Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi,

We live in the Shetland Islands, way up in the North Sea. We have been caring for a group of under-socialised cats for about 1 year now, and have found a shelter in Edinburgh willing to take them for rehoming. We have tried to rehome them here, but have been repeatedly unsuccessful, and our landlord wants them gone from the shed (where they have based themselves).

To get from Shetland to Edinburgh, they will have to undertake a 12+ hour ferry journey, and a 2 1/2 hour drive on the other end. There are 5 cats, all get along well with each other.

We have no baskets/crates etc for their journey. I was wondering if anybody new of decent, roomy transport ideas, that aren't going to work out too expensive. If we have to travel down with them, we're looking at well over £300 just on initial travel costs, so are needing to keep things low in other places.

It's that or we set up a GoFundMe for cat travel!!

Thanks in advance

Would the shelter be able to lend you cat carriers? I would put them in separate carriers, well padded to allow for any toilet accidents on the way.

Thanks for replying.

Unfortunately, because we need to do things quite quickly and are so far away, it seems quite unlikely we could borrow.

Do you think the cats could spend that long in cat-sized carriers? I'd be willing to buy a few but for such a long journey, I don't know if they would need more room?

I have no experience of cats in cat carriers for more than an hour and a half, but there are tales that back in the days of steam trains when every station and goods yard had a cat, the railway cats occasionally made long journeys (8 hours or so) by train in a GWR packing case when being sent back to their home station after inadvertently getting into a railway van.

Animals make long journeys by plane in standard sized carriers. Letting them out can be risky unless you have a large van or other enclosed vehicle - they might not be very happy cooped up for that long but as long as they are fed before travelling, have regular access to water, and you use plenty of layers of pee pads etc to manage pees and poos I think keeping them in carriers is likely to be the safest way. In a big enough vehicle you could perhaps carry several in a large dog crate, with a bed and a tray.

no idea of the cost, but this looks ideal for what you need

https://www.gofetch-ltd.com/dog-transport-vehicles