Long travel days can be hard on everyone, including our pets. It’s hard enough to fit in our eating & rest stops, so how do we get our pet’s needs taken care of?
With dogs, you can take them for a walk before you start your trip. You know approximately how frequently they need to be taken for a walk to relieve themselves and can time rest stops or find a place to pull over if they are giving you that look or bark. What about cats? Our cat does not like to move around the RV while it is in motion.
For our cat, on our first trip, I quickly realized (within a couple of days) she was not getting down from the bed during the day to use her litter box. So for the next several travel days, whenever we would take a rest stop, I would pick her up and place her into the litter box. Usually she would immediately jump back out and leave the area with a look of cat disdain. Sometimes she would return a short time later to use the box. After several days of doing this, I noticed Foxy getting down and jumping into her litter box when we stopped at a rest area. This seemed particularly likely to happen if we turned off the engine or were sitting at the table eating lunch. I stopped putting her in the box and after that she seemed to have figured it out.
During travel days, I always keep the litter box in the same place so she knows exactly where it will be. In our first two motorhomes, we placed it in the hall just in front of the bedroom. With slides open, it would fit in the bedroom, but there wasn’t space for it with the slide shut. In our current motorhome, we have a bathroom at the back of the coach. The litter box fits nicely between the toilet and the closet with the washing machine.
Our cat is a large breed (taller) and tends to kick litter everywhere. She was never a fan of the enclosed boxes, so I use a very large plastic storage box. The sides are about a foot high. While a small amount of litter still gets out of the box, the taller sides minimize it. I keep a kitchen broom handy (closet in this unit, behind a couch in the prior two). Our unit has a central vac system which is nice when we are hooked up. I keep a mini dust pan/brush to scoop up when we are not.
For food and water: I use a plastic shallow tray that is just large enough to hold both her water and food dishes with a rolled up towel in between them to prevent movement. I place the tray on top of a kitchen towel that is on the floor. The towel has a slightly larger footprint than the tray. This keeps the tray from sliding around while we are driving down the road. I usually take 2 of these towels along on each trip, in case one gets wet or needs washed. During travel, we place the tray in the aisle along one of the slides, which is the same general location it sits when the slides are extended. I put a small amount of water (less than half the height of the bowl) to prevent water from sloshing out. I also put a small amount of dry cat food in the food dish. Our cat has never used all of the water or food available to her during a travel day, but she knows it is there an can access it when we make stops. The only challenge with the food and water tray is remembering not to walk into it while making lunch or going back to use the bathroom while the coach is in motion. Kicking the tray will result in minor splashing. When we stop for the day, I add more food and water to the dishes.
My recommendations:
- Keep litter box in the same place- so the cat knows where to find it.
- You may need to teach your cat to use the litter box during rest stops.
- Remember to walk your dog before leaving and during rest stops. Try to plan stops on your dogs normal walk schedule.
- Allow access to food and water during your stops. A towel under your food/water can prevent it from moving around.
- Animals do well with routine so they know what to do and when to do it.
Please feel free to add any or suggestions or tips in the comments area.
