Hi all. I have a question and was hoping someone had some experience in this. We'll be moving at the beginning of August from Washington state, where I still have my heater on at night and sometimes during the day, to south Texas. Obviously there's going to be a drastic temperature difference in the middle of summer. We'll be driving south through California, Arizona, New Mexico and then Texas. Part of the route takes us through Death Valley in California. My husband's in the Navy so this is a military move, and therefore we have no choice about the timing of the move. The last time we moved across the country was also in the summer, but we took a northern route, where it was hot, but not unbearably hot (I think we only had one day in one state where it was over 100 degrees).
We're taking our house full of cats with us, but I want to make sure that we keep them comfortable in the heat. The last time we did this, we did make stops along the way - like rest stops and restaurants - but we also stopped to see the sights along the way. I think the most time that we were ever away from the car was for 45 minutes and when we were gone, we parked the car in whatever shade we could find. We left the windows rolled up, but the car was still running with Max A/C on and the circulation in the car was set to outside air. The cats had water, and we had shades on the windows. We also left a note in the window of the car explaining that the A/C was on as high as it could go, the cats had water and we had the inside circulation set to outside air, with our phone numbers in case someone came by and got angry that we had the cats in the car, or saw a problem. We wanted them to contact us, and not the police. Basically, we did everything we could think of to keep them cool, and we always made sure we were back to the car as quickly as we possibly could be. None of the cats had any problems, and when we got back to the car each time, it was always perfectly cool and comfortable inside.
However, now that we're going to be going through a much hotter climate, I'm a little worried. I've been reading about precautions to take, one of which was to attach battery powered fans onto the carriers if we stop and get out of the car. However, it figures that only a few days ago I was watching a TV show about how cars driving through Death Valley often overheat in the summer. Obviously, an overheated car/s is not what we need with 11 cats in tow. We do plan on seeing some sights along the way this time too, but my main concern is the cats.
So this is what I know to do - always leave the A/C on, keep shades on the windows, park in the shade if possible, make sure the cats have water, attach fans to the carriers and I was also reading that putting a bottle of frozen water in the carrier with them is also a good idea (though I don't know how well this will work if we don't have a freezer in our hotel room the night before). Is there anything else anyone can suggest to make sure they don't have any problems with the heat along the way? A friend of mine drove this same route with 3 cats last summer and she had no problems at all (they also stopped several times along the way to sight see), but I tend to be paranoid, so I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered.
So if anyone has any advice or suggestions I'd appreciate it. Also, if anyone has any advice on hotel stays I'd also appreciate that. This is the most we have ever moved with, but in the past we just stay at pet friendly hotels and just omit the number of pets that we have. So if anyone knows of hotels that will happily accept 11 cats in a room, or any ways to get around a pet limit policy I'd love to hear them! Otherwise, we'll just do as we always do and hope we don't get caught. I guess there's really no other way.
We're taking our house full of cats with us, but I want to make sure that we keep them comfortable in the heat. The last time we did this, we did make stops along the way - like rest stops and restaurants - but we also stopped to see the sights along the way. I think the most time that we were ever away from the car was for 45 minutes and when we were gone, we parked the car in whatever shade we could find. We left the windows rolled up, but the car was still running with Max A/C on and the circulation in the car was set to outside air. The cats had water, and we had shades on the windows. We also left a note in the window of the car explaining that the A/C was on as high as it could go, the cats had water and we had the inside circulation set to outside air, with our phone numbers in case someone came by and got angry that we had the cats in the car, or saw a problem. We wanted them to contact us, and not the police. Basically, we did everything we could think of to keep them cool, and we always made sure we were back to the car as quickly as we possibly could be. None of the cats had any problems, and when we got back to the car each time, it was always perfectly cool and comfortable inside.
However, now that we're going to be going through a much hotter climate, I'm a little worried. I've been reading about precautions to take, one of which was to attach battery powered fans onto the carriers if we stop and get out of the car. However, it figures that only a few days ago I was watching a TV show about how cars driving through Death Valley often overheat in the summer. Obviously, an overheated car/s is not what we need with 11 cats in tow. We do plan on seeing some sights along the way this time too, but my main concern is the cats.
So this is what I know to do - always leave the A/C on, keep shades on the windows, park in the shade if possible, make sure the cats have water, attach fans to the carriers and I was also reading that putting a bottle of frozen water in the carrier with them is also a good idea (though I don't know how well this will work if we don't have a freezer in our hotel room the night before). Is there anything else anyone can suggest to make sure they don't have any problems with the heat along the way? A friend of mine drove this same route with 3 cats last summer and she had no problems at all (they also stopped several times along the way to sight see), but I tend to be paranoid, so I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered.
So if anyone has any advice or suggestions I'd appreciate it. Also, if anyone has any advice on hotel stays I'd also appreciate that. This is the most we have ever moved with, but in the past we just stay at pet friendly hotels and just omit the number of pets that we have. So if anyone knows of hotels that will happily accept 11 cats in a room, or any ways to get around a pet limit policy I'd love to hear them! Otherwise, we'll just do as we always do and hope we don't get caught. I guess there's really no other way.