RV living

[arlyn]

Where to put the litter box so it's out of sight, and out of reach of the dog?

Not 100% sure which type of travel trailer I'll be living in, but I'm not seeing a lot in the way of floor level cabinets that I can install a cat flap on.

Anyone else lived with cat(s) in an RV, full or part time?

 

[AbbysMom]

LDG definitely has. You may want to PM her.

 

[arlyn]

Totally forgot about her, thanks

 

[baraka]

I live in an RV full time (very very very hard to get a place to live in Lower BC if you have any pets). As we are space restricted but don't move the motorhome a lot we keep the front cab area for the litter box. It's out of the way but easy to get at, the cat has access and privacy. I recommend a covered box if you can fit it in, use high quality litter and change your carbon filter regularly too. The air in an RV goes off faster than in a house and since the kitchen and living areas are all of a piece you need to stay on top of the box more than in a house! MacBeth has had this arrangement for all of his 3 years and he's been fine.

Having finally come to terms with the fact we won't be getting four walls and a roof any time soon we plan to upgrade our RV to a larger fifth wheel and when shopping I will be keeping litter box placement in mind!

 

[bluebird gal]

Yay!   More people who RV with their furbabies.

I know this thread is very, very old, but I had to search to see if there were any fulltime RVrs here.  That's what my DH and I decided to do in retirement in 2011.  Sold everything & put what we couldn't part with in storage near our kids in Texas & hit the road.

Now that we decided to let a stray adopt us it's great to see others here too who have traveled successfully with their cats.  Our RV club has many cat owners so we are hopeful.  And Si already rides like a champ in his carrier in the car on my lap .. so we hope there will be no issues as he transitions to Travel Cat for the rest of his days.

 

[ldg]

You have a Bluebird! Those are gorgeous!

And welcome to TCS (a little late)!

Gary and I live in an RV full time. We're not on the road much now because of his health - we're in NW NJ. But we started here, drove out to Seattle, up to the Yukon, back down through San Diego, across to FL, back up the East Coast - and around the country a number of times. Also spent time in the SW and Colorado. We were full time moving around for work from 1994 - 2001. We would hub-and-spoke, parking somewhere outside of a city for a few months, visiting companies in the city (we're equity analysts, and Gary's additionally a market strategist). This was valuable before the advent of the internet and a lot of disclosure regulations. :lol3: We moved into a house for four years or so, but the cats were actually happier in the RV, and it suits us. :dk: Gary had major health issues, and I couldn't care for the house and property on my own.

We don't have slides. We took out the dining area and put in cat trees. We cut out holes under the bed and don't store anything under there. We let the cats have the overhead cabinets in the dining area - makes the cat trees and window seats there like a huge jungle gym for them. We have the litter boxes up front - as Baraka, we have the litterboxes basically up under the front "dash" area (in the driver and passenger floor space).

When we do travel, we just pull the boxes and set them on the living room floor. The rug prevents them from moving around.

When we start up the engine, the cats flock under the bed. But they get the hang of travel down quickly, so the more you're on the road, the faster your kitty will adjust - if Si is even bothered by it in the RV at all. :lol3: The first time we stop for gas, one or two will come out. The next time, a few more... by the time we pull in somewhere for the night, only the real scaredy cats take an hour or two to come out. But that's only the first night. The next day, they can tell by our setting things up noises that it's "safe" to come out. :lol3: For us, by the 3rd day, two of the cat's don't run or hide. One of them was a pain, crawling around under the driver's area. But Spooky decided she loved sitting on the dash, watching the world fly by.

I posted pictures of everything we'd changed (a lot!) here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/222037/your-home-picture-thread#post_2941804

...but we now have 8 cats living here, inside-only with us (we rescue).

Oh - and yeah, we bought the RV before there were flat-screen TVs. :lol3: The spot where the TV used to be up front is a great place for a third litter box.

 

[bluebird gal]

We do LDG ..  a '94 - no slides because of the safety factor and less maintenance or potential problems.  We got soooo lucky & found one 45min from our old house, had a 30yr  BB owner come out & inspect her for us; made a ridiculously low offer -vs- asking price & she was ours - Tax Day 2010!   We love this coach.

I hate to hear health issues are keeping you guys from the road as much as I'm sure you'd like.  We retired from Dallas/Fort Worth - our family told us we were crazy so we showed them just HOW crazy and went to Alaska last summer.   8960 miles border to border.   LOL    We're workamping now in Lousiana and about to head back to Texas for a month with the kids/grandbabies.  Then we're off to workamp in Gunnison, CO for the Summer

Looking forward to catching up on your thread.   We have felt so very fortunate that Si has ridden in his carrier to/from the vet happy as a lark; the vaccum, blender, washer/dryer - nothing has seemed to phase him.  We hope the transition to moving the coach will go as smoothly.   He's pretty darn bulletproof it seems.  His litter box fits perfectly between the toilet & the cabinets.  And I saved the specs for an outdoor cathouse/sunroom that we hope to build soon too.  It affixes to a window that you can open a window & they can walk out onto a 36x36 screened in platform & enjoy the outside.   He's also been out on his harness several times so we hope to include a little exploring in our travels for him as well.

We both retired early.  As awful as it may sound - at 49 & 51yrs old at the time (2011) we had seen too many deaths - parentally for me - work related for my DH.  We knew we wanted to travel in retirement & decided to do it now while we still had pretty good health overall.  We are loving it & never really see ourselves owning another traditional home.  We'll park this Beast somewhere we want to be & live out our days when the time comes.

It is certainly not for everyone, but George and I were another couple that it was absolutely made for.   This little bossy guy that adopted us is just the icing on the cake to our fulltime lives. 

You have a Bluebird!

Those are gorgeous!

And welcome to TCS (a little late)!

Gary and I live in an RV full time. We're not on the road much now because of his health - we're in NW NJ. But we started here, drove out to Seattle, up to the Yukon, back down through San Diego, across to FL, back up the East Coast - and around the country a number of times. Also spent time in the SW and Colorado. We were full time moving around for work from 1994 - 2001. We would hub-and-spoke, parking somewhere outside of a city for a few months, visiting companies in the city (we're equity analysts, and Gary's additionally a market strategist). This was valuable before the advent of the internet and a lot of disclosure regulations.

We moved into a house for four years or so, but the cats were actually happier in the RV, and it suits us.

Gary had major health issues, and I couldn't care for the house and property on my own.

We don't have slides. We took out the dining area and put in cat trees. We cut out holes under the bed and don't store anything under there. We let the cats have the overhead cabinets in the dining area - makes the cat trees and window seats there like a huge jungle gym for them. We have the litter boxes up front - as Baraka, we have the litterboxes basically up under the front "dash" area (in the driver and passenger floor space).

When we do travel, we just pull the boxes and set them on the living room floor. The rug prevents them from moving around.

When we start up the engine, the cats flock under the bed. But they get the hang of travel down quickly, so the more you're on the road, the faster your kitty will adjust - if Si is even bothered by it in the RV at all.

The first time we stop for gas, one or two will come out. The next time, a few more... by the time we pull in somewhere for the night, only the real scaredy cats take an hour or two to come out. But that's only the first night. The next day, they can tell by our setting things up noises that it's "safe" to come out.

For us, by the 3rd day, two of the cat's don't run or hide. One of them was a pain, crawling around under the driver's area. But Spooky decided she loved sitting on the dash, watching the world fly by.

I posted pictures of everything we'd changed (a lot!) here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/222037/your-home-picture-thread#post_2941804

...but we now have 8 cats living here, inside-only with us (we rescue).

Oh - and yeah, we bought the RV before there were flat-screen TVs.

The spot where the TV used to be up front is a great place for a third litter box.

 

[ldg]

Aw, I'm so sorry about so many losses of those you love.

Gary and I originally were just going to take a break from life. We quit our jobs, gave away most of our stuff (other than a few boxes of mostly books we sent to my sister), and hit the road. We were both 31 at the time. We started visiting companies at the request of my money manager friends, and just turned that into a business. Nothing better than holding your morning meeting on the phone while bait casting from the zodiac with the 4hp motor (obviously off at the time). :lol3:

Sounds perfect! We'd love pictures.

I've seen those screened platforms/window boxes. TOO COOL! I'm sure he'll love it!

Honestly, I'm not sure we'd travel much now - not for long - even if we could. It'd be nice to Winter in TX or FL (we loved both), and one of our favorite places in summer was northern WI. We were based out of CA for a while, and we LOVED LOVED LOVED Big Bear. We initially stopped traveling after 9/11 because we needed to be here - most of our customer base is on the east coast. The nature of our industry changed a lot - first the disaster, then the economy and scandals/new regulations, the internet, then the economy again.... So while we hunkered down in NJ and were based out of an office in NY, we got seriously involved in cat rescue. Though Gary's current limitations basically restrict our TNR work to this RV park now, we care for the ferals here. We have 11 active in the colony. I could see having someone feed them if we hit the road for a few weeks. But I don't know what we'd do beyond that. :slant:

 

[arlyn]

Wow! Years later, I'm still in my travel trailer, though feeling cramped these days as it's three cats a large dog and now a pet husband.

This old trailer won't see another move, the slide out motor has quit, the main AC and fridge have quit, and the dog now spends time in his big outdoor kennel while we work.

 

[gemlady]

Have you got the pet husband trained, yet? :lol3:

 

[bluebird gal]

Have you got the pet husband trained, yet?

LOL ... just about!  

 

[bluebird gal]

Sounds perfect!

We'd love pictures.

The Our Coach section (at the top) of our blog has some good pictures from the day we picked her up at the dealer.   Neither of us had ever even tent camped 

  but being from Texas, we figured go big, or go home!  She drives like a Buick.  Haha.  Even I ended up with my Class B non-CDL license and have about 400mi under my belt now.  

http://rvlife.redsroads.net/

 

[bluebird gal]

Wow! Years later, I'm still in my travel trailer, though feeling cramped these days as it's three cats a large dog and now a pet husband.

This old trailer won't see another move, the slide out motor has quit, the main AC and fridge have quit, and the dog now spends time in his big outdoor kennel while we work.

I can relate.  We felt a little cluttered before Si .. and his Daddy can't leave the house without buying more toys!  Every morning now its an oooh, ouch, owww stepping on jingle balls, sqeaky toys and stuff

 

[ldg]

:lol3: As it should be.

And thanks for the link to the blog!