Traveling With Pets In America (or anywhere else)

Gargoyles Animal Rescue travels with pets all of the time. One of our kitties is an Emotional Support Animal trained to travel everywhere with her person. We also have a Service Dog in Training and she goes everywhere with her trainer. The other animals in our rescue have mixed emotions about traveling, the older cats want to stay put. The younger cats love the adventure, its that whole curiosity thing with them. All of the dogs love to go 'bye-bye', and readily jump into any vehicle offered.

Would like to give a few tips we have learned over the years on traveling with pets, these are things that work for us and the animals in our charge. Not all animals are going to react the same. Be patient and never raise your voice or hand to them - you are here to protect them - do your job well.

• When traveling by vehicle it is best to carry you some extra clothes (jacket, sweater, etc.), and crank up that a/c (protect any cold-prone animals with a place to hide or sweaters for them). It has been our experience that the cats aren't as vocal and most everyone just sleeps when it is cold - they hibernate so to say. That makes for easy driving conditions inside the vehicle.

• Do not feed or water for at least 12 hours before departure and make sure everyone has had a chance to empty their bowels and bladder before you load up. What this does is 1. keeps anything from being vomited and 2. cuts down on bathroom breaks for the animals or hurt their kidneys to hold their full bladder for extended amount of times.

• If canines are what you are traveling with, keep their collars on at all times (hopefully with i.d. tags or micro chipped). Do stop often to allow them to exercise and mark territory (if you withheld water they shouldn't need to urinate - but they will mark territory with a dribble here and there).

As summertime approaches and the temps rise, please remember that whatever the outside temp the inside of your vehicle will be at least 10 degrees hotter. 

In the above pictures the canines were traveling on FAT TUESDAY, they dressed for the occasion.