Happy Pets

Before you welcome your cat or kitten into your home, you will need to prepare for its arrival by assembling the following cat-care basics.

A carrying basket

The first item that you’ll need is a carrying basket in which to transfer your cat or kitten from its existing home to yours. Don’t imagine that you will be able to carry it home in your arms: your feline is a creature of habit who will regard its previous place of residence as a safe haven, so as soon as you — after all, someone whom it doesn’t know, and doesn’t know means well — remove it from its familiar surroundings, it will panic and will start to lash out in an attempt to bolt away. If the feelings of high anxiety caused by its displacement weren’t bad enough, it’s more than likely that its journey to your home will necessitate an introduction to motorised transport, be it a car or a bus, the sounds and motion of which it will find so terrifyingly alien that it will freak out. The last thing you want is a frightened cat running amok under seats and foot pedals, so invest in a carrying basket, which you’ll in any case need for future trips with your feline, such as to the veterinary surgery.

You’ll find a selection of carrying baskets in your local pet shop, including traditional wicker baskets or fibreglass boxes with a grille-like front opening and plastic-covered, wire-mesh ‘cages‘ that open at the top. Both types will do an efficient job of transporting a cat safely, but the wire-mesh carriers are probably more practical, being both more quickly cleaned should any panic-induced mishaps occur and easier to place a recalcitrant feline into (you can just drop them in, while you’ll have to lift and push a cat into a front-opening carrier).

Whichever you choose, line the bottom with newspaper (or, after your cat has lost its fear and has become resigned to being incarcerated in its carrier, a piece of fabric), which will make the carrier more comfortable, as well as mopping up the mess if your petrified cat loses control of its bladder or bowels. If the weather’s cold, line the sides with newspaper, too. Cardboard carriers may be cheaper, but they won’t last long, and resist the temptation to place a cat in a zipped carrier or overnight bag — it simply won’t give the cat enough air.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Cages, Cats, Kittens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.