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Traveling with Pets

• February 2010
• Hi Steph Simple Living Climb Dogs Travel

Steph Davis,
I need an opinion on some car camping. I work seasonal jobs for the government such as forest/blm/etc. but there housing doesn’t allow animals and its hard finding 3- 6 month contracts for apartments. I have a cat and a dog that have both lived in very small studio apartments and i feel a small RV or van with bed converter on the top wouldn’t be much smaller. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks for your time,
Corrin Liston

Dear Corrin,
Wow, I hope your dog and cat are both very small! I grew up with a cat, and my dad used to work for Cessna and fly a small plane. On family vacations, our cat would fly in the Cessna with us to visit the family farm. He always threw up. Other than that, he seemed fine with it.

I lived and traveled in my truck with my dog Fletch (40 pounds) for years. It was great, and we both loved it. Now Fletch is gone, and I find myself with a cat again. However Mao is so far a pretty terrible traveler. I can’t really imagine taking him on any trip, and would be afraid he would be all traumatized and run off somewhere obscure and be lost forever. He likes to come and go as he pleases, and he most dislikes being trapped anyplace without the ability to leave at any moment. Which is pretty understandable. I’m the same way.

So overall, I would say the only wild card here (at least from what I know of your general set up), is your kitty. I have met a few cats at crags, though I have always been a little anxious for them because so many climbers have dogs at the cliffs. Still, I have never heard of any cat tragedies…. Have you taken your cat camping? Does he/she stick around if you’re out somewhere and you are gone for a while? Does kitty know that the car/camper is home base? If so, it could be a pretty fun menagerie…..
🙂 Steph