Traveling with a cat?

About a year ago I adopted a 7 year old female cat.  We already had a male cat who was extremely laid back and seemed like nothing in the world bothered him.  That is until he met her.  We tried every suggestion to get them to get along.  Reintroduced them slowing many times.  It never worked.  So basically we keep them separated unless one of us is able to keep an eye on our male cat.  Sometimes he's fine around her and others, all he can focus on is going after her.  The female has no interest in him and actually seems fearless around him when he's not after her.  One odd thing, he gives her total space when they eat near one another.  Almost like he's afraid to get near her.  But when he goes after her, she throws herself onto her back and screams.  I think he'd kill her if we didn't intervene.  She goes limp and just makes insane sounds.  

Anyway, we have a system that works.  It's not ideal, but it works.  Last summer we went away for 3 weeks.  It's an annual trip we take to stay with my family every summer.  Arranging cat sitters for that long was a complete nightmare.  And one of them thought she knew best and decided that since he didn't attack her once when she had them together, that they were fine together.  A bloody fight  changed her mind… temporarily.  Apparently she tried it again.  Anyway, it's a nerve-racking thing and I really only have one friend I trust to watch them.  With that said, I can't ask her to do it for 3 weeks.  And we can't afford to hire somebody.  And boarding either of them is also out of the question for the length of time.

SO, I've considered taking one of them with us so that we don't have to worry about a cat murder every day.  But I'm not sure it's the best idea.  If it were for a week, I wouldn't even consider it.  But 3 weeks is quite a bit of time.  I think we'd most likely take the female.  She seems to do better in the car.  She's extremely curious and wants to be loose and looking out the window like a dog.  Maybe I'm misreading it, but she seems fairly content.  Slightly on edge, but mostly curious.  But she also adjusted to her new home when we got her very quickly as well.   She's a total lover and just wants affection all the time.  She's half rag doll and has that temperament quite a bit.  But I just don't know if the travel time is okay.  It's a 15 hour drive.  We'll do it straight through only stopping for gas.  So it will probably end up being more like 16-17 hours with bathroom breaks and whatnot.  I don't know what would be worse for her.  Staying home and getting minimal attention for 3 weeks and possibly getting attacked, or the car ride there and back?

My interest is in them being cared for and not being stressed out.  But I'm also concerned about getting reliable people to come.  Last time, I had several stressful days trying to cover days where people just backed out on us last minute.  Even just figuring out how to exchange fobs for the building when that happened was a pain.  Combine that with the confusion of which cat gets how much food and keeping them apart, it ruined a lot of the trip.  And to hear one of the sitters put them together more than once even after bloodshed, well, she obviously won't be coming over.

What do you guys think?  Should we bring her?  I have no friends who can take one of them into their home either.  All of them either already have a cat/dog or they aren't allowed pets.  Thoughts? 

I've traveled with our cats and to me, its not the length of time that we're away that's the issue its the length of the ride.  15 hours is long enough that you are going to want to give her a litter box and water option, and generally you want them in a crate of some sort so you don't have to worry about her hiding under the brake pedal (ouch) or escaping when you stop.  My other concern is the cat left behind.  You can get a reliable cat sitter for the one who stays behind?

Is there a chance you could take them both with you? Separate crates in the car and separate rooms on vacation?  Just a thought!

Well the length of stay comes into play here because it's a long time to cover with sitters.  She's also more needy of attention than he is.  So the longer she alone, the more nuts she seems to become.

I do have a carrier for her.  But every time we take her to the vet, she sits in my lap.  I don't let her near the driver.  She's a slow moving cat.  I can't describe it.  If you've ever met a rag doll, you would kind of get what I'm talking about.  But it IS a long ride.  With that said, I got her from an SPCA on an island so with ferry times and whatnot, she has travelled for 6 hours and did pretty well.  Especially considering she didn't know me.  She was even in her box purring.  I didn't take her out on that trip though as I was alone and couldn't keep her from going wherever.  But yes, noted about the liter and water (she hardly drinks water though being on wet cat food).  

I have considered taking both of them.  But he doesn't like the car.  He seems to get pretty stressed out.  He might calm to it after a few hours, but I don't know.  And keeping them separated at my mom's might be a bit of a struggle since I wouldn't want them getting outside.  So taking them both, while a possibility, isn't ideal.  

As for having a reliable sitter, yes that's a concern.  Though a lot of the stress last time came from not trusting people to keep them apart and not trusting them to remember the different feeding regimen despite my lengthy printed directions.  

The 3 week trip is happening, so I have to do something.  But I want my kitties taken care of the best that I can.  Taking one is not really what I WANT to do.  But it's just been a thought I've considered. 

OK well that is a lot to consider.  You could try giving the more stressed out cat a calming agent like rescue remedy before the trip if you were to take both.

Here are some tips for traveling with cats, 36 of them to be exact, all by the TCS community - 

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/road-tripping-with-cats