RC has experimented with portable lodgings since he was a kitten. He now uses a modified Sherpa bag, but he's tried out a variety over the years.

At first, he used an oversized beach bag with a firm plastic floor. This solution worked when he was young and he only went from the car to the vets or hotel room. But, he had to leave the beach bag behind when he added too many pounds and learned how to jump out faster than I could catch him.

Next, RC tried out a molded plastic hard case approved by most airlines. We feel this has several disadvantages.

• First, airlines and bus companies are eager to insist that your pet travel in the cargo hold because he's in a case approved for cargo. Although RC would be miserable traveling as if he was baggage, the public transport companies figure he's unlikely to disturb their other passengers if he's out of sight and hearing range. Suddenly a case that was approved for in-cabin transport is only acceptable as cargo.
• Also, the hard case means that as we walked from place to place, we carried it as if it was oversized luggage ... there was no way to sling it over your shoulder. RC was more anxious because he couldn't easily detect that we were nearby.
• And, my last discomfort with hard cases is that they are heavy. Unless your pet is comfortable traveling on attached rollers ... a noisy and upsetting prospect for our baby ... a hard case adds pounds as you travel down the concourses.

RC switched back to a soft-sided case when we learned that the airline refused to allow him to board with us in his hard sided case. We were in a third world country where commercial traveling cases for pets are hard to come by, so we had to make a soft-sided case. Personally, I wouldn't recommend this, but it was preferable to having RC travel in the cargo hold. We used it for over a year with great success and no regrets that we abandoned his hard molded case. (Continue)