Picture this:
“Honey, this is it! The collapse I’ve been talking about all these years! The power’s been off a day and a half! There’s no running water! There’s no cell phone service! We’ve got to bug out now!”
My wife is frantically chasing our male tuxedo cat, with the brilliant original name of “Tuxie.” She grabs her prized pet and tries to drop him into a crate, an animal carrier. Tuxie hisses, swipes at wifey’s arm, jumps down and scurries away into a bedroom. “Owww, he scratched me!” she wails.
I grab a couple more bottled waters and stuff them into both of our bugout bags to take to the car. “There’s no time for the cat!” I insist. “We’ve got to go!”
“Not without Tuxie, we aren’t!” Wifey shouts, glaring at me as if I suggested cutting off her right arm.
“If we can’t catch him, we can’t take him!” I reply tersely, trying to control my emotions.
“Then we’re not leaving!” Wifey storms off ,down the hall.
That scenario is one I have feared for years. In real life, my wife and I have two cats: One is a gray tabby we shall call “Hunter,” who is very friendly, easy to pick up and drop into a portable kennel or animal carrier. The other, however, is a rescued tuxedo cat who used to be feral. My wife saw him at a pet store and fell in love with our Tuxie. But he’s a weird cat who is easily spooked by any little noise, or even runs off if you get up from the sofa to get a drink.
Giving Hunter a flea bath is a bit challenging, but tolerable. Giving Tuxie a bath is impossible. If you try to hold onto him, even in the gentlest manner, he freaks out, usually scratches you, leaps down and hides in some corner under a bed…for hours at times.
In all my prepping, I have occasionally wondered how we would ever get Tuxie into a carrier to take him in our car, or even worse: How we would take him with us if our cars were out of service due to an EMP, or some serious X-class solar coronal mass ejection that kills the power and fries the electronics in our vehicles? Then would we try to carry him in one of those cat backpacks (more on that later), pull him in a wagon, or possibly carry him in a bike trailer?
To leave the cat behind…or not?
When I somewhat cautiously mentioned to my wife the possibility of maybe having to leave the cats behind in an emergency, I was met by an icy stare. Then, she replied much in the manner of the previously narrated scene. When it’s time to bug out, time will be critical. We may only have a short day or two before people start to realize the electricity’s not coming back on any time soon; that the food is all gone, and it’s time to start scrounging for their next meal, including breaking into your house! It’s a real dilemma. Look, I don’t hate cats, but if it’s life or death, I’ll do my best for our pets; but I’ll save myself and the lives of those in my family, first.
All of my worries about this dramatically changed for the better recently when wifey asked me to take Tuxie to the vet. What prompted this was that she discovered our cat had worms. Since I’m the retired one of the couple, I was tasked with taking him to one of our local animal clinics. We had avoided annual vet visits for him for years, because he’s so difficult to try to transport. Plus, it’s kind of expensive. I told her, “good luck trying to get that crazy cat into the carrier! And if he escapes, good luck trying it again, because he’ll be wise to your plans!”
She said she would gently pick him up and try it. I pre-positioned the hard-sided kennel with the door facing up, the night before, so Tuxie wouldn’t suspect anything. I told wifey that in the case she was actually able to pick him up, to make sure that she dropped the ferocious feline in through the back door first, with his paws facing up. This was to make sure he didn’t see the carrier and claw onto the side, then make his escape.
The following day, to my surprise, my wife did get Tuxie into the kennel and locked the door. After a few phone calls, I secured an appointment the same morning with a vet (thanks to a cancellation—kind of tough to coordinate these things—I’d rather catch the cat first, then make an appointment).
Finally, a solution!
She squirted a towel several times, then draped it over the kennel. The somewhat pungent aroma quickly permeated the room, and of course, wafted through the air holes of the kennel right into Tuxie’s super-sensitive schnoz. After a few minutes, she opened the door and gently pulled Tuxie out, actually picking him up without any scratching or biting!
I was stunned! Tuxie meekly endured the examination of his ears, and the rest of himself. After the exam, he quietly crawled off onto a bench seat, meowed a few times, but then settled into “cat-loaf” position until they told me to step into the waiting room while they gave him shots for tapeworm, rabies and other vaccines.
I took Tuxie home. When I saw my wife later on in the day, I could barely contain my excitement as I narrated how much calmer Tuxie had become after inhaling the spray. She even noticed that hours after the vet visit, how slowly he was moving. I then mentioned how handy it would be to have this product on hand in case we need to leave the house for any emergency. I remarked how easy it should be to first calm Tuxie down with the spray, then pick him up and place him into the kennel, whether for bugging out, or for the next vet visit. She readily agreed. I immediately ordered two bottles from a popular Internet store!
I suggested that for a future emergency, we should spray a couple of paper towels and lay them down next to the cat food bowls. We agreed this should work. By the way, they also sell heated diffusers, which plug into the wall, and emit a steady mist of cat-calming pheromones. This should be used in a room where your cat spends a lot of time.
The sprays or diffusers don’t only have to be used for emergency situations. They are also used on an ongoing basis by some pet owners to reduce behavior such as cats spraying urine around the house, scratching, and any other situations that may stress out your feline friends.
Transporting your cat in a car
Now, regarding transporting your cat, there are a couple of directions you can go on this. If your car is working, you should be able to carry one or more kennels/carriers. If you are traveling any long distance, the larger the carrier or kennel, the better. It is essential that your cat has access to water, to avoid getting dehydrated during the trip. One option is to place your cat or other animal into a trap. In the past when I have had to transport a feral cat to be spayed, I found out they require it be in a trap, apparently so they can easily tranquilize it with an injection.
Once the cat (or other animal) is trapped, you can use a trap divider to keep the cat on the far end of the trap, which prevents escaping. (Or, you can go the cheap route and buy about eight small sections of rebar at your local hardware store and poke them through the holes in the trap to form a wall). After the divider or rebar is in place, open the door so you can bring in a small water dish, and another dish with dry food. For a water dish, I have found it is helpful to use one of those small plastic containers used for whipped cream.
After you wash it out, punch a couple of holes with a knife into the top part of the dish. Then, you can push some wire through the holes, and tie the two loose ends to a couple of bars in the trap, so it won’t tip over. Be sure not to fill the dish higher than the two holes! Also, allow for a bumpy ride in the car, so keep the water level fairly low. You can refill it by using one of those long funnels—just stick the narrow end through one of the openings in the trap and refill the dish with a water bottle.
As long as the divider is in place, the cat cannot escape. After you are done, close the door first, then remove the divider or rebar. One more note: Animal traps do not have a bottom pan, so you will need to find a long box and line it with plastic or a tarp, for when your animal urinates or poops, or if the water in the dish spills.
If you trip is a short one, then you could use a medium-sized soft-sided carrier for both cats and dogs. A disadvantage of these carriers is that a cat could jump out if you attempt to insert a small water dish, if it’s a longer trip. Or, the water dish might not fit. But then, I suppose you could try draping a towel over it, with the calming spray to get the dish inside. I think a better choice would be a medium-sized or large hard-sided dog/cat kennel/carrier, especially for a long trip. This one has more room, and has the added bonus of a solid plastic pan floor with a lip, to minimize any leakage in case of a water spill, or if your animal urinates during the trip. The water dish can be tied to the grated door.
What if my car doesn’t work?
But what if using your car is not an option, due to an EMP, solar flare, or because someone stole your gas or even your vehicle? Now you will really need a bugout bag! If taking your cat is essential, you can either try it on a leash, or carry it somehow. In our experience, using a leash on a cat sooner or later just doesn’t work out. Either the cat gets distracted by something and won’t walk with us; or he wiggles his way off the leash and escapes.
On the other hand, there are additional options, including pulling a carrier in a wagon, a covered bike trailer, an adult tricycle (with a rear storage basket), or using a cat backpack. This could also work for small dogs, but keeping your dog on a leash will allow you to carry more supplies in a backpack. When we recently took “Tuxie” to the vet, he weighed in at 12.9 pounds. Ask yourself, are you up to carrying that much weight for many miles? Does this mean someone else will have to carry your bugout bag, or to divide up your supplies among several people? Can you carry another backpack, bag or fanny pack besides the cat backpack? These are tough questions, but it is better to plan ahead and have options, than not to have a plan at all.
Finally, be sure to bring along a bottle of that cat-calming spray and a small towel. It could be the difference between keeping your cat and losing it due to it either running away, or being taken by some predator in the wild.
So, now you have some ideas on how to deal with cats in a future bugout situation, some of which could actually work! Hope this helps some of our prepper cat lovers out there!