Full timing with cats

[Ron & Dee]

Sometime in the future we expect to be full timing, or I should say part timing because we will still have a home base, and I would like to know if anyone full times with cats? We have taken month long vacations with our 3 cats and they do just fine, but was wondering how they would do on extended 3 or 4 months at a time?

Our cats are not leash trained and they spend all of their time indoors. At home they have a very large porch to roam and spend a lot of time in which they really enjoy. When we are camping the cats romp and play in the small confines of the MH and seem to enjoy themselves, but I know it's not like having the full access of a large house and screened in porch to romp and play.

Thanks,

Ron

[Ron & Dee]

Sometime in the future we expect to be full timing, or I should say part timing because we will still have a home base, and I would like to know if anyone full times with cats? We have taken month long vacations with our 3 cats and they do just fine, but was wondering how they would do on extended 3 or 4 months at a time?

Our cats are not leash trained and they spend all of their time indoors. At home they have a very large porch to roam and spend a lot of time in which they really enjoy. When we are camping the cats romp and play in the small confines of the MH and seem to enjoy themselves, but I know it's not like having the full access of a large house and screened in porch to romp and play.

Thanks,

Ron

[John66]

Motorhomes are small and there is not much you can do about that. Perhaps the most interesting thing you can do for your cats is to provide them an 'outdoor' exposure. Options for this is a screened box which mounts on the window and allows access through the window, a screen behind one of the basement compartment doors, with a hole in the floor to allow access to the compartment, or an external collapsable cage which can be set up outside. This will give them interesting things to watch and smell while preventing them from 'wandering' or exposing them to the dangers of the outside world.

Another trick is to use those 'cat sitter' videos.

[Savannah]

We fulltime with 3 cats. Two of them were at least a year old before we adopted them from the shelter so who knows what their previous life was like but they adjusted fine to living in the MH fulltime. They are all leash trained but only one is really comfortable being out in the world so I do harness her up and off we go now and then. I worry about what she might "catch" from the grass etc though.

We make sure they stay current on all shots and we had them micro chipped. Each of them has escaped but lucky for us they stayed right by their "mobile home". They each have a special place to ride and a favorite place to sleep. We are their full time staff.

Also we started out in a 30 footer with two cats and two dogs and went from that to a 40 footer. So space has no bearing on their happiness. They were fine, playing, running and romping is what space there was. Generally terrorizing the dogs

[450Donn]

I do not travel with cats. However I have seen people who do and a lot of them have one of those folding cages set up outside where they can put their small animals to have some "outside time". If I was caring for smaller animals, dogs or cats, this would be a good way for them to be outside but still confined.

[historyljc]

We do not full time yet, but our two cats - who do not travel well in the car - do go with us in the motorhome and travel well, most of the time. Two items that have helped: 1) a cat condo in the coach. The have two at home and make great use of the one in the coach. 2) An outside screen tent. In some places you probably want some protection from the bugs anyway, so set up a screen tent to sit inside of with the cats. You have time with your pet, they can see the sights , and it has a floor in it so you do not have to worry about what other animals have left behind that they may catch.

[C&C R]

If you have leather seats, protect them. I put throws on ours, but the running and playing makes them slide off the chairs. Needless to say, our seats are full of back claw marks.
I should have gotten seat covers but thought the throws would do the job.

[historyljc]

We have all leather furniture and throws work well in our case. Our two snowshoe Siamese are 10 years old so there isn't too much running and playing to mess up the throws. That only happens when I sit on them.

[Ron & Dee]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Ron

[Moder2]

We have one cat with us... He has known little other than the MH, since we adopted him from the shelter at 6 weeks old. His entire litter was turned over to the humane society.

He does well, and is terrified of the outdoors most of the time. Sometimes we take him outside if it is nice out, but he is always harnessed and leashed, he doesn't like the harness, so he tends to stay close and sit on peoples laps...

When we had the TT, he didn't care for how loud the truck was, he would try to hide in the back seat to get away from the engine noise. In the MH he does much better traveling, but is afraid to go to the bedroom area because of the engine noise, I think. His litterbox is in the bathroom, and I this the noise was the reason of the couple accidents he has had. Now we have gotten in the ritual of crating him before we move, which he has learned to deal with, though doesn't like being confined.

I second covering the leather! We made up seat covers, but those back claws will ruin leather in a hurry! My next thing is a dash cover since his latest game is to pull the towel I leave up there off when he feels like he is being ignored.

John