Vacationing With Your Cat: Olga’s Preference

Taking a vacation is more complicated when your cat joins you. Most rental properties only allow dogs, and fewer hotels with pet-friendly policies allow cats. Campsites are also more accepting of canines, but if your cat loves to travel with you, you can find cat-friendly accommodation if you search hard enough.

Feline Restrictions

It may seem odd that property managers consider cats more destructive than dogs, but dogs are less likely to make a mess because they don’t use a litter box. They’re also not as fond of scratching furniture, which is probably the primary reason for the cats’ exclusion. Olga isn’t a traveling cat and doesn’t enjoy leaving the house, even for a walk in the backyard.

I wish I could take her on vacation, but I don’t want her to be miserable, and I don’t think she would enjoy a trip to the beach or mountains. I don’t know many cats that are happy travelers, but I have a few friends who have taken their cats camping. Their cats are more adventurous than Olga and aren’t shy around unfamiliar humans.

Olga and the Great Outdoors

If she were confined to a tent, Olga would have an anxiety attack and probably claw her way out. She’s never been in one, but she hates closed doors and knows how to open them, as long as they’re unlocked. She couldn’t join me on most hiking trails, especially the ones that allow dogs, because she’s not leash-trained or used to being in the wilderness.

Some cats are more suitable for traveling than others, and if you want to take your cat on vacation, it’s best to leash-train them and get them used to traveling in a carrier. Training a cat to walk on a leash requires more patience than training a dog, but it’s possible. Cats aren’t eager to please humans and don’t share the long history of working beside humans like dogs.

Training Cats

Although they have an enhanced sense of smell and may be able to detect illnesses in humans, cats aren’t as receptive to training as dogs, which is one reason you don’t see them searching for corpses, drugs, or explosives. They’re not stubborn or untrainable, but most people cannot dedicate several hours a day to teaching cats advanced commands and tricks.

Training your cat will help you handle them when vacationing, but some personalities are better suited to traveling. Shy cats are not happy travelers, but outgoing felines who love interacting with strange humans and animals are ideal. My Siamese cat was a much better traveler than Olga, and several years ago, I took him with me to the beach.

I had to give him IV injections to treat his kidney disease, and I didn’t want to leave him home and rely on someone else to treat him. He was happy to join me and the family at the beach house and seemed to have a great time. Olga would rather stay home and have one of my friends take care of her, and I’m okay with that. Sometimes, cats like Olga need a vacation from us.