olga is not a very travelling cat and hates leaving the house, even for walks in the backyard.
I wish I could take her on vacation, but I don’t want her to be miserable and I don’t think she’d enjoy a trip to the beach or the mountains. I don’t know many cats who like to travel, but I do have a few friends who have taken their cats camping, and their cats are more adventurous than Olga and less timid around strangers.
Olga and Nature
If Olga were locked in a tent, she would have an anxiety attack and would probably crawl out. She has never been in a tent, but she hates closed doors and knows how to open them if they are not locked. She is not leash trained and not used to the wilderness, so she cannot go on most hiking trails with me, especially dog-friendly trails.
Some cats are better suited to traveling than others. If you want to take your cat with you on a trip, it’s best to leash train it and get it used to traveling in a carrier. Training a cat to walk on a leash takes more patience than training a dog, but it’s not impossible. Cats are not humans’ pleasers, and they don’t have the long history of working alongside humans that dogs have.
Cat Training
Cats have a keen sense of smell and may be able to detect human illnesses, but they are not as amenable to training as dogs, which is why you won’t find cats searching for corpses, drugs, or explosives. Cats are not stubborn or untrainable, but most people can’t devote several hours a day to teaching their cat advanced commands and tricks.
Training your cat will make it easier to handle while on holiday, but some cats are better suited to travelling depending on their personality. Shy cats don’t like to travel, but a sociable cat who enjoys interacting with strangers and animals is ideal. My Siamese cat travels better than Olga and I took her to the beach a few years ago.
He had to be put on IV fluids to treat his kidney disease and I didn’t want to leave him at home and have someone else take care of him. He was happy to be with me and my family at the beach house and seemed to be having a lot of fun. Olga wanted to stay home and be looked after by one of my friends and I’m OK with that. Cats like Olga need to take a vacation from us sometimes.
This article is part of a series on Christopher and Olga.
