How do you drive across a continent with your cat?

It's really not as impossible as it sounds, I promise.

When we decided to move almost 4000 km (2500ish miles) from western Canada to New York State, I was so grateful for any information I could find from other people doing big moves. I wanted to share my experience with taking our cat on a big road trip in the off-chance anyone else could take some advice from it!

Our cat, Ivy, is three years old and we adopted her when she was just a kitten. She is a tortoiseshell and has all the stereotypical attitude that seems to come with torties. She is not an extremely fearful or aggressive cat by any means, but she is also not super chill. We had struggled in the past to try and get her into carriers or a harness. She would hiss and squirm, and hide if given the chance. 

But! She ended up doing so well on our road trip. So here is how we did it…

1. We bought a large carrier with room for a small litter box. It also came with a collapsible water bowl (not that she ever used it). We made sure to have garbage bags, carpet cleaner, and paper towel handy.

2. We took her driving weeks before the trip. This helped us discover that she absolutely hated being in the carrier and calmed down a lot if she was allowed outside of it. Since it isn't safe to have a cat roaming the car, we decided to harness train her. 

3. We started putting her harness on and leaving it on for hours. She still hated it, particularly when walking around, but she started to tolerate it more.

4. About a week before we left, we went to the vet. We got her two prescriptions: one was a natural supplement, and one was a light sedative. We also got her certificate of health and rabies vaccine proof (they didn’t even ask to see it at the border, but I think it was safest to have it).

5. We booked hotels ahead of time and made sure they were pet-friendly (and specifically cat-friendly). I booked all Best Westerns, which only had a $20 pet fee.

6. Before leaving, we sprayed Feliway in her carrier and had been giving her the supplement for a few days. Once we were in the car, we let her out of the carrier and put her harness on. She cared a lot less about wearing the harness when she was in the car versus when she had wore it at home. My car has a metal car seat anchor that we attached the leash to.

7. The person who was not driving was always in the back with Ivy. I definitely recommend this…she sometimes got tangled or tried to climb into weird places. I also think it was more calming for her to have one of us close by.

8. Once in the hotel, we checked everywhere to see if there were any weird spots she could climb into and get stuck. We blocked these off and sprayed Feliway in the hotel room before letting her out of the carrier. 

9. As for food and water…she ate, although not as much as she usually does. As I expected and worried about, she basically drank no water, especially in the car. We mixed a lot of water in with her wet food and sometimes with treats so that she wouldn’t get dehydrated. 

10. After the first day, we did end up giving her the anxiety med/sedative from the vet. She was fairly on edge the first day in the car. She wouldn’t go to sleep fully and she hissed when we tried to move her. Once on the meds, she would sleep basically the entire 8-9 hours in the car. She discovered she really liked laying down on the floor mat at our feet in the back. The air conditioning blows through there and it was dark and away from the noise and movement of other cars. Lucky cat was dead to the world as I white knuckled my way through busy interstates and New York City.

I think overall, remember to hold your vet’s opinion as the highest, not things you read online. I felt guilty about sedating her, but our vet made us feel very comfortable giving her the medication, and I feel confident that it ended up being the better thing for her. If we make the drive again, I think I would give her the medication right from the beginning. It was much less stressful on her to sleep most of the time.

I hope someone can take some of this advice for their own kitty's road trip! Enjoy some cute lil adventure-Ivy pics. She is all settled and happy in her new home now. <3