We took George, our
orange tabby for a ride today to see how he would react to being driven somewhere that was not the vet's, since those are the only car rides he has ever taken with us, other than when we first brought him home in 2004. (From a pet-store in Jackson, where an employee had found him in the parking lot where someone had dumped him). It was a lovely day and we drove around the back-roads for about an hour, listening to our latest audio-book which is whatever the audio-equivalent of "page-turner" is...
The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second installment in the famous Millennium trilogy by
Stieg Larsson. George was not a happy camper of course, but he actually did better than I expected. At first he meowed and meowed but after a while he fell into a sulky silence and just sat quietly in his carrier. I think he at some point realized that we weren't taking him to the vet, so he just simmered down. And even when he was meowing it wasn't as deafening as with some other kitties, since his meow is quite high-pitched and not very loud--more like a squeak. And best of all was that when he was let out of the carrier back home, he reverted back to normal George almost immediately, which was a good sign that the driving had not traumatized him. Of course the actual move will be in a different car/van full of other things and will take quite a bit longer, but I think he will be OK. I'm sure he will be a bit traumatized by being in a completely new place, and without his brother and sisters, but I hope he adjusts fairly quickly.
