May I just pause here to register a complaint? The whole point of going at the end of December is so the temperature isn't warm enough to make the car uncomfortable for the three long-haired cats when we first get in. It was 68 degrees F today. And sunny. Hardly the temperature I was looking for (although to be fair, I do like warm better than cold. I just wanted cold for the cats, not me.)
Anyway. All year long I've been debating in my head how to get all three cats to the vet at the same time, keeping in mind the following:
- Apricot scares easily
- So does Colby
- Colby and Thimble did not like being in a big open space coming home from Ginger's house (the breeder) and so probably won't like being in the Sturdi car carrier again (it spans the back seat and is large and open)
- Colby and Thimble went together in one carrier with their litter mates whenever they went to the vet as baby kittens
- Thimble chewed his way through the mesh of a non-plastic carrier in less than half an hour
Making up my mind at the very last minute, I ordered a 28" (long) carrier made of plastic with a metal door. It is rated for 20-30 pounds, and the two Coons together are 30 pounds (well, technically 31.5 pounds). That arrived last night. It was really easy to put together, too.
It's also Thimble's new bedroom, as his old carrier had gotten so small for him that I felt like I was being cruel to put him in it all night. Traveling to a vet and back in that carrier would be fine. However, I can't carry two of those carriers (one on either side) so that's why I didn't get another one.
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| Thimble in residence |
Thimble was thrilled to have a new bedroom and went in and out multiple times, lying down inside to show me just how much better this one was than the other one. Even though the food bowls that hook on the metal grid of the door haven't arrived yet (had to order straight from the manufacturer), I let him use it as his bedroom last night. He was very pleased.
But if you can tell in the photo, it has no handle in the middle. This is on purpose. A molded plastic handle would rip out under the weight of the 30 pound dog you are supposedly putting in the crate. I still needed a way to carry it, though, and I couldn't carry it up against my body, one arm around each end, because of the third cat.
Apricot was planned to go into the kangaroo pouch I have to wear to carry a single cat in. The Coons together in the huge carrier, and Apricot in the pouch. Since he's not always comfortable with them, because they think he's still the bigger cat like when they first got here. And sometimes they forget that they have to be a little careful around him.
So this morning I went to Lowes and described what I wanted to do. I had in mind cable loops. They came up with something better. There are these rubber straps that are kind of like bungee cords only they don't stretch, and the hook through the ends comes out.
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| Strap contraption side view |
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| Strap contraption-handle (yes, my hand fits) |
This is how I did it. The longest strap wasn't long enough, so I put two together on each end. I took the hook out of the end of one of each set and connected them with the single hook instead of putting the hooks together (tried that originally and then thought, dummy, this'll work better without slipping apart if you don't use two hooks).
The metal connector on the top was the biggest one they had and just suits my hand as a handle, so lucky me for having small hands, as much as I cursed that when I was playing the piano. (Try reaching the tenths Beethoven created in the left hand when you can barely reach an octave. Aggravating. Guy composers and their huge hands.)
I put clothes on the cats about half an hour before I loaded them up, so as to hopefully disconnect the two events. Cat clothes are their harnesses. Apricot's is not an H harness, it's a figure 8, and I hadn't put it on him since October of last year. Took me a minute to figure it out! During which time Apricot was not particularly pleased with me.
The Coon boys were a little antsy when I put the harnesses on but not much. It really helps that they spent most of their babyhood wearing harnesses constantly. And when Apricot was walking funny and insisting that he couldn't move properly wearing this thing, Colby jumped on him and made him fight back, thus illustrating that yes, he could move properly. Apricot actually protested out loud at one point during the battle. I threatened to "come over there". Colby immediately backed off. Odd, because I've never actually "come over there". I just have to say something and the two (whichever two it is) pause and let the other one rearrange or leave, depending.
Then I put Colby in the carrier and shut the door. He gave me the evil eye. He knew something was UP. I put Thimble in shortly thereafter. He went in easily, noticed Colby, turned around and gave me a puzzled look through the now-closed gate. "Mom? My brother's in here too. What's going on?"
Apricot got popped into the kangaroo pouch I was now wearing and promptly hid inside it (this is the point).
Now came the hard part. Get the carrier to the car. And in to the back seat.
It was heavy. It was big and awkward. And I managed it. My arms still feel weak. It helped that the boys were lined up side by side and stretched out, so their weight was distributed across the entire carrier. This was not the case when we returned--both cats in the carrier were at the back as far as they could get from the door, leaving the thing even more awkward to lift and move.
This carrier has tiedowns. Which are nothing but holes in the middle ledge part. I used two of the extra hooks from the rubber straps to provide a hook for the seat belt latch to go over, thus pulling the carrier against the seat back and keeping it from rocking forward when I stopped. (As I am not an engineer type person, I was fairly proud of myself for figuring this out.)
Apricot and Thimble were quiet the whole trip to the vet. As per his reputation as a whiner, Colby kept making complaints at irregular intervals. Apricot seemed scared but calm, if that makes any sense. He wasn't really upset. He even poked his head and one paw out of the pouch, looking out the driver's side window at the cars. I drove one-handed and kept the other hand around him (well, around the pouch he was in) as reassurance. The pouch has a hook that attaches to the harness of the cat inside it for security, so I wasn't needing to "keep him inside" or anything like that.
And we arrived at the vet office, safe and sound.
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