Kitten Road Trip

I had a brilliant plan: take the kittens on a kitten road trip to my mom’s house for Christmas.  I would get to have them with me and get to show them off to the family and they are so easy going that I didn’t think that they would be too bothered (of course they would be a bit bothered, they’re cats).  Also, since I’m home a lot these days, they are not used to being left alone for long periods of time.  They make a big deal when I come home after a couple of hours, I couldn’t bear the thought of how upsetting they would find it to only have a cat sitter just stopping by a couple of times a day.

I had some great ideas about how to prep the kittens for going on a road trip and how to handle them in the car.  It’s not unheard of.  I found articles on Chewy.com and one on Medium which led me to the official Adventure Cat website!  I’m not the only crazy cat lady out there.

I got them both harnesses which we practice wearing around the house.  They would be slightly bothered with the harnesses when I put them on, then quickly forget about it and go back to their usual kitten hijinks.  Now, it’s not even a big deal at all. Mr. Man is so much more bothered about the harnesses than the kittens ever were. Anabel will pull hers out and bring it to me to put it on her; I know that is because she likes the way that the pink accentuates her pink nose.  After a few days of harness practice, I even got Sally to walk on a lead (for treats).

Part two of my brilliant plan was to take them on short car trips around the neighborhood.  The last time they had been in the car was when they went to get fixed, I knew that it would be smart to let them know that every car ride does not lead to surgery.  Well, I pretty much blew off this part of our prep completely.  When I finally did take them on a car ride, they were mildly bothered, but I could tell that it was something that they would be ok with if I had taken the time to get them used to it.

Mr. Man was not on board with my genius idea from the beginning.  You would think that he has learned by now that I’m always right and that he should support me.  But he was even less ok with this plan than he was with getting these kittens in the first place. And even though he got over that in two seconds, it was clear that he was not going to be swayed so easily this time.

So, Mr. Man stayed home to take care of the kittens and I went by myself to visit my family.  Of course, I did spend the entire drive working out what I would do if I had the kittens in the car with me. I think that a kitten road trip is in our future.  I just need to be more thorough in my preparations and I’ll have adventure cats in no time!  Well, maybe not AdventureCats.org style that go hiking and camp but at least kittens who are emotionally equipped to take a road trip occasionally.