We went camping this weekend with Quasar. I took along some grain-free cat food to use instead of trying to keep raw cold for 3 days. He finished his raw Friday night and I gave him a pouch of the cat food Saturday morning. I have never smelled anything so RANK in my life as the s**t he put out Saturday night.

I SWEAR that if I have any opportunity at all to feed raw I will diligently do whatever I need to to avoid experiencing that STENCH in my tent again! ...perhaps dry ice.

Whatever I need to do would be worth it.

I had forgotten how bad cat poop smells when they eat regular cat food. EWWWWWWWW!

On the other hand, camping was great. He is learning how to walk on-leash like an expert.

Only disappointment (other than the nasty poo) was that I could not get him to put his feet in the lake.

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~ Kyenta

[quote="Kyenta1"]We went camping this weekend with Quasar. I took along some grain-free cat food to use instead of trying to keep raw cold for 3 days. He finished his raw Friday night and I gave him a pouch of the cat food Saturday morning. I have never smelled anything so RANK in my life as the s**t he put out Saturday night.


PICS??

Sorry for your nose but funny story. Maybe the freeze dried raw nuggets would work for you?

Wish we could get Max and the girls on raw. Trying to transition but at this rate it will be years. We went camping last weekend with Max and OH decided to switch his litter box with a storage bin. I suggested smaller steps or using the bin at home first. No. OH chose to use it anyway and just put litter from their current box in. Well.... During the night in the tent, Max shared his opinion & used the foot of OHs sleeping bag for a wee! We will be doing a slower transition next time.

(can it be saved? Anyone have ideas? We have urine off but I haven't treated it yet as I wasn't sure it's possible and it's a really old bag thankfully)

Kitty Kamping weekend update-
Overnight tent camping trip number two was a success!
Max is completely worn out and a good time was had by all.
(I will post more pics of this adventure in the gallery- Menagerie of Max Marvelous.)

There were so many aspects of this trip I was unable to capture on camera. I encourage everyone to enjoy nature with their kitties in the way that best fits you. If you don't like camping, do something in nature you do like! Chances are your cat will show you even more to love and vice versa. I am often jealous of the lap slugs I see on BCF. Max shows lots of affection but isn't usually big on cuddles. Take him camping and it's like a switch gets flipped. He is so happy, purring, head butting us, rubbing on our our legs or arms and CUDDLING!

Hope you enjoy the pics. I have really enjoyed what others have shared.


Max surveys our "home base" in the forest.


We had a campfire but Max was not interested. Anyone's kitty kampers like to relax by the fire? I think he may when it's colder or once he gets more used to kamping "routines". (like hanging out by the fire for meals?)


The little guy had a blast during his night walk. This picture shows him approaching the stream. Most of the time when he hikes in the woods, tail is straight up. But in the dark on this trip it was REALLY straight. Kind of funny. Not the best angle (sorry) for a pic but this is the only one I caught of it that was fairly clear.


Watch out! Here comes Looney Laser Leopard! He came ripping up the trail, through our home base, and up the trail on the other side on a night walk with OH. Such a happy boy! Zoomies in the woods are hilarious!


This tree created an arch over the trail that entered our "home base" -almost like an entryway. He didn't discover he could climb it until it was dark.


Morning nap time! (& cuddles!)
We were a bit nervous the weather was going to force us to cancel our trip entirely. Max & OH dont tolerate heat well. It had been 100 degrees but then the day we went to camp it didn't get over 80. It was perfect. During the night the sky opened up- thunder and rain! Max did well with lots of loves and snuggles but didn't sleep much. The forest canopy was so thick we could hear the rain hitting it heavily. The amount of rain that actually reached our tent was significantly reduced since it was so dense. The storm kept us all up for a good portion of the night so a mid morning nap was in order the next day. After 8 am it did not rain again for the rest of our trip! It felt like we got to have a little bit of everything on this trip!


Even with the morning nap, Max was a tired boy. We went for one more stop/walk by the stream before we left to come home. Someone didn't want to be finished kitty kamping and gave me the grumpy face!


But being the fat cat back at home isn't all that bad either.
Until next time.....
Carry on Kitty Kampers and adventure seekers!

(PS- We came home to learn his new orange hiking jacket is on its way from Happy House Cats! Louise outdid herself. She posted pics of it on her FB group page before sending it and it looks great. Can't wait for it to arrive!)

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~ Kyenta

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I don't think Pouncey will ever sit by the fire. Maybe in the snow on my lap by the fire. I have a Franklin stove at home. When I have a fire going he'll lay underneath it or behind it. I was scared at first but actually the bricks are cool, so hot on one side cool on the other.....he likes to rotate. He did jump on top of it once to get to a shelf that he loves to knock stuff down to drive me nuts......once

Good idea, I might try kitty kamping. I might get some strange looks if I go out myself with Benji in the woods! But I'm not fussed, used to it with walking.

The jacket from Louise at happy house cats are great but I had an incident once.
I hadn't realised that I hadn't fitted the jacket properly and after I left her outside to go wash the car I heard her calling but it sounded weird.
I'd left too much length on her leash and she had managed to jump over the wall but there was not enough length for her to get all her paws on the ground.
One of the straps had come loose and she was alternating between hanging by the neck (with rear paws barely on the ground) to jumoing and panicking.

Catalogue of errors on my part and I'll never forget the noises she made. It was awful.
There is nothing wrong with the jacket and its better than a harness but a fatality is so easy if you're not careful.

Main thing is to make sure the jacket is on correctly and fits well, the cat should be supervised but if not make sure there is not enough leash for them to get into trouble. Its all common sense really, but all it takes is a bit of routine and complacency to lead you to a problem.

I think I'll go and take her for a walk in the park now.