I can think of four (but there will be more) situations if travelling when it might be prudent to take a little bit of time to check that your cat is about and not trapped and about to be transported away. All four situations described and illustrated in the infographic have occurred and some many times. Perhaps the most serious and frequent is when a stray cat crawls into a cat engine compartment to keep warm on a very cold day. There are many stories reporting this in news media. Cats are often injured and sometimes killed. Some are rescued with great commitment, time and effort. The car is sometimes partly dismantled.
Moving home is very problematic for a domestic cat. They are being forcibly removed from their home range. They become anxious but their natural inquisitiveness can lead them to check out the removal lorry. They can be transported away. The problem is the lorry might not travel directly to the new home. It might be parked up for a day or two. The cat is lost and in danger.
The most bizarre is a cat being picked up by an x-ray machine at JFK airport in New York because he crawled into a suitcase, and it was closed on them. The suitcase belonged to a guest in someone else’s home. The homeowner’s cat crawled into the case. The cat was rescued and returned thankfully. The outcome could have been bad for all the parties.
Below are some more articles on lost cats:
