Gramma and I have a cat that we want to take with us on road trips. What do you use as a carrier for you pet? I find several when I Google, but they are all fairly large and some are quite expensive.
I once ran across a couple who took a large cat with them in a small sidecar outfit. They put the cat in the nose of the sidecar and kept it strapped to a shoulder leash. The cat made no attempts to jump out on rides so I suspect it had spent much time in the chair.
Why not use a simple cat carrier at first and reward your cat with a treat every time (or maybe several) to make the cat associate food rewards with sidecars. Then after awhile leash him or her up and go for a little ride up and down the street and gradually acclimate the cat to this while copiously rewarding it with treats.
I have gotten one of my cats to think of the sidecar as a warm place to nap and he no longer has fear of the noise. I've been able to take him for short rides but he has to be strapped down and he does try to exit if given a chance. I'm not sure I would want to go very far with him yet.
I am thinking that starting a kitten out would probably be the best way to go as the kitten would grow up thinking of sidecars as normal cat domains.
I know I saw something similar as a box mounted on the carrier of a motorcycle in the past in one of my internet searches. It was a dedicated pet carrier. It was not cheap and I don't recall the name of such. It looked like one of the helmet storage containers. Wally World and PetCo or Pet Smart probably offer those soft carriers that could easily be mounted into the hack nose or such. They don't cost all that much, and should be easy enough to adapt for a cat riding in a hack. I'd still be tempted to leash the cat in some manner, to ensure it didn't take flight when you stop. I assume you can do a Google search for "motorcycle pet carrier" and probably come up with what I had seen in the past. Here is a link from my doing that. It is a dog carrier, but there are likely cat carriers out there as well or this may be adapted for your needs. Costly though, for sure.
Good luck.
Thanks for the info. I guess it will be trial and error.
First thing to do would be to "Crate Train" the cat at home where it can get used to being in a Crate or Wire Cage for periods of time!
Once the cat is Crate Trained then you should be able to take it with you in a wire crate in the nose of the sidecar. Here again it may take a little time for it to become comfortable with the movement and noise.
Dogs take to this procedure much easier and quicker than cats do unless you just happen to have a cat that was raised in a Crate, such as show cats are, to begin with.
Some of the Crates are mostly Plastic with Wire doors and would also work well.
From past experience, I don't recommend transporting cats on motorcycles without tranquilizers.
Originally written by Mark in Idaho on 8/10/2008 9:02 AM
From past experience, I don't recommend transporting cats on motorcycles without tranquilizers.
Haven't thought of that solution! Thanks, Mark.
Originally written by Mark in Idaho on 8/10/2008 10:02 AM
From past experience, I don't recommend transporting cats on motorcycles without tranquilizers.
I don't know, but some folks seem to have some luck with cats and bikes. I think the owners themselves my have taken the tranquilizers though. 🙂
Some of these pics may contain an idea to house the cat when riding on a motorcycle. 🙂
Dang, Pat! Those are too funny for words!
Here is my favorite Kat photo involving sidecars. I was at a Grand Prarie Texas Ural dealership and got a pic of the shop cat. The other photo just shows that dogs and cats usually get along. I like to alter the photos and use as greeting cards, email cards and such.
No so sure these ideas work for cats, but they seem to work for dogs.
