• You don’t walk a cat, the cat walks you •
We loved being away in our motorhome but always missed the cats terribly. We would always worry if they were ok at home, even though we had cat sitters go in twice a day. As time went on, we were away more & more in the motorhome. We both remarked that the only thing we were going home for was the cats. We both wished they would come with us. This was even before we were thinking about going away longer term.
Research
We started looking on the internet (where all good research starts!) about people who took their cats on holiday with them. We were not expecting to find a huge amount of information. It’s not something we’d really heard of ourselves and we certainly didn’t know of anyone that already did it.
With that, we were pleasantly surprised to find quite a few articles of people sharing their experiences. We also came across a YouTube channel where the guy lived full time in his motorhome with his cat.
Harness Training
Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a crazy idea. Following on from what we had seen, we purchased walking harnesses for our girls. At first, as you can imagine, the harnesses went down like a lead balloon. They hated having them put on. They would go ‘lame’ and lay about the floor as if they couldn’t walk or move. We left it for a while after that but then tried again, determined to persevere. Over time it got better and we were able to leave them on for short periods around the house for them to get used to. We did everything at their pace and took cues from them on when to leave it and when they were ok.
Apparently, they only make cats harnesses in small sizes
Soon after this we realised the type of harness we had didn’t suit our girls. They would need something more secure rather than the thin strap type, which they all tried to wriggle out of. They would then get tangled up in their efforts to get loose and run off. We found more suitable ones in Pets at Home and these seemed to be a better fit and more secure without restricting them. Two of them ended up with harnesses made for small dogs; apparently they make cat ones in small sizes only.
With better harnesses, we were able to start trying them in the garden with the leads attached. It was quite funny as we realised we jumped two steps ahead by trying to take two cats out at once. Each time we ended up in a tangle when they tried going in different directions. A lesson was learned early on – you don’t walk a cat, the cat walks you.
Changing Tactic
We didn’t try this much more until the first time we took them away. This was because it dawned on us that they were used to our back garden. So being on a lead in their own territory was both confusing and frustrating for them. During that first overnight trip we tried again.
Only Rosie was interested in going out on her lead but she soon ran back in. She wasn’t sure of being somewhere different. We didn’t do much more walking with them after that. Our next goal was getting them used to being in the van. If they were going to be weary of new places, we wanted them to know that the Motorhome was their safe space.
In the next part, we’ll cover how we practised getting them used to being in the Motorhome.
We have been travelling for a few months now, and we decided not to take our dogs or cats. We’re not in our motorhome yet but thought that 2 cats, 2 dogs, 2 adults and 2 children might be too much. Either that or we’d have to buy a bus!
Our little dudes (the cats and the dogs, not the children) are with our family and we miss them all the time. You are so lucky to be taking yours! I would love to snuggle our animals on our trip, although some of them are so stubborn that on occasion they don’t want to be touched (we have a grumpy cat, this moodiness only makes me love her more)!
We look forward to more pictures from your trip and seeing how it all works logistically. We know you must be doing some serious planning to make it work with pets! Cats, just like children, do what the hell they want! Coaxing them into anything is hard work! Good luck!
Scott