Cats’ Love/Hate Relationship with Luggage
It’s complicated
Our older cat does not like travel. She’s a retired show cat — the breeder we bought her from showed her, not us — and associates travel with going to cat shows. From her reaction, it is clearly not a positive association.
We used to bring her to a friend’s house when we stayed the weekend. She’d cry the entire way there. As soon as she got out of the carrier, she’d run and hide. Eventually, she’d come out to be with us, but it was always a challenge to corral and catch her to get her back into the carrier for the return trip.
I know many cats have an aversion to their carriers. But her dislike goes beyond the carrier. It extends to any sort of luggage.
Don’t leave me!
We noticed that she was being unusually clingy. Normally, she likes to lay beside my husband so that he can rest his arm on her and pet her. But that wasn’t enough for her now. Instead, she climbed up on his chest, and hung on to his shirt.
“My cat sleeps on my chest all the time,” you may be thinking. And cats often do…when you’re lying down.
My husband was sitting upright working on his computer at the time. That’s why she was hanging from his shirt.
