We’ve slowed down our travels a bit for a few reasons. The first is Covid-19. We wanted to protect ourselves and slow the spread, and avoiding crowded areas was our best option. The second is David’s Mobile RV Service, which has many great clients who refer other great clients, and David has built himself an active business in the Crescent City area. We still identify more as tumbleweeds than redwoods, but if we’re going to put down some tentative roots, among the redwoods is where we’d like to do it. This campground might be the best-kept secret on the Northern California coast. Nestled in the redwoods along Highway 101, you can sleep among the trees and be part of the forest, but without giving up things like cellular service and easy access to groceries. We decided to hunker down for the winter here, and moved to a long-term spot back …
Like most of you, we’ve been isolating ourselves from most of the world in order to help “flatten the curve” and avoid getting or giving COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus). To be honest, we’ve kind of lost track of time and how long this has been going on. I was buried deep in the blur that is tax season when the pandemic hit the U.S., and while I work remotely, most of my coworkers work out of physical offices in Massachusetts. Since we’re already set up for remote work, most everyone was able to limit or eliminate their in-office hours, and clients were able to work with us digitally. We thought we’d be pushing hard to make the April 15 deadline, but once the deadline became July 15, things have become a whirlwind. David has been working hard as a mobile RV technician, and had been so busy that he had …
We learned about these snuffle mats from our newest friends and fellow animal-loving RVers, Traci and Terry. We are always looking for kitty enrichment toys to avoid boredom and to keep the younger boys from harassing the older ladies. These are primarily designed for dogs, but who says cats can’t snuffle, too? Everyone loves it! Even Miss Kitty got into it, and she expects her food to be served by full service wait staff on fancy China. We used to use foraging toys (old pill bottles with a hole cut out) in our sticks-and-bricks homes, but they’re a trip and fall hazard in a tiny space, so they didn’t come with us into the RV. As a bonus, snuffle mats are easy to wash (just throw it in the laundry). We chose got this snuffle mat for dogs, which has an adjustable string to make the mat more compact for …
Before we moved into our RV, we spent about 3 months cattifying it so our four-legged family members would have an easier time adjusting to living in a tiny home. They’d always had larger apartments (and most recently, a 3 bedroom house), where they used more of the space than we humans did. They had shelves and many cat condos to climb, and we were going from about 1500 square feet to about 250 square feet (give or take).
This post was originally published on The Whisker Shop’s blog with the title Helping Cats Live Large in Small Homes, and we’ve used this philosophy for “cattifying” our RV home, too. If you lack the square footage for elaborate cat furniture, there are plenty of ways to help your cat branch out (and up), and make you feel like he’s got more room than you. Tip #1: Think vertically! This is really the best way to maximize a cat’s space. Adding shelves, or rearranging stuff on existing shelves to make room for cats, is like a cat magnet for most cats. Keep in mind the size and age of your cats: smaller or older cats may need additional shelves or a chair moved so they can get on and off the shelf safely. Make sure the shelves can hold your cats’ weight and the force of their jump, to avoid …
Two of our cats are brothers we rescued at 5 weeks old. They’re now 5 years old, and still a handful. They hate being in hard-sided carriers with a passion. But on our last pre-RV relocation with a car full of stuff and 5 cats, they destroyed their soft-sided carrier before we even left our neighborhood. We ended up stopping at a pet store on our way out of town to buy two hard-sided carriers to contain them for the 600-mile trip. But we’re trying to make RV life easier on them, and we’re confident we can get them comfortable in the truck if we’re patient and creative. So a couple weeks ago, we bought a Pet Gear Soft Crate for the boys and another for our two girls (who are perfect angels on the road), and set it up for the boys to get used to having it around. …
When we moved into our RV, we knew the cats would have a tougher time adjusting than we would. Their whole world (their indoor home) was squished down to less than 300 square feet, with all kinds of new smells and sounds. We’ve done a lot to “cattify” our RV, like adding scratching posts to the slide-out trim (blog posts forthcoming!) and low-profile cat condos handmade by David. But it’s not the same as being able to really stretch their legs and get some exercise. When we were still living in a “sticks and bricks” house, we started practicing walking our cats using a Kitty Holster cat harness. We have four (yes, four!) cats, although at the time we had five, and the fifth was a professional traveler. Sadly we had to say goodbye to her about a year ago. Of the other four, two are little old ladies who …