For the next few years they didn't go anywhere except the vets a very noisy 3 minute car ride away and one house move which was a 15 minute journey. Then I had a holiday, they were going to stay at my Mum and Dad's house 45 minutes away in the car and the thought of listening to them for all that time almost made me cancel the holiday. But I thought that if they got used to the car they would at least start to travel quietly. So in the evenings and weekend they went on lots and lots of car rides, each one as noisy as the last. One day, a couple of weeks in, I had someone else with me and as we were on a very quiet road I decided to let one of the cats out of her box. Instant peace and quiet from the cat now sat on the passengers knee looking out of the window. On the way back home the cats swapped places and again the one out of the box was quiet. The next day I went out and bought a couple of harnesses and from then on they got to travel loose in the car. Mono and Fluffy soon found the parcel shelf in the car and from then on if there was not a passenger or a cushion to sit on (they never once tried to help me drive) they would sit on the parcel shelf watching the world go by. I once stopped in a supermarket car park with both cats in the car. As I was returning I heard a small child telling her dad that there was two cats in that car. He obviously had not looked because his reply was "no darling, those are dogs".
Mono accepted travel as a necessary evil, but Fluffy loved to travel and it turned out she was a bit of a speed freak. At speeds of up to 45mph she would sit quietly, but any faster than that and her nose was glued to the window and you got a running commentary on everything she could see. The only other time you got noise from her when travelling was if it had rained, then she exclaimed delight and amazement with every puddle you drove through, especially if it caused a wave to shoot up. There are two ways to the vets and if it had rained we always took the back route that was more or less one long puddle, just for Fluffy.
When Linus and Olaf joined the household they too were introduced to car travel. Olaf is not too keen and prefers to be in his carry box. Linus too loves car rides, but can only travel outside of a carry box when there is a passenger to keep an eye on his escapades. When the car stops he will leap to a window and bang on it with his paws to gain the attention of pedestrians, and if it is raining he has to be locked away in his box otherwise he hurtles back and forth across the dashboard trying to catch the windscreen wipers.
I think I was very lucky with Holly, she too loves to travel. When I first got her and was waiting for all her initial vaccinations so she could go outside I would take her out in the car. I worked it out, in that first 4 to 6 weeks Holly travelled about 750 miles in the car, so it's not surprising that she considers it her second home. She learnt not to get out until given permission and to travel wherever in the car there was room. Mostly she travels in the boot, but sometimes on the back passenger seat and very occasionally on the front passenger seat depending on who and what else we have in the car. Sometimes she has travelled sprawled on top of passengers, she was comfy but they spent the journey shuffling and shifting so that 25Kg of dog didn't cut off the blood circulation to their legs.
Before the serious wobbles and the wheels I regularly took Holly on public transport where she learnt to lie under the seats on the bus and train. I have had a think back and I suspect that she has probably travelled further and on more modes of transport than quite a lot of people.
She has been in buses, coaches, cars, vans and taxis (the driver of the coach that replaced a train refused to let her on so the train company paid for a taxi for us to get to our destination). On trains, electric, diesel and steam. When we went to the Isle of Man so she travelled in a catamaran to get there and then on the Narrow Gauge Steam Railway, horse drawn Trams, electric Trams and the electric Mountain Railway which are on the Island. In 2012 we were on Holiday in Southwold and she didn't bat an eye when asked to hop into the rowing boat that is a ferry across the estuary to Walberswick. She looked most disappointed that the journey was only a few minutes long.
The biggest problem I have had with her travelling is when we are out and about walking and at a bus stop when a bus stops. She will just hop straight on the bus and look most put-out when asked to get off again, if I have my travel-pass on me or some change I have been known to get a ticket for a stop or two just so she can have a ride.
On the Manx Horse Drawn Trams
The Isle of Man Steam Train
Looking out of the window on the IOM Steam Train
The Southwold to Walberswick Ferry
