We found this marvelous thingie to replace our ferret cage. http://www.dogkennels.com/dog-kennels/dog-exercise-pens/softsideplaypennavytan.cfm
It weighs incredibly little, pops open, folds in a jif, and when all zippers are zipped, even a ferret would not easily get out, unless it ate its way through. Cats won’t. Dogs—well, generally won’t. And for those of you who like to take a trip with your pets of almost any sort, this is big enough to contain the food dishes, litter pans, water, you name it, plus a sleeping mat. Our big multi-shelf thingie is good, it rolls, but it’ll take two or three fingers as a pinched offering before it stays put. This one is a grab-it-shake-it, zip-it, assembly and easily fits under your suitcases in the car trunk.
The company is Precision Pet Products, and they also have soft collapsible rectangular pet crates: http://www.precisionpet.com/detail.aspx?ID=137
Might they work for the back seat?
Amazon carries them, I think at a lower price (both rect. and oct.)
Octagonal here: http://www.precisionpet.com/detail.aspx?ID=138
There are smaller ones in the hex form: we chose the large because we have two cats, a litterpan, and need for sleeping space and exercise while caged. But they go down to very manageable small crates. This is called a ‘kennel.’
That would be nice for traveling, but I’m afraid I’d have to make a diversionary trip to the emergency room once I got them all inside the kennel. Then, once I got done in the ER, come out to find them fighting among themselves with fur flying everywhere. As Ninevrise said, “That would be the fox and the weasel in the same sack with the neck tied.” Birdie and Sadie do not get along that well, mainly because Birdie doesn’t play nicely with anyone, including me.
I hope Ysabel and Efanor easily adapt to that kennel.
Ysabel and Efanor spat when loose, over us, but when we’re absent, they sleep within inches of each other. It’s all about us. 😉
“It’s all about us.” That’s just from your POV; from their POV, I’m sure it’s all about them! 🙂
Seriously, how do they travel in the car? Do you keep them cooped up, strapped down or what? As an aside, the other day I watched a fellow fastening his dog into the back of his station wagon — at the red light, not the parking spot! I gave up and drove around him before he finished; I’m not sure the dog was happy.
Cats vary. Ysabel is, though ordinarily the awkward one who can’t jump between chairs, agile in a moving car. Both cats are at liberty: they want their doors open, thank you. We have an SUV, so we have their covered litter pan, water, and food at the rear, and they visit same at need: we do try to drive on the level when they’re on the litter pan. Except for such visits, the large black guy (Efanor) stays in his cage, give or take a few visits to the front seat-bin to say hello, then back to the cage, which gives him side-to-side stability. Ysabel is restless, sitting on the passenger’s lap, or wandering around. She doesn’t like Efanor to be out of his cage, so she’ll take a swipe at his rear end to put him into it, though in the house, he pushes her around. We get a yowl or two at the start of the trip, but after that, they’re gung ho for it. They have their favorite hotels on our regular route, and they also know when we’re supposed to stop for the night: if we push a day’s drive unusually far, Ysabel gets punchy and won’t regard the usual ‘Get in your cage’ command…you have to collect her and put her in her cage. Ordinarily though it’s a matter of simply locking Efanor’s cage (he’s in it, or in Ysabel’s); and giving Ysabel her command. She’ll start trying to get in, which she ordinarily does handily, but for some reason she stalls out and wants the passenger to turn around and give her a boost up. (The cages are stacked and seat-belted, with Efanor’s larger cage on the bottom.) Then she’ll go in, you lock the cage, and you’re good. Sometimes Efanor will have taken her cage, and then she’ll protest, but you just shove her furry butt into the available bottom cage and lock it, and they’re both secure.
Should we ever, God forbid, have a major wreck, both kittehs have microchips so they could be found and gotten home.
We had a minor problem with Ysabel wanting to follow me out at gas stations, but once they got the notion that was a no-no, we don’t worry too much: she now has to be gotten out of the seat so I can get in—she likes the warm spot in a vacated seat. When I’m driving she understands my lap is off limits, and so are the pedals.
We are also considerate when driving in the mountains: their ear canals don’t adapt as fast as ours, so we take the slow lane when going through altitude changes.
And if we stop for food, we bring them some treats. Fast-food chicken (Whataburger) is their favorite. They can smell Whataburger when we pull in the lot, and Efanor is out of his cage with his nose working.
Thanks for posting this. I have an elderly pup who is blind and deaf. He’s having a quite a time of it lately and this might be an ideal way to keep him safe when I’m not home but with some room to move and stretch a bit.
(adds picture of a Cairn)
Sophie, my parents Cairn, is almost three years old. She rides in the car with a harness on an elevated seat (see user icon). At home she is in her crate when no one is home and at night. She took to it really easy as a puppy and now will run to it, open the door with her nose, and lay down inside when you say “crate time”. She loves being in her crate. My parents never used it as a punishment place. It was always her safe place and now when they travel she is comfortable sleeping in other people’s homes in there as well. She also will run and sit on a kid’s chair when you say “park it”. Actually, she has a spot in each room she “parks it” on so it depends on what room you say it in. Mom parks her when she needs to open an outside door or open the oven or something.
@sainteyebeat, I read somewhere, on some credible authority, that dogs prefer to be in their kennels if the owner isn’t around. Since dogs are pack animals, a lone dog is a dead dog in the wild. This way, they have their “lair” and they can’t be attacked. I had 2 Silky Terriers that we kept in a portable kennel when we weren’t home, or at night, and they were fine. I don’t like having just one pet, because if you’re not home, they do get anxiety, especially dogs. For a cat, it’s nice to have a playmate, even if you’ve littered the floor with cat toys and catnip.
I hope your best friend is comfortable. Mine made it to almost 17 years.
When I take my two cats on the road, they travel in their cages. I have the wire dog crates, the largest size that I could get and fit two of in my little Celica. I line the walls with pee pads about halfway up (safety pin them to the wires), because I do not trust my kitties to not miss and pee over the sides of the litter pan. Litter pan goes on the bottom, and then I put in kittie hammocks so that they have a second level to get to. These are simply a tube of fabric (old towels will work, or fleece, or you can buy some cloth) the width of the cage, with some pvc pipe run through it, then with little elbow connectors to make the hooks through the wire. I don’t trust my two enough to let them roam the car, so they stay in the crates. They tend not to be interested in food or water while we are traveling, so I offer them that at lunch and breaks. My smaller girl likes to get into the hammock and curls up there with an occasional glance out the window, while the bigger cat tends to curl up on the lower level. The first part of the drive tends to be them taking turns to complain about everything, but they generally will settle down after a while and just nap through things. It helps to have a passenger who can occasional reach back and scritchle them. This is all for the big trips… California to Texas and back. For short trips to the vet, etc., I just put them in their regular carriers.
And for a brief pet update: Trinkett has sailed through chemo (as I put it, for all I can tell they take her off into a room for half an hour and give her treats). No really sign that it’s been hard on her except the two times that we had to delay chemo because her white cells were two low. Greyhounds tend to run low on white cells in general, and it wasn’t dangerously low, but just enough that putting it off a week was wiser. And she’s doing well as a tripod. Watching her run is interesting, since she now does a little zig-zag and is much lower to the ground, I assume because the one back leg has to compensate more to keep her going in a straight line. Unfortunately, the reality is that she is getting to be an older dog, and just doesn’t have the strength that she used to. So the walks are shorter, and I am not pushing her to do things if she doesn’t want to. But she seems to be a happy little girl, and is doing much better without the leg than when she still had it and the cancer.
And little Katie is getting more and more confident. Just this week she has started hanging out with me and Trinkett in the front room when I am watching TV. (Yes, I have the kind of dog where that is a major accomplishment!) And she graduated from Beginner’s Fun and Games Obedience Class, although that was a bit of a social promotion. The instructor is very good about letting the dogs proceed at their own pace, and we modify a lot of what we are asked to do so that Katie can succeed at what we are asking her to do. She’s gone from spending class hiding behind the chair to being willing to participate in the moving tasks. We still aren’t good at sit and down on command, but we are practicing on it. But right now, a lot of it is learning that we can survive strange places with lots of weird things going on.
Thanks very much for the update on Trinkett (and on Katie). I have been wondering on how she’s doing and hoping.
So happy to hear that Trinkett is doing well and that Katie is becoming more confident. 🙂
Good for the doggies! So glad Trink is faring well; and good for Katie!
@joekc6nlx – There were two pups, littermates, but Bounder was lost to extra-skeletal bone cancer last year and Schmooze is alone now. They had their “dens” in the house but they loved their view of the street and their doggie door to an enclosed safe patio area off the garage. They were never kenneled in the house. Now, Schmooze hates any sort of confinement but he stumbles into things and becomes confused. He’s always been a “bull in the china shop” kinda guy and, recently, there is some dementia-like behavior. Also, he is tipping over and cannot get up if he falls on his right side. I need to contain him in something soft. Gating him in the kitchen has not worked. He becomes frantic and tries to break out. This soft kennel might work. At least, he won’t bloody his nose trying to go through it.
It’s all nylon mesh and fabric, only wires holding it up. He should be ok in there. Such a sweet face he has.
He looks like a West Highland White. When Duke finally started having trouble, he was 14 or so, developed cataracts in both eyes, so we took him to a veterinary ophthalmologist to have them removed and new implants put in. The right eye was so far gone that the implants wouldn’t take, plus he had macular degeneration that was already advanced enough that his sight was to be short-lived. His hips and “ankles” were going bad from arthritis, and when his mind went, he was no longer able to control his bladder, he couldn’t walk, he didn’t know where he was, even if we spoke to him. This was the second trip to the vet to consult with him about euthanising him, and this was the one where it decided his life was not enjoyable for him anymore. Hard decision, but had to be done for his best interest. I hope Schmoozer has many more years with you.
Sounds like old Schmooze has had a little stroke.
They don’t think it is a stroke. They suspect a brain tumor but it doesn’t really matter what it is. His brother’s tumor was on the back of his skull and, as it penetrated the skull to the brain, it produced some strange behaviors. Schmooze is showing some of the same behaviors. He’s also in the early stages of renal disease which has been controlled well by KD. As long as he wags his tail at me, gives me big doggie smiles and wobbly play bows, I will keep trying to make him as happy as I can. He’s still pretty excited by weekend visits to the drive-thru bagel store where they give him a slice a ham and have his picture in the window as a “preferred customer”. We’re watching him closely and controlling any pain he may have with meds. He’s lucky to have the vet who literally wrote the book on doggie internal medicine. Oh, and he’s a Cairn Terrier, not a Westie.
Well, he’s absolutely charming, and let’s hope he gets along quite nicely for a long time. What a lovely dog! I’ve known several very nice Westies, but never met a Cairn.
Greyfriar’s Bobby was a Cairn, and I’ve seen where they say Toto was a Cairn, but I thought more of a Norfolk…….always get Norfolks and Norwiches mixed up, same dog, but ears are drooped on one and perked on the other. I think it’s the Norfolk that’s perked. Anyway, nice to know that he’s a “preferred customer”. I think it’s great when places recognize more than just the person who brings the pet around. I’d take mine around, too, but they hate being in the car. I don’t travel much, and when I do, they stay home, it’s safer that way. I’m still considering getting all 3 of them chipped, but at Birdie’s age, I wonder if it’s necessary. Oh well, even if it isn’t, I’ll probably do it for the peace of mind.
Toto was definitely a Cairn. There is actually a book published about that dog. They come in shades between oatmeal-ish and almost black.
…and the dog that portrayed Toto was actually a female named Terry. Judy Garland wanted to adopt her, but her owner wouldn’t give her up. During filming, Terry was stepped on and was out for 2 weeks. During that time, a double was brought in, and when Terry came back, they brought in another double that looked more like her than the other double. She went on to be in several more films, finally passing away in 1945.
Sweetbo, thanks for the confirmation. I never know about certain breeds. I used to have the AKC’s 50th anniversary reference book on every breed, but with as so many things I “used to have”……