Driving halfway across Canada with 2 cats & a dog

Not your ideal situation but we survived 39 hours of driving together. I ended up leaving a day early last minute as the weather was supposed to get bad and I just had my little car, so that was extra fun. Anyways, I drove from Kimberley, BC to Medicine Hat, AB the first night where my mom flew into the next day then from there we headed straight for Manitoba. From Brandon, MB we headed straight to Thunder Bay, ON. Next we did Thunder Bay, ON to Sue Ste Marie, ON and then went straight home from there (just outside London, ON). We did it this way because I had the cats crated in the car plus every gas stop included a dog walk for Waylon. Every morning I'd spray the cat kennel with Felaway 15 minutes prior to loading them up and then they loaded up in the backseat of the car with Waylon. We also had a vet prescribed sedative in case they were truly miserable, but thankfully they were not. As soon as we'd get unloaded in the hotel I would take Waylon for a big walk and every morning he'd go for a big walk on top of all our mini-walks while gassing up. The cats did meow if we went over a big bump, but other than that they were fine! Waylon also tried to get into the front seat multiple times or tried laying on top of the cat crate. The whole back seat was a dog hammock which the cats took up half of. We quickly learned that providing him his humpy pillow and blankets inside the hammock were all it took to get him to lay down.

Finding a hotel that would take 2 cats and a dog was both pricey and inconvenient, especially since we weren't certain on how far we'd be driving each day. We had a general idea, but booked pretty late each day. We ended up staying in the Comfort Inn every night as it was the only place that accepted both cats and large dogs aside from Motel 8 who never answers their phones.

THE DRIVE & STAYS:

First night was spent in Brandon, MB (i think) and it was interesting. We had a room that joint (still locked, but paper thin walls) to a lively group of individuals who were two men and one woman, so if you have a dirty mind then you're probably on track for what we heard. The lady was very chatty but only stopped talking a couple times when he mouth was, well, full. We called the front desk twice because she was hollering and shouting from midnight until 4am, which is super fun after a day of driving.

 

Day and night two was tiring as we drove from Manitoba to Northern Ontario. Everyone warned us not to drive at night in Northern Ontario as moose sprint across the road from sunset to sunrise. There were warning signs everywhere but we did not see any on night two, though we did almost run out of window washing fluid and I would highly recommend gassing up every time you see a gas station and are close to only half full. I also walked into a fully parked truck while walking Waylon in a gas station parking lot for no reason which was fun. You just never know what could happen with the Alannimals squad.

From Thunder Bay to Sue Ste Marie we saw two moose that bolted in front of the truck in front of us and the road was rather bumpy. The cats meowed every time we went over a bump, which was kind of funny, but at the same time I felt awful. They really did so well on the roadtrip. Also, the one gas station we stopped at had a dog that did not like Waylon. We just took off into the ditch then and walked along a little makeshift trail we found.

From Sue Ste Marie to home was fidgety because we just wanted to get back. It was so odd getting onto the 401 after spending days on end driving through beautiful Northern Ontario, which was a Group of Seven scenic route! There were so many familiar spots in Northern Ontario simply because of studying the group of seven in art school. When we got home Waylon zoomed then fell asleep hard as did I. It took a few days getting used to being back in Ontario as it's weird waking up and not seeing the mountains. Now I somewhat understand why they say Toronto is flat.

If you read through this then thank you! Let me know if there's any specific questions you have or topics you'd like to hear our experiences with.