Cat in backpack?

June 29, 2010 9:33 AM

Is it ok to carry a cat in my backpack?

I know, random question. I've got to get my cat (6 months old) to the vet, leaving work early to do so. The vet is about 1.5 miles away from my house, and I'd save a lot of time/sweat by just putting him in my backpack and biking over. My girlfriend insists that this is cruel, would be dangerous when I take him out of my backpack, and would be viewed by the Vet as a serious no-no. Any thoughts?

posted by Vhanudux to Pets & Animals (29 answers total)

Any thoughts?

A cab is 1000 times more humane. If you need the money and have paypal, I'd be happy to donate what it will cost you.
posted by Hiker at 9:34 AM on June 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

I've hand-carried cats to the vet but I'd never do that. It's hot and bouncy and he could try to fight his way out and end up leaping/falling into traffic. At the very least, you don't want to put a cat through that kind of physical stress, especially not if they already need to see a vet.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 9:35 AM on June 29, 2010

My gut instinct as that you will have an alive, but furious animal when you arrive at the vet. Could you invest in a basket that you could put a smallish carrier in?
posted by edbles at 9:37 AM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you have a cat, you really need to have a pet carrier designed to safely hold a cat.

I agree with your GF that putting the kitten in a backpack is cruel; vet visits are stressful enough for animals (particularly if they've never been -- which I'm assuming this cat hasn't, since it's so young & you haven't needed a carrier yet).
posted by dryad at 9:37 AM on June 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

No. An extra no if your backpack is shaped like a python.

Seriously, unless your cat is Specifically Weird so that he loves to crawl into your backpack, have you zip it up, then sits in it sniffing his own Iams farts for 20 minutes, you're going to have a seriously freaked out, terrified cat on your hands. He may even be at risk of suffocation. You also have a very good chance of getting a backpack full of fear and revenge crap, too.

Don't do it. Get a damn cat carrier.
posted by maudlin at 9:38 AM on June 29, 2010 [22 favorites]

Your cat will probably have a hard enough time with being in a carrier he can move in and see out of, and having a much shorter and less jarring ride -- most cats do. Being stuck in a bag, jerked all around, and feeling completely helpless? That would be very bad cat care.
posted by Zed at 9:39 AM on June 29, 2010

You aren't however the only person to have this idea. Backpacks specifically for this purpose.
posted by edbles at 9:39 AM on June 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

What? No. What about a Snugli?
posted by Night_owl at 9:43 AM on June 29, 2010

Response by poster: Ok, pet carrier it is. Thanks for the touch of reason, everybody.
posted by Vhanudux at 9:44 AM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you insist on doing this, wrap kitty in a towel, wear your backpack around the front of your body and pat and talk calmingly to him as you ride. If you feel your cat freaking out DON'T OPEN THE BACKPACK OUTSIDE or it will run away if it can. I used to take my cat Evel out with me zipped up inside a leather jacket with just his head poking out and his body smooshed against me when he was small, but we worked up to that. The outside world and bouncing around are upsetting to cats.
posted by Scram at 9:46 AM on June 29, 2010

It would be a really good idea to NOT make the first trip in a carrier on a bike one to the vet. Cats, unlike dogs, don't like motion they don't cause, but I think they could come to tolerate trips on a bike, maybe. But ending the first one with the added stress of the vet, is going to make later trips more frightening.
posted by Some1 at 9:52 AM on June 29, 2010

Do you have a rear carrier on your bike? Carefully bungee-cording a pet carrier (in a pinch, a ventilated sturdy cardboard box) to it should work.
posted by kmennie at 9:53 AM on June 29, 2010

Response by poster: I've got a dog carrier, so I'm afraid carrier and bike are mutually exclusive. It's just too big.
posted by Vhanudux at 10:07 AM on June 29, 2010

1.5 is not very far. You can walk that easily. You could make a makeshift carrier for now out of a fairly large cardboard box and some bungee cords if your kitten is not yet mighty enough to rip his or her way through cardboard yet. Cut holes in the sides, lay a towel down, close the flaps on top and nest them together (so they don't open back up), and secure the box with bungee cords so that you have a handle. Then just take a walk with it.
posted by Mizu at 10:24 AM on June 29, 2010

One of my cats doesn't do well in carriers because he hates to travel. and the vet made a suggestion that I've stuck with ever since when dealing with difficult kitties; a tied cotton pillowcase.

It smells like home, they feel wrapped up and secure, the cotton doesn't impede their ability to breathe, and by blocking the cats ability to see, they tend to be calmer. More importantly, the aren't any bars for the cat to tear its claws on.

I'll generally stick with a carrier when the cat is tolerant, but I always keep a pillow case handy just in case, half way through the trip, the cat starts freaking out.
posted by quin at 10:25 AM on June 29, 2010

My vet's office insists that dogs be leashed and cats be in carriers for their own safety. Unexpected things can happen when strange animals are cooped up together in a small building.
posted by something something at 10:45 AM on June 29, 2010

One anecdata point. My grandmother brought us a kitten in a shoebox having travelled from upstate New York on a 5 hour bus ride. That cat was a total asshole until the day it died.
posted by electroboy at 10:46 AM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

If your cat is like mine, you'll have an awful trip with cat urine streaming all over your back (they always pee or poo in their carriers).

Could you borrow a wagon to transport the dog carrier?
posted by clearlydemon at 10:57 AM on June 29, 2010

I volunteer in with the local animal welfare society, and with the local shelter, in a bike friendly city -- I don't know that I'd advocate it, but it's certainly been done successfully before. Most backpacks are not water/air tight; the cat may prefer the cocoon of a backpack then sliding around in a plastic box, and 6 mos is a decent age to get him used to bikerides with you. I mean, most people would insist that a cat be crated in a car, but I know of people who've traveled around the country in vans with the cat roaming free and a litter box in the far back. If you're sure he can't escape and he's got air, y'know, you've thought out the variables, I don't see the big deal.

For the record:
cruel [ˈkruːəl]
adj
1. causing or inflicting pain without pity "a cruel teacher"
2. causing pain or suffering "a cruel accident"
[from Old French, from Latin crūdēlis, from crūdus raw, bloody]

Cat in a backpack? Not cruel.
posted by MeiraV at 11:21 AM on June 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

If it were a dog it'd be one thing, but most cats hate going in carriers or crates or whatever, so I would minimize the amount of time that he has to spend cooped up. Save yourself and him a ton of grief and go in a car.
posted by radioamy at 11:36 AM on June 29, 2010

My cat haaaated cat carriers, but loved luggage.

We carried her (on foot, no car) in a small carry-on bag of the old-school type that look a bit like a squared-off briefcase with a zipper on top.

She tolerated it very well, especially if the strap was worn diagonally across the wearer's chest, so the bag was kept close against my body without bouncing around as much.

If she was actually sick, she preferred the zipper closed and would I could feel her settling at the bottom of the bag leaning against my hip to comfort herself. No panic peeing. If she was just going for a checkup, she liked to stick her head out of the edge of the bag.
posted by desuetude at 12:20 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

My first thought is that cycling is considerably more dangerous for the cat than a car or walking. If you fall off your bike even at low speed you might be okay, but the kitten is smaller and if you happened to roll at all, it would be crushed. The very suggestion makes me cringe.
posted by slow graffiti at 12:24 PM on June 29, 2010

This would be dangerous not only for the cat but for you. That cat is going to be FREAKING OUT. If it were my cat he would find a way to throw me off the bike from inside the backpack. And what will you do if he somehow gets out while you're biking? This has the potential to end very gruesomely. I have found that it is also wise to keep one's cat where you can see him at all times in case he is plotting something. I recommend Sherpa bags. I've had mine for years. It's fabulous!
posted by granted at 12:27 PM on June 29, 2010

I think that the biking part with the cat behind you is the problematic part, safety-wise.

But the first question is really whether the cat is comfortable in a backpack at all. What happens when you put the cat in a backpack and walk around the house?

If you've got yourself a backpack-lovin' kitty, you could turn the backpack around so that it's on your chest, if it's not a giant backpack.

If your cat freaks out in backpacks, well, the whole plan is moot.
posted by desuetude at 1:34 PM on June 29, 2010

My cat (a lanky maine coon mutt) actually likes being in a bag, and is much happier in one than in a solid carrier. He lies in the bag like it's a hammock, squints his eyes comfortably, and purrs, and he will readily hop into any bag I hold open for him. He refuses to enter a carrier, though, and if I put him in one, he resists and moans balefully with his pupils blasted wide open.

Given his obvious preference, I bring him places in a tied-off pillowcase, or in a small gym bag. I'm not sure I'd take my little guy on a bike, though, just in case he freaked out. Either way, I'm usually concerned that he might fight the zipper open, so I'll tie it shut with a carabiner or something. And never put a bagged cat on a raised surface (bed, chair, table, etc) in case he fights his way off- keep it on the floor and away from steps.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:53 PM on June 29, 2010

Late comment: a friend's husbnd tried this, crashed the bike, and the cat got away. Luckily it happened not too far from their house so the cat found its way home, but the whole thing was needlessly fraught for everyone concerned.
posted by zadcat at 3:43 PM on June 29, 2010

Before my cat died I had one of these soft sided meshy sorta cat carriers. My then boyfriend took sick kitty to the vet once on his bike with the shoulder strap tight around him and the cat arrived a little nervous but not totally freaked.

The upside being that the carrier belonged to the cat essentially so I could leave it open and she sometimes slept in it. That way when it was time to go to the vet I could just put some food in the back and she'd happily trot in after it.

This is my way of saying two things:
1.) My carrier was not ALL THAT different from a backpack so it doesn't seem totally off the wall to me.

2.) This might be an alternative you could bike a short distance with.
posted by Saminal at 4:09 PM on June 29, 2010

a carrier is part of the cost of owning a cat, just like a litter box.

suck it up.
posted by swbarrett at 8:24 PM on June 29, 2010

a carrier is part of the cost of owning a cat, just like a litter box.

suck it up.

As is the car fare to the vet office.

I knew someone whose cat loved sitting in archive file boxes. He could put the cat in the box, put a lid on it, and happily transport him to the vet. There were huge holes for air where the handles were, cat could look out, but would mostly sit happily in a corner. Same cat HATED the carrier.

Unless your cat has demonstrated an affinity for a particular box or bag, don't create one.
posted by micawber at 12:57 PM on June 30, 2010