Of course, even with the right travel equipment, car trips with the pets is fraught with difficulties. Even with suitable pet carriers and cages, driving is still not exactly safe for pets. We were able to get good harnesses for Fifi and Samson, and Princess always has her carrier strapped into the back seat for safety. Dog restraints are pretty good, but I can’t help but feel that they’re not quite as safe as human ones. Mostly it’s because they don’t strap the animal tightly against the seat, meaning that if there was an accident (God forbid!) the animal would still get tossed around.

Then there’s the fact that Fifi suffers from travel sickness. This wasn’t something we discovered until we drove them to my parents’ house (she’s all right for a five to ten minute journey). Fortunately, Bob, our local vet, recommended some travel sickness tablets for her. He recommended we try them first, before traveling, to make sure she didn’t have any reactions to them. Fortunately, all was well on that front!

Finally, after way more planning than we’d anticipated we were ready for a long car trip with three animals. When you’ve got pets, you really can’t decide “on the fly” what you’re going to be doing or where you’re going to be staying. You can’t decide to stop earlier or later than planned, because you have to have all hotel rooms booked in advance.

You have to have all planned breaks decided before you head off (although this sometimes needs to be changed), so that you can stop at pet-friendly parks and reserves. You also have to know what you’re going to do if there is a situation where you can’t take the pets with you (out to a restaurant for a dinner for two, for example!) This means plenty of forward planning and a bit of patience too…

Nevertheless, the time came when we were ready to go. The car was packed full of stuff (our stuff and pet stuff – they can’t do without their toys and beds), the animals were strapped in (and weren’t too pleased, I didn’t think! I think they realized this was going to be more than just a trip to the park), and we were off. We initially planned to stop at least once every hour (figuring that that would be enough time between necessary toileting and food breaks); however it didn’t always work that way!

Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way…thirty minutes into the journey and an unmentionable smell starts wafting from the back of the car. Forget pet friendly areas, when there’s an emergency like this, the side of the road has sometimes got to do! The good thing is that we had a pet car seat protector, which makes cleaning easier.

We also had a box full of necessary cleaning equipment (we’d hoped would stay shut for the entire journey). We also had some heavy duty sanitizing air freshener, because no matter how well you clean the cover, nothing beats a good old fashioned machine wash! I began wondering whether Fifi’s travel sickness medication was going to prove to have side effects after all!

We got cleaned up, Princess meowed pitifully to get out (wasn’t going to happen) and Samson began acting all excited, nevertheless, this wasn’t the time for a proper break! In another half hour we’d reach a glorious off-leash dog park (okay, Princess wouldn’t like it…) and they’d be able to have a run, some food, and a decent toilet break.