As you know, we finally made it to Santa Monica, California! However, it was quite the journey to actually get here from Boulder, Colorado. We have two cats, a dog, and a snake! So basically we packed our car and trailer full of all of our things plus a zoo. It was much different from any road trip I’ve taken because of our animals. It was certainly stressful and worrisome, but we all made it safely. Here’s what to do with each kind of animal:

Dogs

Surprisingly, Noke did the best of all the animals. When she was younger, she would throw up in the car nearly every time she drove with us. After time and time again in the car, her nausea rears its ugly head much less. We were incredibly proud and happy with her over this trip. She kept her cool even with Nymeria howling and trying to poke her. Here are some specific tips for travelling with dogs:

• Put your dog on a blanket or something that smells familiar to them
• Don’t feed your dog before you drive or feed very little
• Make sure your dog can see you while driving
• Give your dog enough space to lie down and sleep
• Take your dog out every time you get gas to pee and drink water
• Make sure the car is cool

Cats

Now here is where the nightmare begun. Sajah is the more skiddish one out of Nymeria and him. I expected him to be wild-eyed and going nuts, but he was absolutely placid. It was probably because he was stressed to death, but he simply found a place to lay and stayed there. After awhile, he got a little less scared and opened up a bit. Now let’s come to the problem child…Nymeria. Oh, Nymeria. Nymeria is very spirited. And that spirit showed during the car ride. She was not about being in the car. She wanted out. She would yowl and cry and get up like a monkey on the bars of the crate and try to escape. She eventually started acting crazy and eating litter so we contained her in a carrier. She was really the only pet who made the trip stressful. Here are some specific tips for travelling with cats:

• Keep your cats contained in a small crate or something similar 
• Keep a small litter tray in the corner of the crate 
• Make sure your cats can see you and hear you while driving
• Put in a blanket or something comfy (and familiar) for them to lay on. 
• Give water breaks when you can
• Make sure the car is cool

Snakes

Well, Dovah was the quietest one on the trip (ha-ha) and we didn’t hear much of a complaint from him. However, he stressed us out somewhat because Dovah’s habitat should be around 90 to 100 degrees F. There was no way to keep his lamp on while we drove so we wrapped his cage up and hoped for the best. He came out fine and is a bit stressed out. We are hoping he will relax as he no longer has to deal with the bumps and vibrations of driving any longer. Here are some specific tips for travelling with snakes:

• Try to keep your snake’s area as warm as possible
• Keep the cage in a low place in the car so that it has no chance of tipping or falling over
• Try to drive as smoothly as possible so it doesn’t get rocked around too much

Driving with animals can be stressful, but there are ways to make it as smooth a trip as possible. Use the tips above to keep your animal family happy and safe. I’m hoping we won’t be doing one of these trips again, but if we do, we know what to do! As always, stay hungry and fit!