We have brought our five year old kitties down and back many a time now. It is a 15 hour trip. The first time was utter hell with them yelling in their cage.
Then we put them in halter and lead and tried to get to the tightness of them not being able to slip out and not strangling them either. Our cat cage is heavy nylon and it unzips. Once we were up and running and they were yelling like crazy we let them out...in their harness with their lead. They climbed on daughters and my laps and stayed their until we came to a stop for food or potty and then we shoved them back in the cage and zipped them up. We have a Chrysler van so we put the usual size kitty litter pan in the back and usually they find it and use it. On each trip one of them throws up, so we have rags and cleaning material ready. We learned to not feed them the night before just so we could catch them to put them in the car and put food out so they would come to us BUT they know that something is up because we have them in halters walking around dragging their lead for a couple of days before the trip. Of course they hide and the halter is tested by dragging them out from under the bed etc. If it holds than we know if someone tries to get out in Atlanta we have half a chance at catching them.
They haven't tried to get out of the car and they are pretty good about being pushed back into the cage and they are pretty quiet on our laps now.
Every cat is different. Good luck.
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