As I mentioned in the previous post, Ryan and I had originally decided to stay in short-term furnished rentals in the location where I would be working. That part of the plan was easy for us to decide upon. The difficult part was figuring out where to stay overnight while we traveled to the location of the job. 

We knew we would most likely head to California because the likelihood of finding a job would be much greater than the other states. Traveling from Massachusetts to California would take a couple of days even if we drove most of each day. We knew we would have to at least stop at night to sleep, but we were also hoping we could take our time traveling across the country since neither of us has ever done a cross-country road trip before.

Part of our pre-COVID plan was to either stay in hotels or camp in our tent overnight while we traveled to our destination. We wanted to avoid staying in hotels to save money, but we are traveling with our cats, Sammie and Leah, so we were nervous about camping in a tent with them. We weren’t sure that was a feasible option, but we saw that other people do it so we figured we would give it a try. (Like I said in our first blog post, we aren’t normal!)

At the beginning of April, I was furloughed from work so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I spent a lot of this time, working with the kitties to get them more comfortable with being outside. We bought harnesses and leashes for them so we could take them outside for walks. It was a challenge finding the right type of harness for them. We bought several different types, trying them all out to see which type fit the best and was the safest, but also the most comfortable for them to wear.

Sammie got out of the first harness extremely easily, but when we tried tightening it, it looked like it was cutting into her. She seemed to like this one the most because she didn’t mind when we put it on her and she was happy to walk around. We figured she probably liked it so much because it wasn’t secure enough!

After trialing several more harnesses, we found the Kitty Holster harness which worked great! Leah didn’t seem to mind her harness. Once we got it on her, she walked around like she barely knew it was there. And she looks so cute in it!! 

Sammie, on the other hand, did not like this type of harness at first. The harness covers her shoulder blades so she didn’t like the way it felt and instead of trying to walk with it on, she would just throw herself onto the floor. On multiple occasions, she would sit on a step and suddenly plop over because she just didn’t like being confined in the harness. If we hadn’t been guarding her, she would have thrown herself down the stairs.

Ryan had a good analogy to describe what she was likely feeling. He said it probably felt like it was restraining her similar to a person who never wears a shirt, but now has to don a thick winter coat and can barely move their arms.

We were feeling frustrated at this point because this was the best harness we had found that didn’t allow her to escape, however, we really wanted her to enjoy wearing the harness so she wouldn’t hate the outside experience. We were worried that she would seriously injure herself if she didn’t stop throwing herself to the floor. 

We kept working with her, putting it on her for a few minutes at a time to let her get used to moving around in it. Luckily, she finally got comfortable with it and the harness works great at keeping her safe. Now she doesn’t mind wearing it. And she is also super cute in the harness!

Now we are able to take them outside whenever they want to go.