Well Amanda is at least. I get NO choice

Hi Dave and Taki.

Firstly leaving the cat in an awning is a no go. They are past masters at finding a way out. Also, is your cat non-destructive at home? Strangely, we wouldn't leave ours alone in the living room (probably our concern and not necessarily hers) but she's as good as gold in the Eriba.

Firstly, travelling. We have enough room in our tow vehicle to accommodate a folding cage for a dog, Cage size 730 long x 500 wide x 550 high . We have put a shelf in it and raised it up in the back of the car so that she has a good view of outside while travelling. There's also enough room for a dirt box and water bowl on the floor of the cage. The cage also comes in handy if you want to find a safe space to keep the cat while you're cleaning the van.

The cat in the Eriba. Ours is perfectly happy to spend a few hours in the Eriba while we are out and abouting and generally, there's enough ventilation through the pop-top to keep her happy. In really hot weather however, we take her with us in the cage and find a cool, shady ca rpark, multi storeys are good, Don't forget to leave the windows slightly open.

As we have a lively, mischievous cat who does have the freedom to roam outside at home with little fear of roads or annoying other people, we tend to keep her restrained while camping. Therefore we have equipped the Eriba with a full height hinged wire door so that we can leave her inside while we sit out. Also we have used boot luggage nets on two of the windows so that in hot weather, we can get plenty of ventilation into the van. These are fixed using small cup hooks around the window frame. She loves sitting out with us . either on the lead, or we take the cage out of the car but she also has a round mesh cat/small dog octagonal play pen.

She is also OK for short walks in a harness and lead.

The above two paragraphs are only necessary to us and we see many cat travellers whose human fellow travellers are perfectly at ease with the fact that their cat will not stray, either on purpose or accidentally (ours is the latter as she knows which side her bread is buttered).

At night. She has the run of the Eriba and enjoys sleeping with us as she doesn't have that choice at home. The biggest problem is that cats are often more active at night so if yours is anything like ours, she will be diving from great heights onto your bed etc. We have restricted her access to the roof space on top of the wardrobe/washroom as we also worry about her damaging the poptop canvas. A large washing up bowl acts as her travelling dirt box but she does often have a pee outside while walking on a lead once she has found a secret spot.

The biggest worry for us is dog owners with very long leads. Once they have spooked the cat they say that their dog is perfectly happy with cats at which point Amanda fights back by saying, "maybe, but my cat isn't perfectly happy with dogs"

All in all, our cat loves camping in the Eriba and as soon as there's a hint of any activity involving packing the van she's there waiting to go.

R and A

hinged cat door.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Hinged cat door.

Waiting for the off.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Waiting for the "off"

cat in Italy.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Investigating in Italy