Obligatory Vacation-Mode Activated photo.
Hi, I’m Nicole! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my distinguished Burmese, Mr. Baby Cat.
If you’ve been following along on our journey, you’ll know that Baby Cat’s health status has been a bit of a roller coaster. I was about to write ‘as of late’, but upon reflection, he’s really been a little roller coaster ride for us for years! He truly does embody the ‘cats have nine lives’ expression. It seems more frequent now, but I think it’s just more stress-inducing because he is so much older now.
When Baby had his most recent episode a couple of weeks ago, panting and laboured breathing, I was on edge because we had a family holiday planned (with the pets) and it was going to be the first time we had done this as a whole family. Baby Cat has been on many road trips and enjoyed a number of holidays with us over the years, but we usually leave the dogs at the kennel. For this adventure, though, we were thinking ‘it might be now or never.’ He came on a 7 hour road trip with us for Christmas last year to his Nana’s house (he loves it there) and we thought that might be his last road trip, so we really don’t know. We’ll just keep doing what we do, and hopefully we have more opportunities for this.
All of the events leading up to the day were keeping us on our toes. I was so nervous we were going to have to find a vet while we were away but was kind of just leaving that out of my mind, obviously caring for him and putting his needs and comfort first, but not getting overwhelmed with worries and just going forward with our plans. If we needed to make a game-time decision, we would.
Packing With Our Pets
We’ve had many housesitters while we’ve gone travelling as well, so our pets aren’t strangers to suitcases, but they can be a bit stress-inducing for Rosa. While she always loves her time with her housesitters, change freaks her out a bit, but Baby Cat is so used to it by now, he does not bat an eyelash. And Mac is pretty chill, thank goodness, because adding a toddler in the mix sure makes it an adventure, before we even hit the road!
The morning of our vacation, I was hoping to get more photos but it was utter chaos. Everything we packed was conveniently unpacked by the toddler, and Rosa was like a magician, appearing in and standing and shaking in every single pathway I was trying to walk in the house. I don’t know how she does it. Mac ate some cat poop and then threw it up. But Baby Cat just snoozed in his Nest!
When Baby Cat was our only baby and we went on road trips, we knew a lot less than we know now. He didn’t have a carrier, because he loved to sleep on the floor by my feet or on my lap, and walk around the car a bit too. We would also put a travel litter box on the floor in the back so we didn’t have to stop often. I do not advocate for this and as mentioned, I know more now, but that’s the way we used to travel. Quick, seamless.
Definitely caught him at the wrong moment, he was not this grumpy about being in his crate.
Now, Baby has a carrier crate, which he doesn’t hate, but he doesn’t love either. We put one of his towels down inside in case he peed. I packed him in the car first because he was the easiest to coerce into it, and he just fell asleep while I packed everything else.
Next were the dogs, but unfortunately, we took too long. Rosa dug through the mesh on her carrier and was out in 10 minutes. So, we only had one for the ride!
On the Road
Eventually, we all got in the car, surfboards on the roof, and we were off.
“I want my vacation!” my toddler cried, after the wild morning we all had. She had only learned the word ‘vacation’ the day before, but boy did she embrace it. She fell asleep about 2 minutes after that and we were pretty smooth sailing.
We only had an hour and a half drive, but the whole journey from packing to unpacking was about 6 hours. Definitely worth it though.
Hepper Nest – so easy to travel with and put things into when stacking and packing
We’ve Arrived!
Whenever we get to a new location, we always put out Baby’s litter box first, and let him out in the home nearby it so he can sniff it, knows where it is, and then let him wander. This time, we also had his Nest bed (which had thankfully arrived a few days prior to holiday and he was already in love with). This also made him feel like he was right at home.
We were expecting him to just crawl into his bed and have a big nap but… much to our surprise, he ate HEAPS, like two whole bowls of his food and then walked around and explored.
Why are you taking so many photos of me, mom?
We genuinely couldn’t believe how well he handled not just the travel, but the new space. It was like he got a rush of energy and was our little Baby Cat of a few months ago. He even had a nice healthy poop! This was all within the first few hours of us arriving.
If Baby Cat could speak, he would likely have been yelling alongside our toddler, “I want my vacation!” And there it was.
This article is a part of Nicole and Baby Cat’s series.
