{"id":1323,"date":"2017-07-17T05:53:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T05:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/pets\/the-potential-beauty-of-the-cat-carrier\/"},"modified":"2017-07-17T05:53:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T05:53:08","slug":"the-potential-beauty-of-the-cat-carrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/the-potential-beauty-of-the-cat-carrier","title":{"rendered":"The Potential Beauty of the Cat Carrier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Meredith Kennedy, DVM, Long Beach Animal Hospital (LBAH)\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CAt<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Dr. Meredith Kennedy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cleo the kitty looks a little nervous in the veterinary exam room, so when I\u2019m finished with my exam, I ask her if she wants to go back inside her carrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no, Doc, she hates the carrier\u2014,\u201d her owner insists and then stops in amazement as Cleo rushes right into it and I close the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me half an hour to get her in that carrier this morning!\u201d her owner exclaims.<\/p>\n

That was then, this is now. At home, since Cleo rarely sees the carrier and it usually comes with a scary car ride, she\u2019s not inclined to get inside it because she doesn\u2019t feel safe<\/i>. Now, in a strange environment, the carrier looks like the only<\/i> thing that\u2019s safe, and she can feel as if she\u2019s hiding when she\u2019s inside.<\/p>\n

The beauty of the cat carrier is that we can use it to help our cat feel safe in it all the time<\/i>, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing with our foster kitties. The carriers are out all the time, so they\u2019re never seen as something strange or frightening. With the door open and soft blankies inside, the kittens sometimes will sleep inside it and often just go in and out as they play. The cat carrier is part of their home environment\u2014a surrogate den, a place to play and nothing to be afraid of.<\/p>\n

If the carrier is moved to a new location and something new is put inside (a cardboard toilet-paper tube, a wadded-up piece of paper), it now becomes irresistible\u2014they have to go inside and investigate. If they\u2019re closed up inside the carrier, they don\u2019t make a big fuss although they\u2019d rather be out running around, and feeding them their canned food inside it makes it even more attractive. Shutting them in the carrier and going for a car ride for a short errand\u2014if someone else can go along too\u2014helps the kittens become accustomed to the noise and movement of the car.<\/p>\n

With this kind of conditioning, they should be easier to handle as adult cats and get over the stress of travel and veterinary visits much better. The whole idea is to lower their stress level and avoid a \u201cred alert\u201d situation\u2014stressing out completely and going into \u201csurvival\u2019 mode.\u201d A cat in this state can become so aggressive or terrified that no amount of sweet-talking or petting will get through to the little psyche, and the cat may need to be sedated just for handling. You can get your cat off to a good start by helping him or her to see the carrier as a familiar, safe place, before there\u2019s ever a need for transport. This helps tremendously in avoiding the state of hyperstress.<\/p>\n

When the cat carrier becomes a familiar part of the environment, you can play a game called \u201cThe Carrier Is Now in a Different Spot,\u201d and chances are high that your cat will walk right in!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The beauty of the cat carrier is that we can use it to help our cat feel safe in it\u00a0all the time<\/i>, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing with our foster kitties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[388],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pets","tag-the-vet-is-in","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}