(06-26-2016, 10:44 PM)pwarbi Wrote: Over the years I've had quite a few cats and I have to say that the only time they've been in my car is when they've been on a trip to the vet for one reason or another.
At the end of the day, I just don't think its natural to take a cat out of it's comfort zone more times than you should, and while taking it on car journeys might seem like a good idea to us humans so it can experience more parts of the world, I'm sure the cat would much rather we left them at home and for us to just take the much more inquisitive dog instead!
One reason that cats don't like cars is because most of the time the end of the road is the vet's office. If they don't like the destination, they won't want to go and yes, that stresses out the cat. I took my cat on the road the first time as an experiment. When we found out that she liked it, and no, she didn't just sit in a box the whole time either, we took her to a lot of places. She went to the store with us, out to eat with us, down the road to the gas station... a lot of places. She even rode with us on a three hour journey to visit my parents. Her problem was that she didn't like my parents for some reason and would go about nuts if we made her go inside their home. Therefore, to keep her more into her comfort zone, (as you put it) we left her at home by herself when we went to visit my folks. Since it is a three hour trip both ways and we would stay several hours to visit, she is left alone most of that day and doesn't like that either. So we can't win as far as her comfort zone is concerned. I can't get another cat to keep her company either as that would cost us $50.00 extra on our rent each month. If a cat only gets in a car to go to a bad place, such as the vet, he or she will be scared to death of cars, especially yours. My cat is scared to death of every vehicle BUT our car. I can take her right up to our car with its engine running, and she's fine, but if a single car somewhere down the street starts its engine, she's out of her head with worry. For this reason alone, (the big scary world) she has become more of a house cat over the years and less of a world traveler.
