Feb. 4, 2025
Stress-Free Travel and Moving with Cats: Advice from Feline Behavior Specialist LeeAnna Buis
Ready to unlock the secrets to stress-free cat travel? In this episode, we dive into cat-friendly travel tips with Certified Feline Training and Behavior Specialist LeeAnna Buis, CFTBS, FFCP. If you’ve ever struggled with cat anxiety or wondered how to make car rides smoother, this is your ultimate guide!
LeeAnna shares expert advice to help you prepare for road trips and long-distance travel with your cats. From choosing the right cat carrier to setting up a cat-safe car environment, you’ll learn how to ease your cat’s stress and create a peaceful, cat-friendly travel experience.
Key Highlights:
- Reducing cat anxiety during travel – Practical steps for getting your cat comfortable with their carrier and car rides.
- Understanding feline instincts – Why cats may resist travel and how their behavior differs from dogs.
- Cat travel essentials – The importance of a cat travel kit, including treats, toys, and comfort items.
- Creating positive associations – LeeAnna’s expert strategies for using rewards and safe spaces to calm your cat.
- Long-distance cat travel tips – What to pack, how to plan for multiple cats, and ways to keep your cats secure during the drive.
Whether you're moving with cats cross-country or planning a vacation, this episode is packed with actionable advice on cat-friendly travel. We discuss preventing feline behavior problems during travel, acclimating your cat to car rides, and ensuring your accommodations are pet-friendly.
Don’t let cat travel stress hold you back! Tune in to learn how to turn your next adventure into a smooth, enjoyable journey for both you and your feline companions.
Plus, we’ve got resources and checklists from Preventive Vet to make sure you’re prepared for every part of the trip!
Listen now for the ultimate cat travel guide!
**Learn more about LeeAnna and Feline Behavior Solutions: Feline Behavior Solutions
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Thanks for listening to Muddy Paws and Hairballs, your go-to resource for all things pet care. From dog training, behavior, and socialization to cat enrichment, pet adoption, and tackling behavior problems, we provide expert advice and real talk to help you create a happy, healthy life with your pets. Whether you're dealing with dog anxiety, looking for puppy training tips, or exploring enrichment ideas for your cat, we've got you covered. Be sure to check out all our episodes!
Chapters
00:05 - Traveling With Cats
04:54 - Preparing and Traveling With Cats
11:27 - Preparing for Safe Cat Travel
20:46 - Traveling Safely With Cats
34:53 - Tips for Stress-Free Cat Moving
48:59 - Proactive Cat Care and Travel Planning
Transcript
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After this summer's epic 1,672-mile rescue road trip taking Bonnie from Texas to her new home in New York, you'd think I'd be prepared for any pet travel challenge, but traveling cross-country with cats is a whole different adventure.
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In this episode, I'm joined by renowned cat behavior expert, leanna Bias, to unpack the unique challenges of traveling with cats and share essential tips for a calm, stress-free journey.
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From pre-trip planning to handling surprises on the road.
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Leanna's advice is a must for anyone planning to travel with cats, dogs or both, whether you're relocating or just road tripping.
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These insights will make pet travel smoother and easier for everyone involved.
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So stay tuned.
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Welcome to Muddy Paws and Hairballs.
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I'm your host, amy Castro, and with me today is Leanna Bias, the Certified Feline Training and Behavior Specialist with Feline Behavior Solutions.
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She earned her certification through the Animal Behavior Institute and then she's also Fear Free certified.
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She works virtually with people all over the world who are having issues with their pets, including doing things like introducing pets to each other, soiling issues, fear issues and dealing with aggression, which are all things that are near and dear to my heart, because those are oftentimes the reasons that people give up their pets to rescues like ours.
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So, leanna, thank you so much for being here with us today.
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My pleasure.
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Thank you for having me Awesome.
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So we're going to talk today about traveling with cats, and I really was interested in doing this segment because, first of all, I've never thought about actually taking trips with my cats, but I've seen a lot of videos of people that do travel, you know, and maybe live in a full-time RV with their cats, and I always wonder how that would work.
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But I am planning a big trip with my four dogs and three cats and I'm already panicking about it.
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That's so many animals, I know.
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I know Now one of them.
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You know there is at least one amongst the seven that I can still hold out hope might be adopted before I actually have to leave, but that's still going to leave me with six of my own pets, so we want to make it as painless as possible.
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I think the dogs are going to be fine, but I really worry about how I'm going to manage that with cats.
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So that's why I wanted to talk to you today is how can I do this without driving my cats crazy?
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So, before we dive into the nitty gritty, how did you come to becoming a feline behavior expert?
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I was one of those people.
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I've had a cat in my life since literally the day I was born.
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I came home from the hospital.
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There was a cat there and I truly believed that I knew everything there was to know about cats.
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I you know, my friends called me the cat whisperer, and then I adopted a cat that I couldn't figure out.
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He had aggression issues, he was stressed.
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I couldn't introduce him to my other cats.
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Well, I just couldn't manage him.
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He was too much for me, and luckily, around that same time, I learned about the existence of feline training and behavior experts.
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Not a lot of people know that's a thing.
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You can get a trainer to help with your cat the same way you can with your dog, and so, luckily, I just happened to discover this as I was working with an amazing group called Preventive Vet, and so I hired a behavior consultant to work with me, and by the end of that call I realized that I knew nothing about cats.
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I realized that I knew nothing about cats.
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I honestly could see so many places where I had gone wrong.
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I hadn't treated my cats the way that I should have because I didn't know what I was doing, and after that call, I could see, okay, that was my fault, that was my fault, this I made worse, this I made worse.
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And so I felt a lot of heaviness and guilt about that and also I was just absolutely fascinated by all the things I learned.
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Cats are incredible and complex and interesting and I was not appreciating that about my cats.
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So I immediately looked into certification so that I could tell everybody all the things that I had learned and ended up actually working with the person that I did that consultation for.
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So it was Dr Marcy Kosky, who owns Feel and Behavior Solutions, is the one who did my consultation and then ended up hiring me.
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So now we work together.
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Oh, great, great.
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It's interesting that we're having this conversation, especially today, because we just had two cats returned for behavior issues, for aggression towards the resident cats.
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Oh, it was interesting that these cats came from a multi-cat environment and yet were not adapting to a multi-cat environment.
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Well, and just the super quick answer just because cats are good with cats in one situation does not mean they're going to be in any situation.
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Right?
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Cats are designed not to like stranger cats.
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It's how they stay alive in the wild is uh-oh, there's a stranger cat that could attack me, kill me, steal my resources, et cetera?
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Right?
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So they're not designed to be buddies.
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And this is one of those places where cats are very different than dogs, because dogs can learn other dogs can be friendly.
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Dogs can learn other dogs can be friendly.
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Cats don't have that same kind of building block internally.
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So each time there's a new cat, there needs to be a new careful introduction to show those cats that they're safe together.
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But also there are a million things that can influence how well cats get along the way the space is set up, the resources around the space, the feeding schedule, whether they're hungry between meals, the kind of play they get, right.
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All of those things can impact how well cats get along.
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So if you go from a situation where it's set up really well into a situation that's not well-designed for two cats, they may have a totally different reaction to each other.
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Even the same cats can have a different reaction in different environments, but the good news about that is that there's a million things that we can do to try to help cats get along.
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Most of my work is introductions that are not going well.
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We may have to do a whole episode on that.
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It's one of my favorite things to talk about because it's the biggest struggle that people have and there's so many things you can do to make it better.
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Yeah, we definitely need to schedule that, so we'll, we'll, we'll get on each other's calendars for another episode.
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Sounds good.
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Okay, so back to.
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So back to moving with cats, or traveling with cats.
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What would be one of the biggest starting mistakes that people make when it comes to putting the cat in the car and off we go.
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Yeah.
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Assuming that cats are like dogs putting the cat in the car and off we go.
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Yeah, assuming that cats are like dogs.
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You know, my biggest fear with people who travel with their pets is that they're not prepared for the worst case scenario, and this is one of those instances where I think my innate desire to overplan is helpful, because cats are very different than dogs.
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Right, the most important thing you can know about cats is that, even though we call them domesticated house cats, we did not domesticate cats.
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We just let them come inside, right, wild cats moved in and we let them, but we didn't do selective breeding like we did with dogs.
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So the cats in our houses are not that much different than their wild ancestors were, which means they have the same needs, they have the same instincts, they have the same reactions to things that a wild cat might, right.
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So a cat who is in a new situation or a potentially scary situation is going to react very differently than a dog would, and I should say I'm not a dog expert, I just have had them and love them.
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Yeah, but dogs are more inclined, when they're scared, to look to their people for guidance.
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Cats are fight or flight, right, they are going to get the heck out of there, and if there's something standing in their way, they're going to fight their way through that thing to get the heck out of there.
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So there can be really big reactions to the different elements of a road trip.
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That can be scary or intimidating for a cat, and so you want to be prepared for all of those so that you're not suddenly in a situation where your cat is gone on the side of the road in Kentucky.
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Yeah, so really just understanding cat nature is very different than dog nature and you have to plan very differently for those trips.
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Yeah, I never even thought about that.
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I mean, and that's such a profound and very foundational point about cats, because you know, I remember when we moved just 20 minutes away from our previous house to this house and we moved our cats and I thought they're going to be fine because it's all our stuff that's being moved over here and granted the car ride.
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I know that the car ride nobody generally enjoys, but that when they got here they would be fine.
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And I remember our one cat Pinny Pinhead is his name because he's got it's not really his name, he's got another name but he gets called Pinny Pinhead because his head is kind of disproportionately small to his body, but he's just kind of a little funny looking but he's probably the most laid back, whereas my other cat, pickles, can look at the same ceiling fan she's been looking at for 15 years and be like, oh my gosh what is?
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that I was like it's the same thing you've been looking at for 15 years.
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Anyway, I thought he would adjust just fine and he spent almost the whole first day stuffed down the back of the sofa cushions, like I couldn't believe he was so freaked out by being in the new house.
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Freaked out by being in the new house.
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But that makes sense.
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When you look at it from the standpoint of the whole domestication thing is that he reacted just like a wild cat, would you know?
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Or when we bring feral or not even feral but borderline feral cats, sometimes when they come into the rescue and you know, they just go ballistic when they are in their new environment, bouncing off the walls because they don't know what to do with themselves.
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Yeah, exactly, and that's one of the reasons that cats can go from house cats to strays and survive.
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It's because we didn't breed out all of the things that they need to survive.
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But then that causes problems because we have animals living in our homes who are still programmed to be worried about coyotes jumping out of the closet and eating them Right.
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So it's a very different world when you think about cats through that perspective, and that's honestly one of the single facts that had the biggest impact on me was learning that, and it's one of the first things I tell every client I work with, because I think it just brings everything into clearer focus with cats.
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So let's focus, and I know we could talk about road tripping and things like that and maybe, if some of that comes up along the way, but I think probably a more likely scenario for more people would be moving with a cat, whether it's across town or across the country.
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So what would be some of the things we could do?
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Just as an example, one of the things that I'm planning on doing is getting an RV and acclimating the cats to the RV before we even start moving it.
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But what could be some things?
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If I know I'm going to be moving X amount of time, how far in advance should I start prepping for that and what kind of things should I be doing?
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I think starting early is the best thing you can do.
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And I say started as soon as you find out you're moving, because there's so many elements that can take some time.
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You know you want time to be able to positively and slowly get your cat comfortable with being in a carrier or a kennel or whatever they're going to be traveling in.
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You want them to be comfortable with the car in motion.
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You need to think about what kind of setup you're going to have in the car.
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You know, if it's a short trip, a small carrier might be fine, but if you're going to be in the car for three days, you might want a different setup.
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What you're set up in the hotel or whatever your overnight accommodations are going to be.
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Any medical needs you want to plan ahead for.
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If you want to try calming or anxiety medication, you want to plan ahead for.
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If you want to try calming or anxiety medication, you want to plan ahead for that.
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So the earlier that you start planning, the longer you have to go oh my gosh, I forgot about this.
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Or to find the perfect carrier that fits in the backseat of the car or whatever it is.
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You also need to think about supplies, right, there's a lot involved.
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You've got what they're going to need in the car all day while you're driving.
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What they're going to need overnight, what's going to fit in those spaces, what kind of supplies are you going to need if they have an accident in the hotel room or in the car?
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So all of those kinds of things you want to think about.
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Another really important thing that people don't always consider is getting the safe space set up in the new home quickly when you arrive.
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Oh yeah, having all the things that your cat needs to feel more safe and secure in boxes that you can get to first off the truck so that you can get that space set up before they are out of their carriers and then deal with everything else that's going on.
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You want to think about your route and look up any emergency vets that are along the way.
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Have phone numbers ready in case of any emergency, so that you can make sure that you can get those quickly.
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You want to make sure that your cat's microchipped and that the travel information is updated so that they can reach you when you're traveling, not calling the home.
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You just left Things like having information in the car in case there's an accident or you step away from the car and something happens, so that people can get a hold of you or get a hold of an emergency contact to take care for your pet.
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Right, there's so many things that you're not going to think about if you wait until the last minute to start planning, so the earlier the better, in my opinion.
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No, that's such a good point.
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I want to drill down on a couple of those things, like the very first thing that you mentioned as far as the carrier goes.
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I mean, that's such an overlooked thing in making you know we do it, and it's interesting because I know we do it with dogs.
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You know it's if you, if you plan on creating your dog, for example, whether it's overnight or when you leave or when people are over or whatever time you're going to do that, Most people do a pretty good job of the process of acclimation to it.
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Right, Make it a good place, Make it a safe place, the place that they get fed, the place that they get treats.
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But yet, with our cats, those carriers are packed up in the closet and when you pull that carrier out, your cat suddenly disappears.
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Well, because nothing positive is ever associated with that carrier and getting jammed into it, right.
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So you know even something as simple as leaving the carriers out and maybe putting some treats so that they walk in and out of it.
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You know, as opposed to the first time they get into, it is when you're stuffing it in as the movers are coming in the house.
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You know it's.
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Just think about what kind of scenario that creates for your pets.
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You know that's so huge.
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And the other thing was that moving box thing.
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I think that's so huge.
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One of the things that I've been looking at from a moving perspective is to have a box, you know, a human box, of what would be the essentials, whether we take that with us in the car or whether it's, like you said, the last packed on the truck.
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So it's the first that comes out of the things that we would need to get started, like a roll of toilet paper, a roll of paper towel, that kind of thing.
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And so you know, maybe what we need is a human box and then a pet box with those you know, a couple of disposable, even if it's just disposable litter boxes, because you're planning on buying new ones when you move to your new place.
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But having those things easily accessible and the microchip, I mean that's just such a huge thing.
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And I would say and I don't know what your feeling is on cat collars I don't have collars on my cat really been thinking about was harnesses with tags and possibly even getting them used to in advance because I've got time having leashes on those harnesses, because I have this humongous fear about I open the door, you know, and maybe I just the better habit would be putting the cats back in their crates if we were going to have them out at night before we open the door.
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But let's just say, by accident the door gets open and the cat gets out and it's got, you know, yeah, it's got a microchip if anybody ever catches it.
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But you know if it's got a tag or if anybody scans it.
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But at least if it has a tag, maybe that would be more likely, you know, quicker to get back to me that kind of thing.
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I don't know what your thoughts are on that.
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Yeah, it's.
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You know, so many times with cats you're weighing the positive against the negative and you just kind of have to pick one.
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I think breakaway collars are great.
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So a breakaway collar just means that if it gets caught on something, it's going to open up and release.
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A collar that does not do that, or a harness, while that gives you more control and also is less likely as you fall off if your cat escapes, the danger is that those things can get caught up, Caught up on stuff.
00:16:46.783 --> 00:16:46.883
Yeah.
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Because, your cat is likely to go over fences, into trees, under shrubs, where things can get caught, so there can be danger associated with it too.
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So there's two sides of that coin and if there's a leash attached to it then there's even more chance that something, it can get caught on something.
00:17:04.484 --> 00:17:07.352
But I definitely think breakaway collars are great.
00:17:07.352 --> 00:17:14.190
Even you know attaching like a tracking device, an Apple AirPod or something like that to the collar.
00:17:14.210 --> 00:17:14.932
Yeah, that's a great idea.
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So that if they do get out, you've got a way to track them.
00:17:17.787 --> 00:17:19.191
I think is a genius idea.
00:17:19.191 --> 00:17:39.634
One thing to mention about harnesses and we may talk more about this later, so let me know if we need to come back to it but a lot of people have the idea that they can pop their cat in a harness and then it's just like walking their dog, and I just want to state for the record that no matter what the harness says, your cat can get out of it.
00:17:39.634 --> 00:17:47.343
Cats liquefy and they just go floop and they can get right out of any harness, I don't care what it says on the packaging.
00:17:47.343 --> 00:17:55.788
So, and when a cat is scared, their impulse is going to be get out of anything that's restraining them and get the heck out of there.
00:17:55.788 --> 00:18:02.843
So I know we'll talk about it a little more, but just be, don't rely on the harness is the thing that's going to keep you in control of your cat.
00:18:02.843 --> 00:18:04.588
It's not that way with cats.
00:18:04.588 --> 00:18:13.428
I've had my cat roll out of his harness multiple times just in our yard when we were walking and something scared him.
00:18:13.567 --> 00:18:17.704
Yeah, so as far as you were talking about calming and things like that, that was the other thing that I was thinking about.
00:18:17.704 --> 00:18:23.305
It's like what could I give my cats and should I give my cat something while we're traveling?
00:18:23.546 --> 00:18:36.910
I think calming medications, prescription medications, supplements all of those can be great, with the disclaimer that I have no medical training whatsoever that needs to be the decision maker, part of the decision making team there.
00:18:37.300 --> 00:18:43.444
Keep in mind with things like natural calming supplements, cats can have very different reactions to those.
00:18:43.444 --> 00:18:47.250
You know I work with a lot of clients who use different calming supplements.
00:18:47.250 --> 00:18:48.815
I've tried them with my cats.
00:18:48.815 --> 00:18:51.383
Some cats will have a great reaction.
00:18:51.383 --> 00:18:52.946
Some cats will have no reaction at all.
00:18:52.946 --> 00:18:57.548
Just because it says it's calming doesn't mean that it's going to be calming necessarily for your cat.
00:18:57.548 --> 00:18:58.942
So you want to test those things.
00:18:58.942 --> 00:19:01.809
Same thing if you get a prescription from your vet.
00:19:01.809 --> 00:19:07.523
You want to test that stuff beforehand because you want to be able to adjust the dosage up or down.
00:19:07.523 --> 00:19:13.605
But also you want to know what to expect because you don't want to be worried in the car right.
00:19:13.644 --> 00:19:20.989
When I moved to Seattle with my three cats, this was way before I got into this business, so I didn't do a lot right and learned a lot of lessons.
00:19:20.989 --> 00:19:28.363
But I did do a calming medication, prescription medication, and I did test it a couple of days before.
00:19:28.363 --> 00:19:29.846
So I kind of knew what to expect.
00:19:29.846 --> 00:19:39.465
But the first hour and a half the person that was with me I had them like checking every 15 minutes to make sure cats were still breathing because I was just nervous.
00:19:39.465 --> 00:19:46.554
So using it a few times beforehand, so you know how they're going to react, is going to make it easier on you in the car as well.
00:19:46.554 --> 00:19:48.960
Okay, yeah, I think those things are fantastic.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:53.026
I would honestly, you know, as much as I would like to say don't medicate your cat.
00:19:53.026 --> 00:19:59.714
I would rather see a cat that's medicated and relaxed than a cat who's really, really scared.
00:20:00.316 --> 00:20:10.450
Yeah, what are your thoughts as far as letting the cats loose in the vehicle, whether it's I mean, certainly not when it's moving but what about if?
00:20:10.450 --> 00:20:29.226
Because I, you know, I think I see these RV travel videos where somebody's living in an RV with their cat and the cat's loose and they percent because you have traveled many times with your cat.
00:20:29.246 --> 00:20:31.951
I'm going to say don't let your cat out of the carrier or kennel unless you absolutely have to.
00:20:31.951 --> 00:20:39.122
You know, in an RV situation it's a bit different because you've got a home space and you've got plenty of opportunity to get your cat back in the kennel.
00:20:39.122 --> 00:20:45.213
But I will say investigate that RV like your life depends on it.
00:20:46.142 --> 00:20:50.281
Ah, that just popped right into my head, like where could they disappear to Exactly?
00:20:50.423 --> 00:20:52.230
They could end up in.
00:20:52.230 --> 00:20:57.048
You know, I was driving down the street one day and I saw somebody take a kitten out of a backpack and throw it in the bushes.
00:20:57.048 --> 00:21:11.781
So I had to pull over and try to rescue a kitten with nothing to put a kitten in, and so I got it in the car and it ended up climbing up inside my dashboard where there are wires and hot things, and that could have been really dangerous.
00:21:11.781 --> 00:21:16.990
So letting your cat out in the car scary for that reason.
00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:34.673
Also, you know, if you happen to not realize the window is down, or if they stand on the controller and they lower the window, or the person who went to get food comes back and opens the door and you don't realize they're coming right Any of those scenarios can be really dangerous.
00:21:35.435 --> 00:21:52.011
Plus then you've got to get your cat back into a confined space that they may not want to go back into, so you're amping their stress up again by kind of starting over, whereas if you just leave them safely in the carrier or the kennel they've settled in, even if they don't love it.
00:21:52.011 --> 00:21:57.498
By that point in the trip they have hopefully settled in and it's going to be a lot safer.
00:21:57.498 --> 00:22:02.611
And if there's an accident while you're driving it's going to be safer for them to be in the kennel.
00:22:02.991 --> 00:22:10.096
It's also safer for you as a driver to not have a cat moving around while you're driving and you're worrying about where the cat is and what they're doing.
00:22:10.980 --> 00:22:14.490
even if it's a long trip, I say keep them in the carrier.
00:22:14.490 --> 00:22:19.945
You know you can open it to give love and give food and give water and those things.
00:22:19.945 --> 00:22:23.385
Right, I'm not saying ignore your cat for the drive, but keep them secure.
00:22:23.385 --> 00:22:26.036
You know your inclination may be.
00:22:26.036 --> 00:22:29.209
My cat needs to use a litter box, they need to eat, they need to stretch their legs.
00:22:29.209 --> 00:22:33.083
A nervous cat isn't going to do those things, naturally anyways.
00:22:34.146 --> 00:22:38.346
I was going to ask about that, like how big of a thing do I need to have a litter box in there?
00:22:38.807 --> 00:22:52.451
I think it's you know, ideally, if you can go with the largest kind of kennel that will fit in your vehicle, because that's going to give you room to make it more comfortable for your cat.
00:22:52.451 --> 00:22:57.608
They can stand up, they can turn around, you can maybe add a little hiding spot if there's room.
00:22:57.608 --> 00:23:00.082
You can add a little litter box if there's room.
00:23:00.082 --> 00:23:02.269
It all depends on the cat, right?
00:23:02.269 --> 00:23:11.020
I'm talking in worst case scenarios because I don't want anybody to be caught off guard, right, but your cat may be fine in the kennel the whole time you're driving.
00:23:11.020 --> 00:23:12.124
I just want you to be prepared.
00:23:12.163 --> 00:23:23.384
If they're not, and a nervous cat is unlikely to use a litter box, right, it's not like we need to take a break and let the cat use the box now while the dog is outside taking a pee break.
00:23:23.384 --> 00:23:30.306
Cats are not going to eliminate on cue, but also, a nervous cat is just less likely to use a litter box.
00:23:30.306 --> 00:23:34.563
They may not eat well on the trip, they may not drink anything while you're driving.
00:23:34.563 --> 00:23:44.130
Sometimes I double check with your vet, but, like, a cat can go a good day or day and a half without eliminating, without peeing, and they can be okay as long as it's not from a blockage.
00:23:44.130 --> 00:23:50.548
So don't expect things to be normal, yeah, and don't panic when they're not.
00:23:51.148 --> 00:23:56.520
Yeah, well, and even when you travel with dogs when we took that dog, you know it was 1672 miles.
00:23:56.520 --> 00:24:09.519
We drove with that dog and she didn't poop for almost 48 hours, despite the fact that she was eating what about if you have like, like, I'm going to be traveling with three cats and they, they don't always get along.
00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:15.184
So my inclination is going to be to try to figure out a way to have them each in their own space.
00:24:15.184 --> 00:24:21.609
But you know, if you're talking about space to move around, to have a litter box, to have a hidey hole, I'm not sure how doable that is.
00:24:21.609 --> 00:24:24.492
Is it a bad idea to put them in the same carrier?
00:24:25.153 --> 00:24:31.942
Yeah, that's another tricky one A lot of it, you know I'm going to tell people you know your cat better than anybody else does.
00:24:31.942 --> 00:24:35.328
Lean into your gut instinct on things like that.
00:24:35.328 --> 00:24:43.792
Just keep in mind that when cats are in a stressful situation, they can react differently to each other.
00:24:43.792 --> 00:24:50.153
So, just because they're bonded doesn't mean that they're going to feel better in the same space.
00:24:50.153 --> 00:24:52.967
They may get nervous and that can lead to some fighting.
00:24:53.428 --> 00:24:56.984
Yeah, so you might want to bring a backup crate just in case.
00:24:57.006 --> 00:24:58.048
Yes, that's perfect.
00:24:58.048 --> 00:25:01.410
Yeah, something smaller that you can get one of them into if you need to.
00:25:01.410 --> 00:25:06.451
But if they do well together, then I think it's fine to try them together.
00:25:06.451 --> 00:25:13.373
People may be surprised even like my cats, were terrified of being in the car when I made my trip out here.
00:25:13.373 --> 00:25:16.769
But I only used the medication the first day.
00:25:16.769 --> 00:25:21.449
The second day they settled in and just slept the whole time.
00:25:21.449 --> 00:25:26.994
But if you were just going to the vet five minutes away, they would have screamed the entire time.
00:25:26.994 --> 00:25:35.607
Again, this was before I knew how to work on those things, so they may not be as stressed out as you think they're going to be once they get in and get settled.
00:25:36.180 --> 00:25:42.554
Is it a good idea to take them on car rides before your big trip, or is that just increasing stress?
00:25:42.554 --> 00:25:44.564
If you do it, the right way.
00:25:45.046 --> 00:25:45.989
It's a great idea.
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