Mini the Travelling Cat

Has anyone ever suggested a cat hotel or that you could leave him at your friends’ place? How did it come to be that he travels with you and sees the world?

We didn’t even consider leaving him at a cat hotel or with people he’s not familiar with. Our relatives didn’t want to take the responsibility and we secretly wanted him to come with us, otherwise we’d both miss him. Mini has a special kind of charisma and he quickly wins you over.

Mini is quite a cool cat. How does he behave during trips? Does he get carsick or does he handle it all well? Does he enjoy the new horizons?

Our cat’s awesome. He’s got used to lying on the parcel shelf and mostly sleeps or plays. That’s also where he’s got food and water bowls and his toys. The litter box is on the back seat and where he does his thing. He’s been travelling with us everywhere since the first day. We live in such a way that we juggle between the Goriška region where I’m from and Koper where Tomaž’s two children live.

There’s nothing Mini enjoys more, though, than coming to a new place. First, he explores the new environment with his tail sticking up and the next thing you know he’s lying on the bed among the cushions, waiting for us to join him. He’s not exactly your typical cat that’s afraid of new spaces; he feels at home wherever he goes, he’s a true gypsy, just like his owners.

Which trip with Mini has been the longest so far and where did you travel to?

The longest so far was his first trip to Barcelona, which was the final destination. We stopped in Monte Carlo, Nice, Marseille, Barcelona and Girona along the way. On our way back we also stopped in Florence. We drove around 3,000 km altogether. He also regularly accompanies us to Croatia.

Nataša remembers the hike in Spain before she became Mini’s owner.

In 2018, I walked 1,100 km from Seville to Santiago and fell in love with the mentality of the locals and the nature. A lot of things made the whole thing special: nature, friendly people and personal realisations that came along the way. That was also when I used to write a blog: www.feathersoflife.com/wp.

After coming back, I haven’t read it yet. Probably because otherwise I’d put on my backpack and go back.

How do the locals and other tourists react to Mini? Do they want to take photos with him or do they just look away? What are the reactions?

Mini is a heartbreaker. Everyone adores him, want to pet him and take photos with him. Many people think he’s a lynx because of his ear tufts. We mostly hear comments about how cute he is and whether he’s a cat or a lynx. People ask us about his breed and wonder at how docile he is. There haven’t really been any negative reactions so far. He’s really unusually chill for a cat, but that’s also the type of cat we wanted because we’re constantly on the move. For me, there’s no real life without a cat, and Tomaž is new to being a “cat daddy” and he’s quite ok at it.

What documentation did you need to obtain prior to travelling with Mini? Were any vaccinations necessary? Are there differences between the conditions for travelling to America, Europe, Asia?

Your cat needs a passport and has to be vaccinated against rabies. Quarantine is also requited in some countries. But it’s mostly not necessary for travelling inside the EU because there are no border checks and no one checks the cars.

Nataša’s cat tips

• Portable cat litter box
  We took the portable open cat litter box with us because there are no cat litter boxes in hotels and it needs to be ready for use in the car as well. We also took his toys, litter, dry food and some wet food, even though I bought him raw meat whenever I could because that’s what we feed him with.
• Pet allowed
  Before booking a hotel, it’s best to check if it allows pets. The best way to do that is to tick the animals welcome option right away to avoid checking the hotel policies every single time. There are surprisingly a lot of hotels where pets are allowed and their standards are by no means lower, quite the contrary. Abroad, even restaurants are open for animals. Whereas at home, we had a case where we weren’t let inside the restaurant, the opposite happened in France where we were basically invited in because of our cat and were then treated like royals. The same goes for Italy and Croatia. Our Mini behaves very well in a restaurant; he usually sits or lies down on a chair and waits for us to finish our meal in a civilised manner.
• Scratching post – indispensable!
  It might be a good idea to protect the hotel curtains. We learned our lesson in Marseille where the curtains in Mini’s eyes made up for his scratching post. I woke up in the morning and realised with horror that he pulled out the threads over the full length of the curtains. I kept searching for a shop with sewing supplies the whole morning, just so I could fix the situation at least a little bit. We didn’t even consider packing a small scratching post. Cats need it, so keep that in mind.