Mao flies over the Eiffel Tower

Mao visits the pyramids at Giza

Check back to see what other mysterious and fantastic sights Mao has seen.

Seriously though...

Mao has done a lot of travelling. She has crossed the country with us in our car 3 times (for a total of about 7500 miles) plus taken innumerable shorter trips with us as we travel on the weekends. She has also flown across the country four times now. Her first trip in a plane was in the hold as at the time Canadian airlines did not allow pets in the main cabin with passengers. Her last flight though, she rode up front with us as we travelled to see our families for the holidays.

It seems that some cats are just travellers. We have friends whose cats howl constantly in the car, regardless of the length of the trip or require sedation for the trip to be endured by their humans. Mao has not had trouble riding in the car since she first came to live with me and even uses her litter box (on the floor of the back seat) while travelling.

Some tips on successful trips in the car with your cat (all common sense stuff):

• Take short trips at first that don't end with a visit to the vet.
• Leave your pet in its carrier. You don't want them crawling around your feet as you are driving.
• Don't feed them directly before travelling, in case of motion sickness.
• Do not leave your pet in a closed car on a day where the temperature is greater than 70 degrees F (20 degrees C). The temperature inside the car can quickly elevate to dangerous levels. Also be careful on very cold days.
• Have water and food (if they will take it) available at rest stops. And a litter box too, for trips of more than 3 or 4 hours.

• Book well in advance - airlines allow a very limited number of pets in the passenger cabin per flight (1 or 2). Current cost of a kitty airline ticket is about $50 US each way.
• Try to get your seat assignment as far forward in the cabin as possible - it is very loud over the wings and in the back of the cabin behind the engines.
• Soft sided carriers are a good idea to help fit your friend under the seat in front of you. See the Sherpa Pet carrier web site. These bags are accepted by most major airlines in North America for pet travel inside the main cabin.
• Have water, some treats and a litter box available as soon as possible for your kitty after leaving the airport.
• The drill for getting your pet through airport security is as follows:
• before you go through the metal detector, you remove your pet from its carrier.
• you carry your pet through the detector with you, while the carrier goes through the x-ray machine on the conveyor belt.
• when security is satisfied that the carrier is OK, you put your pet back in the carrier and off you go.
  
These are a very few suggestions for stress free travel with your cat. Please me if you can think of others that would be useful here.