In Spring of 2020, we had spent several weeks working with our cats and taking them outside for “walks”. We were having very little luck with the ability to walk them. Sammie enjoys sunbathing and Leah instantly walks back into the house. 

Despite their disinterest in walking, they had been doing really well outside on their leashes. They didn’t try to run away and if they attempted to go in a direction we didn’t want them going, we just gave their leash a little tug and they would listen (mostly). 

Since they were behaving and seeming to enjoy it (or at least not hate it), we decided to try taking them outside at night in the tent as part of the progression for getting them ready for camping. (I know, I know. You are probably thinking we are crazy and we won’t disagree with you!)

We thought the best plan was to do it around 8:00pm so that it was not fully dark out, but just starting to get dark. We also decided to only take one cat out at a time in case something happened.

We picked Sammie for the first nighttime outing as she was more comfortable with being outside. We got everything set up in the backyard and brought her out to the tent. She was wearing her harness and leash as we carried her from the house to the tent in case she got out of our arms. 

Once she was in the tent, we took the leash off. She was roaming around the tent interested in all the smells of the outdoors. She seemed a little more nervous with being outside at night. 

Ryan had to run inside quickly to grab a blanket to make a bed for her to lay on. As he was stepping back into the tent, I dropped something in front of Sammie. It startled her and she instantly ran out of the tent!

This was the moment that caused our plans to change

Ryan and I panicked. This was the first time she had gotten away from us and we were scared that if we ran towards her to catch her, she would just get more frightened and keep running. Luckily, she ran directly from the tent to the back door of our condo and stayed there until Ryan was able to open the door and let her in.

She must have learned to do that from all the daytime outings. Whenever we took them outside during the day, we made sure to carry them out the door from the inside so that they would associate going outside with us carrying them out there. We didn’t want them to just run out the door any time it opened. Then when they wanted to go back inside, we would always open the door when they sat in front of it so that they would know they could have control over when they were done being outdoors. 

They seemed to learn after a little while that sitting in front of the door meant time to go inside, but we didn’t realize how well Sammie connected those dots until the moment she got away from us. It was a huge surprise to see her run across the yard directly to the door and sit there until she was able to go in. All that time spent working with them helped because in that instant she could have run away and possibly gotten hurt or lost.

We were so incredibly thankful that she was safe. We wouldn’t know what to do without our crazy, little Sam Sam.

That night, Ryan and I discussed our fears of this happening again. And we knew it would be worse when traveling because there would be a lot more noises and activity happening all around us that could easily spook the cats. We also wouldn’t have the condo with us on the road so if they got out, where would they run to? We wouldn’t have that home base for them to know they could safely return to if another scary situation occurred.

At this point, Ryan and I weren’t sure what to do. We didn’t want to cancel our plans to travel and leaving our cats with family while we were away for a couple of years just was not an option (although we appreciate our family’s offer for taking them in so we could go on this adventure). We were also hesitant about staying in hotels along the way because it can get expensive. 

We went to bed that night feeling let down. Neither of us were willing to do anything that could possibly be unsafe for our cats and we definitely were not going to give them away so we could travel. At this point, we weren’t sure if this plan was going to work.

Read the next story to find out what decision we made to keep our cats safe while traveling!