Have Cat, will travel
There are not many families who have traveled with animals (cats, in particular) the way we have. Consider that the Ginger Cat, God rest her soul, made a dozen moves with us spanning five continents. Ginger Cat was the diplocat personified.
You would also think that traveling would get a little easier for the cat, with the more practice she has. Not so. The Ginger Cat would remain a terror on four legs, just ask the vets who needed to provide her with a clean bill of health before every trip. The Ginger Cat took absolutely no prisoners. She was ready to take any of those vets out, if that's what it came down to. The Ginger Cat weighed less than five pounds, but she knew how to throw her weight around.
Liebi's late cat, the Persian cat and multiple grand champion Leddy, never made a fuss. Probably accustomed to a life on the road as a beauty contestant, she figured, oh well, that's the way the ball bounces in this world. If I was meant to be judged at another beauty pageant, so be it. Let's go and get this over with.
Zelda, our Tanzanian orphan cat, has traveled well compared to the Ginger cat, although you can tell that the stress wears on her as well. Once she realizes we are close, she relaxes and surrenders, even though she will still shake at the beginning of the journey.
One thing we've always hated doing is leaving the cat at home. Needless to say, the cat will always voice her opinion about being left alone, which prompted us to our latest experiment, which is to take the cat with us on vacation. We figured let's just go with the formula. She goes with us, we reach our destination, we can be a family together on vacation. No harm, no foul.
Maybe we'll pass the next time around. In the end, it just isn't worth the stress the cat is going through, and we even think she may have given up one of her nine lives in the process. On the three-hour car drive to Freiburg, Zelda first starts shaking uncontrollably. Where exactly is she going? Correct, she doesn't know, and the fact that she could be moving with us to a new home or to the slaughterhouse is not helping. You would think a cat would have trust by now after all these years, but it's hard to be soothing and convincing when a cat is driving in a car at 100 miles per hour on the autobahn and is absolutely terrified out of her mind. Not what I would call gentle persuasion.
Once we arrive in Freiburg, it's no better. Zelda finds a suitable hiding place - the bathroom, as it turns out. Only slowly does she emerge from her new base to give the kids and then later the parents some love and, more importantly, to receive it after such a draining trip.
At night, the cat sits on the window sill and gazes out over Freiburg. Something must have caught her attention - a squirrel, a rat, who knows? - to the degree that she wants to leave the apartment the next day. We don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
On the trip home there is no improvement. She is shaking, again the German autobahn that would feel to a human like he's living on a runway at Rhein-Main International Airport. At home, she dashes for safety. Point taken. You stay home next time, kitty. When in doubt, leave the cat home.
You would also think that traveling would get a little easier for the cat, with the more practice she has. Not so. The Ginger Cat would remain a terror on four legs, just ask the vets who needed to provide her with a clean bill of health before every trip. The Ginger Cat took absolutely no prisoners. She was ready to take any of those vets out, if that's what it came down to. The Ginger Cat weighed less than five pounds, but she knew how to throw her weight around.
Liebi's late cat, the Persian cat and multiple grand champion Leddy, never made a fuss. Probably accustomed to a life on the road as a beauty contestant, she figured, oh well, that's the way the ball bounces in this world. If I was meant to be judged at another beauty pageant, so be it. Let's go and get this over with.
Zelda, our Tanzanian orphan cat, has traveled well compared to the Ginger cat, although you can tell that the stress wears on her as well. Once she realizes we are close, she relaxes and surrenders, even though she will still shake at the beginning of the journey.
One thing we've always hated doing is leaving the cat at home. Needless to say, the cat will always voice her opinion about being left alone, which prompted us to our latest experiment, which is to take the cat with us on vacation. We figured let's just go with the formula. She goes with us, we reach our destination, we can be a family together on vacation. No harm, no foul.
Maybe we'll pass the next time around. In the end, it just isn't worth the stress the cat is going through, and we even think she may have given up one of her nine lives in the process. On the three-hour car drive to Freiburg, Zelda first starts shaking uncontrollably. Where exactly is she going? Correct, she doesn't know, and the fact that she could be moving with us to a new home or to the slaughterhouse is not helping. You would think a cat would have trust by now after all these years, but it's hard to be soothing and convincing when a cat is driving in a car at 100 miles per hour on the autobahn and is absolutely terrified out of her mind. Not what I would call gentle persuasion.
Once we arrive in Freiburg, it's no better. Zelda finds a suitable hiding place - the bathroom, as it turns out. Only slowly does she emerge from her new base to give the kids and then later the parents some love and, more importantly, to receive it after such a draining trip.
At night, the cat sits on the window sill and gazes out over Freiburg. Something must have caught her attention - a squirrel, a rat, who knows? - to the degree that she wants to leave the apartment the next day. We don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
On the trip home there is no improvement. She is shaking, again the German autobahn that would feel to a human like he's living on a runway at Rhein-Main International Airport. At home, she dashes for safety. Point taken. You stay home next time, kitty. When in doubt, leave the cat home.
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