Kitty Campers

We did not move into our campervan alone. We also brought our two cats along. We wouldn't give up either one of our girls, but they're not really very good friends with each other. Marley is about nine, and has always been a bit of a grouch. Skylar is almost three. She's loves to poke at Marley and generally just gets into everything all the time. Marley is the cat to cuddle with, when she's in the mood, and Skylar is the one to play with. Total opposite personalities that were now going to be living in very close quarters with each other.

They have both taken to the van well. Marley is like me – she loves relaxing and lounging around in bed. Skylar is more like Chris, always wanting to go outside. One of the main concerns we had in the beginning was not stressing them out with the sudden change in their living conditions. Up until we moved in here full-time, they’ve each only experienced a night or two in the van.

We first had to figure out where their food and water bowls and litter box would live. There aren’t many options in a van. At our house, they each had their own food and water bowls, but now they have to share. They’ve always eaten each other’s food anyway, so that change went off without a hitch. Next was the litter box. At the house, we used a Litter Robot. It was awesome and glorious. Having to go back to a manual scooping routine was a shock to my system. But the cats didn’t seem to mind.

The food bowls live in the front cab on the rubber flooring, perfect for messy eaters and clumsy humans who like to kick the bowls and splash water everywhere. I considered the bowls that screw into a wall and flip up when not in use, but in the end, those just didn’t really seem to fit in our van anywhere. So we opted for the two removable bowls in a sturdy, tip-free holder that sits on the floor. It's mostly out of the way, so it works.

The litter box is just a basic litterbox, nothing special. It was dropped in the one and only place we found room, right in front of the sliding side door. To make matters worse, in order to keep it in place, we have used a bungee strap attached to that door. What does that mean? We don’t really use our side door. I’m sure all it would take to fix that inconvenience is adding a couple of eyelets to the cabinet right next to it and attaching the bungee to that instead. We’ll make that adjustment eventually. For now, it's not too much of an issue.

Next up was making sure the cats weren’t bored in the small space and maybe had some familiar comforts from our former home. Neither of them were into playing with toys, but we did keep part of their favorite scratch post and attached that to the side of a counter. Skylar uses it often, but Marley prefers to scratch our nice, cushiony rug instead. We also have a hanging scratcher and another that you can just toss on the ground. I’m pretty sure neither of those get used at all.

To keep Skylar happy, we take her outside on her harness. We wouldn’t dream of letting her run loose around here. The first time she ran out our backdoor back at our house, she ran straight to the nearest tree and started climbing before my husband caught her. So her desire to climb and the fact that we’ve seen stray dogs and wild boars out here is why she can’t roam free. Luckily we got her used to the harness as a kitten since we knew she would be in the van with us one day. But Marley, forever a slight pain in the ass, refuses to walk on a harness. The harness goes on her, she drops to the ground and pretends to be paralyzed. As annoying as that is, I do know that it’s our fault for not training her earlier.

But Marley must get fresh air, and we can’t always walk Skylar when she wants. So we bought a playpen for them. It’s big enough to fit their litterbox, food and water bowls, and gives each of them enough space to chill in their own corner. It has a partial sun shade and plenty of mesh windows for a nice breeze. Marley doesn’t love it as much as lying in our bed, and Skylar doesn’t love it as much as her walks, but Chris and I love it for allowing us the ability to open up the van to air it out without worrying about Skylar disappearing up a tree.

One thing that does concern us is anytime we would need to park in a spot where strangers may encounter a cat lounging on the dashboard. Marley doesn’t mess with our window covers, but Skylar knows how to pull them down and does it all the time. So far we haven’t had any issues with that. We live on our private property, and if we ever go into a store, for example, one of us tends to stay in the van anyway. I have heard of other van lifers that leave a note inside the windshield with either a message telling people that the pets are fed, watered, and relaxing comfortably in heat or air conditioning, or they’ll leave a cell phone number for people to call if they’re concerned for the pets inside. That is likely something we’ll do when the time comes. It’s definitely something to think about so you don’t return to your van to find a window busted out and your beloved pet gone.

Speaking of heating and air conditioning, please don’t forget that this is a necessary comfort for your furry friends too. You will need to find a way to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer at all times, even when you won’t be inside the van. We use a propane heater (yes, condensation issue) to keep us all warm, but we would never leave that running when we’re not in there to monitor it. Our van is very well insulated, and we have warming blankets for the cats. We also have an awesome sleeping bag that keeps us warm in below freezing temperatures.

Keeping everybody warm is easy. Keeping cool in the summer, in southern Texas with 100% humidity, is another story. Now at this point, we’ve only been living in our van full-time for a month, so we haven’t hit the really hot weather yet. But we have camped out in the van during those hottest months in the past, and let me tell you, it’s HOT. The first time we parked on our wooded property during the summer, we just about died. It was beyond unbearable. So we very quickly started researching air conditioning ideas for the van. We tried some DIY models (think Styrofoam and PVC pipes) before finally settling on a more expensive stand-up unit. It’s pretty badass, but there are a few cons too. It’s big. It can fit on a table above the cat’s litterbox, but that means anything else stored there will have to go. It requires drainage. The longer it runs, the more it drains. It needs to be vented outside, either out a window or by cutting a hole in your van. It also uses a good amount of power so to save our batteries, we run it on our generator, which uses gasoline. The true test will be in a few months when it begins warming up down here. If we find that it’s still just too hot for the cats to tolerate, or too expensive to keep running that air conditioner, we could very well be stuck in a hotel for the duration of summer. Cross your fingers that doesn’t happen.

The only other potential issue we were worried about was personal space. Since these girls are not best friends, we knew they weren’t going to be snuggling up together. But instead of us intervening, they have taken it upon themselves to claim their spots. Skylar spends most of her time on the dashboard, gazing out the window at the deer and squirrels. Marley can usually be found passed out in our bed, or under it. At night, both cats sleep in bed with us. Chris and I are used to our king-size bed we had back at the house, so having one or two cats in bed wasn’t an issue at all. Now that we had to size down to a queen, the four of us sharing the bed is not the greatest. It’s actually pretty maddening being pinned down in one spot and one position all night, but I do love having them in bed with us. Anything to keep them happy.

As happy and excited as we are living on our land in our van, it’s important for our girls to be happy and comfortable, so we’re willing to jump through all the hoops necessary to make that happen. Your pets are quite literally at your mercy, so please be good to them.