We turned our RV into a cat palace!
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Today's post is off the cutting room floor and mostly drafted in July, but we made some changes so we could add it to the release schedule now. Initially, the post didn't give away the ending to our story, but now that we've spoiled that delightful surprise, we're publishing the parts of the post focused on the outfitting. Turns out that setting up the RV for new pets was quite a bit different than setting it up for current pets.
When we first launched on the road full-time, we took steps to adjust our pets to the new lifestyle. Our dog Tanner was 10 years old and had been on adventures with us in the past, including staying overnight at hotels and Airbnbs. We had adopted Tanner almost 9 years earlier, and during his time with us, we had moved from an apartment, to a house, and then to the RV. As long as he was with his humans, Tanner was content going anywhere.
Tanner's first overnight adventures at a hotel in Maine and an Airbnb in New Hampshire
Helping our cat Lily adjust was a little bit trickier, mainly because she wasn't as used to going on trips. She was 50/50 on getting car sick and definitely preferred to be on stable ground. She had never been on an overnight that wasn't her home. However, In her 11 years post-adoption and pre-RV life, she had lived in 2 apartments and our house. Like Tanner, she was secure in her trust of her humans. When we hit the road, she was 12 years old. Before we launched, we took extra time to get her used to car rides. We got her a backpack carrier and car seat that she loved, and we took her on drives to local parks. This way, she'd associate the car with fun instead of just anxiety-inducing events like vet appointments. We also had the added challenge of maintaining her health on the road. Since she was 7, Lily suffered from chronic bacterial cystitis, which caused her to be incontinent and have recurring UTIs, some of which were very uncomfortable for her. We got her meds and diet under control enough that traveling wasn't dangerous, but we still needed to take extra precautions to make sure she was staying well hydrated on long drive days. Hydration is important for cats in general, but especially with her because dehydration could lead to exacerbated symptoms.
Left: Lily and Tanner's first photo together. Middle: Outdoor adventures with one of our dog buddies. Right: Lily's first joy ride in her car seat.
Training our pets for RV living:
Nicole Anderson
Because both our pets were older, we debated whether or not to take them on this grand adventure. Would they be healthy enough to handle it? Looking back, though, we've realized that in many ways, senior pets are the best to travel with. Our pets were mellower than when they were young, but they still had a zest for life. Their personalities were fully developed. We all had an extremely deep bond that allowed us to learn the ins and outs of full-time travel together. Now that Lily has passed away, her travel experiences are the absolute best memories we made with her. Traveling improved her health, which is a testament to how much she enjoyed this lifestyle. Of course, we needed to ensure access to vet care as needed. We stayed in close communication with their vet at home and carried digital copies of their medical files in case they needed care on the road.
Vet visits on the road: Lily trying to "hide" and Tanner trying to run away whilst stepping on my foot
Having such a firmly established family unit also took the guess-work out of downsizing. We knew which belongings we wanted to take with us on the road and which we could leave behind. As for Tanner and Lily's stuff, they weren't as playful in their old age, especially Tanner, so we downsized a lot of their superfluous toys, only keeping their favorites. Lily wasn't big on cat trees anymore, but she loved cozying up in baskets and under blankets. We made sure to give her lots of spaces in the RV where she could nestle and burrow. We put an enclosed litter box in the RV, which isn't every cat's cup of tea, but we trained Lily to use one over the course of several months. In our house, we gave her 2 litter boxes, one open and one enclosed. Then we transitioned her over to just the covered box.
Various toys and sleep places, Lily's first and second litter cubbies
After all of this work to segue into nomadic life, one might think we're well-versed in RVing with pets. We would have thought so too, except this year, life threw us a curveball that made us realize we had a lot to learn. We may have known how to train our existing, older pets for the travel life, but we now faced a new situation: bringing new pets into our lives and simultaneously getting them used to their new family and the travel life.
When going through the adoption process for our new kitties Mac and Piccolo, we learned that they lived in a trailer before being surrendered to the shelter. This added more complexity to our outfitting because we wanted them to keep the associations loose between old home and new home. Their old home was more crowded, so it wasn't the zen adventure-mobile that we've set up. (Adzenture-mobile? Just trying something out). The cats' files even got flagged as "would prefer a home without dogs" as a result. Obviously, we have a dog, and so we had our work cut out for us. Could we set up a space comforting enough to give them a new perspective on both dogs and trailers?
So there we were, facing a tremendous development in our lives, at what could possibly be the worst time ever. If the cats love the RV, we aren't planning on living in it much longer. If the cats hate the RV, we aren't ready to move immediately, and we also aren't ready to give up RVing altogether! If we were going to ride this transitional period out with 2 new members of our family, we needed to be strategic. We don't know how much longer the trailer will be our primary home, but it is right now, and so we needed to create the most inviting space possible for the kitties.
But how do we do that when we hardly know anything about these cats?! We learned a few things during our visits to the shelter, like they both enjoy climbing into cabinets, and one of them likes little mouse toys while the other likes interactive toys. One is more extroverted at first glance, but the other warms up to new spaces really quickly when he's comfortable. But all of this could change once they're out of the shelter. They might only like cabinets because they want a retreat from the busyness of their surroundings. They might love sleeping on human furniture once they have access to it. They might enjoy different toys because their humans will play with them more!
We decided on a "throw everything into the rig and see what sticks" approach. First, we brought in a cat furniture console, which included an enclosed litter cubby, some shelves, and a second cubby for lounging. Because we weren't sure if the cats would take to an enclosed litter box, we decided to place a second litter box in our shower. This is an RV hack we've heard frequently and is a perfect space for us to offer an open litter box that still has privacy. Plus, we don't use our shower very often. Take that as you will.
Hot tip: Shallow Rubbermaid bins make great litter boxes. They're easy to clean and you can cover them up so the litter doesn't spill on travel days!
Going on the knowledge that they will potentially enjoy cabinets and possibly also high spaces, we cleaned out one of the cabinets over our bed and turned it into a kitty cubby. Nicole went a little bit overboard during her "nesting period" and designed themes for both this cabinet and the one in the cat furniture. In the bedroom, she made a night sky/stars and moon theme, and in the other cubby, she made a garden theme.
Kitty cabinet items:
Clouds wallpaper
Moon plushie
Star plushie
Star and moon cat toys
Green star bed
Pack of gray star blankets
Lavender star blanket
Sage flower cushion
Pack of butterfly cat toys
Pack of caterpillar cat toys
Catnip flower
Tweeting birds cat toys
Sage green blanket
Floral minky blanket
The next order of business was to create space for both cats to eat and drink. We set up a couple bowls on their furniture, but there isn't enough room for both of them to eat up there, and so we bought a protector for our workstation, where we can feed them and they can have access to the large window for bird watching. Lastly, we put a few water bowls in various places around the rig and created a communal large bowl/fountain area for all 3 pets to enjoy.
One thing we had to worry about with Lily is that she was a "door dasher," as the shelter likes to call it. If given the opportunity, she liked to dart out the door. Luckily, she never went far. We didn't know what to expect with the new kitties, but we knew that we need to take security measures. We bought a gate to put in front of our RV door, which we also did with Lily. Of course, a cat can climb over the gate, but this at least delays their attempts to flee. We also unscrewed the latch that keeps our front and screen door attached to each other, so now when we open the front door, the screen door stays closed. This gives us an extra barrier when we come inside, and therefore extra time to see where the cats are, and shoo them away from the door if needed.
As we mentioned in the last post, we bought a second gate to keep the cats separated from Tanner while they all got acquainted. That's something we didn't need to do with Lily and Tanner. The two of them were delightfully tolerant of one another and had been for years. We needed to play things safe with Tanner and the new cats. Mac and Piccolo told us very quickly that this wasn't actually a necessity, but we're still glad we took the precaution.
Even though the cats were cool with Tanner right away, we still wanted to give them ample kitty areas in both the bedroom and main living area. Just because we have a small space doesn't mean we can't maximize comfort for the pets. The main area houses the cat cubby and lots of cushions and blankets on chairs. The bedroom has the night-themed cabinet and an extra cushy cat bed and pet blanket on the human bed. Lastly, we built a small cat tree...more like a cat shrub, that has a bed and scratching post. Unfortunately, this thing didn't even make to a travel day before it busted. We upgraded to a taller, nicer, and more expensive one, but it was worth the price. It's held up great so far.
Making the trailer homey and comfortable was only one part of the puzzle. The other part was giving the cats the best chance possible to enjoy car rides. This isn't an easy feat for felines! We bought a carrier that serves as a double for both cats, or can be separated into 2 single carriers. The cats are littermates, but they had spent 3 months separated from each other in the shelter. On top of getting acquainted with us, they needed to get reacquainted with each other. In case they wanted to spend travel days together, we purchased an extra large enclosed car seat that keeps them secure while giving them plenty of space and cushiness. They could decide how much space they want, and this can change from drive to drive.
Not only do the cats need to be comfortable and secure during travel, but so does their furniture. Unfortunately, the new furniture console wasn't standing up to the drives very well. We purposely built it early so we could test a few ways to strap it down during travel days, but on the first day the veneer began to strip, especially on the back particle board. We removed the back, patched up the other busted areas as best as possible, and tried a few other ways to secure the cubby. This is always a risk when bringing residential furniture into a home-on-wheels. Since the first travel day, we made a change to the tie-downs that seems to have helped. For our first attempt, we used Velcro zip ties, but they didn't absorb enough shock or allow enough room for small movements. So we switched to elastic cord, an alternative to bungee cords because we couldn't find ones short enough. The hooks for the tie downs are adhesive ceiling hooks. One busted on the first drive day, and we expect a few to break here and there, but they're inexpensive, come in bulk, and are getting the job done.
Mac benefitted from wearing a calming collar in the shelter, so we bought Feliway Optimum diffusers for the RV and Feliway spray for the truck and any other areas we feel might need it.
1 month after the adoption...
We've had a few weeks and several hundred miles to see where Mac and Piccolo have chosen as their favorite hangouts. The choice is clear. Both spend most of their time in the night-themed cabinet above the bed. They love the cabinet so much that we needed to extend it to make it almost twice the size! Yes, we sacrificed valuable storage space, and we're happy to do it.
On the other hand, they can't care less about the garden-themed cubby and didn't like the litter cubby, either. They use the furniture for climbing and eating. The good news is, if it breaks more (which we fully expect), we don't think they'll miss it much.
In typical cat fashion, they prefer human furniture over pet furniture, so they spend a lot of time on the bed, chairs, and ottoman. Joke's on Macky with the ottoman. That cover is actually a pet mat!
Also in typical cat fashion, sometimes they find comfort in unusual places.
Our bedroom cat tree upgrade paid off. They both use it constantly as a scratching post and sleep space.
Mac adjusted so well to his new environment that we unplugged the Feliways. We've removed the bathroom water bowl, which they never used. We've also gotten a better idea of what toys they like. They both love teasers and interactive toys. Mac loves jingle balls and even at one point got a hold of a potato! And of course, they find entertainment in bird watching out the windows.
As for their travel preferences, we took steps to get them used to their carriers while stationary, but barreling down the road is a whole other ballgame. We'll cover their first travel days in the next blog post, but we'll give you a sneak peek at who does like the big enclosed car seat! Silly boy.
Tune in next time to see what happens when the babes hit the road! Is this where their seamless adjustment came to a screeching halt? Let's face it, the travel life takes some getting used to.