RE: Nova in the Truck
Thank you! I think he's quite beautiful myself, lol.
We used to drive between Kansas City and El Paso every year with our three cats Cosmo, Tuxie, and Nova (before we had five, and before we lost Tuxie and have four now). Traveling was hard on Tuxie for a while, but it stopped bothering him, and he actually got to the point where he seemed to really enjoy it. He liked going for walks at truck stops, so does Nova. (Cosmo prefers to stay in the vehicle.) Nova was only afraid of the car the first couple times we took him places (he was a kitten) and Cosmo comforted him (because Cosmo loves the car) and Nova ended up loving the car.
We don't know how Apollo or Comet will travel. We need to start taking them for short rides so we can see how they handle the truck, get them used to it, then slowly take them for longer drives. Then eventually set up the truck as though we're going on a trip (with a crate in the backseat) and take them for a decently long trip to see how they all get along while traveling.
That way we'll know what to expect and how to handle it if/when traveling long distance with them.
Nova wasn't clipped to the car seat in this picture because the truck was stationary.
So glad Tuxie got used to it and it wasn't a trial for him in the long run. (Ticked off cats are NOT fun.) Sounds like a good plan to get the inexperienced members of the crew on board with the process! Hopefully, they'll take their cues from Nova and learn the routine quickly.
I noticed the restraints because we use something similar with our dog. I wish more people would realize pets need to be secured when travelling for everyone's safety. Good on you for doing it right!
Traveling never made Tuxie angry or ticked off. It just gave him an anxiety attack and he'd cry the whole trip, usually eighteen hours of driving divided between two days. Traveling never made him angry. Just scared.
Oh, the "restraints" you're referring to is Nova's harness. We used to always have him wear a harness, collar, and tags. There were possibly hundreds of cats that looked just like him (they were his siblings and their offspring) and I wanted there to be no question at all that he belonged to someone.
Plus Nova walks on a leash.
He wears a dog harness because he's too big for cat harnesses (he recently lost weight, but before, he was 18lbs-20lbs, which is safe for him because he's a Maine Coon/Norwegian Forest Cat mix and those are two very large breeds).
Sometimes Nova has to move around on long drives, because sometimes his back starts hurting him really badly. But he's either on one of our laps (he likes laying in my lap when I'm driving, I'm small enough that he fits between my legs and the bottom of the steering wheel) with us holding him, or he's on the console between the seats (which is actually a seat that we keep folded down to access the storage in the back of it) but he's always been held then, too.
The biggest exception to that rule was when we moved back to Kansas City from El Paso. My husband was driving the moving truck, and our pickup was too big to pull behind it, and there wasn't enough room in the cap of the moving truck for both of us and the cats. So Nova got to sit in the front seat. I needed him to be able to come to me, as I was driving the vehicle by myself and long distance and I have severe anxiety attacks and that was my first time driving long distance without my husband in the truck with me.
I felt bad about that, but I drove very carefully with him.
We also always keep the airbags turned off when the cats are in the vehicle. Even if they're restrained, if their restraints knock loose in an accident, the airbags could easily seriously hurt or kill them.
We do our best to travel the safest with our animals. We love them dearly, and put their safety equal to though often even higher than our own.
We always try to do it right!