Is it reasonable to travel with my cat for Christmas holidays?

[nwfn]

I'm traveling across the country by plane to my aunt's place for Christmas. I plan to stay about two weeks. Getting a pet sitter for that amount of time is exorbitant because it's Christmas, and anyone I would trust to look after my kitten is away on holidays themselves.

My aunt is fine with me bringing my kitten, but I'm wary about my kitten mixing with her cat (he's an old indoor/outdoor cat, and he's very sweet, but who knows what diseases he's carrying), and I'm not sure how she'll react to the litter box placement (in the creepy basement). I realize beggars can't be choosers, though.

But let's say I solve all those problems to my satisfaction. Does anyone have experience traveling with cats to share? I want to know if this is feasible or if I have to take the step of REALLY angering my mother by not showing up for Christmas.

Also if it makes a difference, she would be traveling as a carry-on with me, not in cargo.

 

[Ms. Freya]

I don't see a problem with taking her - some cats don't find travel stressful.

Back when we only had Freya, she used to travel with us all the time to visit family and friends. We'd get her one of those little pre-filled litter boxes, bring her food and water bowls with and she'd spend the holidays wherever we were. We did keep her apart from my parents cats (indoor/outdoor and unhappy about new cats) when we'd visit them, but she had a few rooms she could roam in and seemed perfectly happy.

I'd say as long as people know you're bringing her and she's not an overly anxious traveller, go ahead and take her with.

 

[tulosai]

Note re: finances. No matter how expensive the sitters are, taking her on two plane rides as a carry-on is probably going to cost as much. A very quick internet search shows me it is $125 each way on American Airlines, United, Frontier and many others. The cheapest I could fine was $95 on Southwest. So you are looking at $190 absolute minimum, plus potential trauma for the cat.  I'd pay whatever the pet sitter is going to cost above the $250 (probably not much) and let my cat stay in a nice, stable environment. I know you said 'pretend all the other issues' don't exist, but I don't think you can pretend that.  Pet introductions are a big deal.  Pet stress is a big deal.

I wouldn't do this. You aren't going to save much money, and at absolute best you're going to confuse your cat and make her unhappy.  You're also going to add stress to yourself.

 

[nwfn]

My price difference is quite a lot more than you are indicating. I've been quoted $50 each way by my airline. By comparison a professional sitter for two weeks over Christmas would cost minimum $800 (even getting one at this point is becoming dicey). $700 is a lot of difference.

When I say "pretend other issues don't exist" that's because I'm hoping I could keep her isolated from the other cat for those two weeks, even if she'd be stuck in just a couple of rooms that way. If that's not doable, then I would have to just not go. I am concerned about the stress factor though. I don't really know yet if she'll be an anxious traveler or not since I haven't tried it. I've traveled with a cat before when moving, and it was miserable, but that cat was on the extreme side of the anxious spectrum in general, so I'm not sure how much I should generalize that one experience.