If you have cats and are planning to take them on the road, your first thought was almost certainly, “what will I do with the litter box.” They’re messy, smelly, and, especially in a tiny space, they can really get in the way.
One of our big goals was to not need to move the litter box on travel days. Our first six months on the road included a lot of those (oops), and we have enough to pick up and move out of the way without the litter box adding to it. We were also a little concerned that moving the litter box around, especially on moving days, would cause additional stress for the cats, and we wanted to avoid that possibility.
Our second goal was to minimize the mess the cats could make tracking litter around the RV. If you own cats, you’re probably laughing at how futile this effort was, but nevertheless, the fewer times per day I need to vacuum litter, the better.
We travel in a fifth wheel, and we opted to carve out a space in our basement (the pass-through storage area under the bedroom) to keep the litter box. We cut a hole in the steps leading to our bedroom, and a walkway leads the cats to an enclosed space in the basement for the litter box.
Nice catio! We have only 1 slide on each side 😳. We went w/ an outdoor room, which works when we’re going to be outside anyway, and have a leash/harness for Zoe for walks she takes us on. We did have a rattlesnake come exploring when it sensed Zoe out in her enclosure (“yurt”), but since we were out by her we ‘discouraged’ it adequately. Too bad I can’t post a pic of the snake after it had coiled up under our coach steps. If you want, send us your email & I’ll send some pics of us walking Zo as well as of the rattler.
Do you need a ladder to assemble this when you get to your destination or can you assemble it from the window?
Over the years we have had 5 cats who RV with us. The first 2 were full timers who travelled from the Florida Everglades to Fairbanks Alaska. We start all of our cats young with a harness so we can walk them wherever we go. They like to go out so much that usually after we set down the jacks and push out the slides they are standing at the front door, ready for a walk. One of our little guys was such a good mouser that he would go out and within minutes, stuck his paw into the grass and pulled out a play toy. We have a couple of places to put litter boxes and found that having a Dyson rechargeable vacuum was great to clean up the litter and the dust which we used every day. Having pets with us has truly been a wonderful thing!
We typically assemble it on the ground and then lift it up into position. We have a walkable roof, so one of us climbs up the RV ladder and the other lifts the catio up to them to put into position. It’s very light weight, though, and a single person could pretty easily do it from a ladder.
We do need to get up to the roof to install the catio. We use the built in ladder on the back of the fifth wheel. It is probably possible to design one that could avoid getting up on the roof but this worked for us.
How awesome! Loved the article. And the catio is brilliant. Something like that would be great even in a bricks and sticks dwelling!
Loved this blog. Such great advice and creative solutions to the most common issues with RVing and taking cats. Thanks for sharing. God Bless and Hapoy Trails to you both.
Thanks! Great article. We’ve been traveling with our cat, Sunnie, for eight years. He does exceptionally well but hates riding in a car or truck. Therefore, he rides in the 5th wheel. He LOVES cardboard boxes so we put two different-size boxes on our bed for him. The bed sits directly over the 5th wheel hitch, so is not as rough a ride as elsewhere in the rig. We put towels that smell like us in the boxes along with a couple of catnip mice. He is so used to traveling with us that when we are ready to travel, all I have to say is, “It’s time to get your boxy box,” and he hops up on the bed and settles in. As with all family members, we need to stop at rest areas or big store parking lots to use our facilities. We feed him and give him water at those intervals and give him time to use the cat box (which lives in a stackable washer/dryer closet in our bathroom–not W/D obviously). You can’t hurry a cat, so it can be a 15-30 minute break, which is good for us as well. When he’s done eating and using the potty, he goes back into his box. He is not an outdoor cat, but we open all the shades for him when we arrive at our camping destination. I usually take him outside on my shoulder for a walk around the rig so he can see and smell where we are. If it’s a beautiful day and we’re home, we open up the windows, too.
We full timed 2 summers working at state parks with our cats (and LARGE dog); interesting…. but it worked. Each time we had 3 cats and the dog; the most excitement was the night we came home, opened the door, and our young grey tabby shot out and straight up a tree – in the dark! My darling husband never hesitated; went right up the tree after him, and despite being scratched pretty good, came back down triumphantly bearing Squeaky. He said if he hadn’t done that, he could have been killed, so he did what he had to do. Surprised we’re married 27 years?
Our cats never traveled but we live on 65 wooded acres they freely roamed. Your black cat is a ringer for one of ours. We had two black cats. A brother and sister from the same litter. Skunker and Skunkette. They have passed now, but we had Skunkette for 18 years. Really enjoyed your photo.
Great Catio! How much weight will it hold? We have 2 cats but one is a 30+ pound Maine Coon. Thanks for sharing your tips!
We haven’t pushed the limits, but our cats combined are a bit over 20 lbs, and it doesn’t seem to flex too much. I’d guess it would hold 30 lbs without much trouble. If you wanted to be safe, you could increase the size of the PVC a bit for more strength and rigidity.
Thanks for your informative blog! We are getting ready to hit the road with one large dog, one small dog, and one tuxedo cat. All are indoor – outdoor pets and Batman the cat free roams. I love the Catio, we will come up with something similar for sure. Since he is not lead trained we will get a vest and start ahead of time. He loves to go for walks when we walk the dogs for exercise, usually follows along, so hopefully if we start soon, it will be normal by the time we hit the road. Our special guy is funny in that he will poop in a litter box, but he won’t pee in one. He likes to ‘spray’ when he pees even though he is fixed. He marks our 5 acres I suppose. But I see lead training as the only solution for that. Thanks again, you will be part of our careful planning as we set up our FT RV life!