It occurs that in the quiet life of our cat suddenly the carrier appears. Some cats face it easily and enter happy and trustful. Many others  immediately get nervous as soon as they see it until showing pure terror.

Let’s try to understand why.

Many cats  go out from their apartment only once a year to go to the Veterinary’s, a place where there are strange odors..of medicine. They have a more developed sense of smell that we have and they don’t understand some of them. They only feel bad and revolting odors.

Then there are the odor of fear, the pheromones very powerful odor signals sent by the paranal glands and by the fingertips that “mark” the objects with signal of fear and distress for a long time. The carrier as well.

While waiting for the visit, the cat closed in the carrier will feel harmless in front of a dog or another angry cat. Finished waiting, out the carrier he will fine an unknown place, will be touched by a stranger and even “ punctured” for the vaccination.
If the first use of the carrier is for the sterilization, the memory  will be even more powerful.  He will remember the long fast, the injections, the urine that will have an odor altered by the anesthesia and medicines, the physical pain.
He will try to use all his forces to leave a signal and remind the bad adventure to himself and the others.

How can we help our friend to cancel the ugly memory?

A very important thing we can do is to select comfortable carrier made of easily washing material.
Tour and  Maxy Tour from Bama, for example, are made of plastic, strong but light and easily disassembling. The cleaning is very simple, fast and cared. We can finally remove odors and bad memories with them.

The two different dimensions host comfortably cats of any size and weight and in the superior space you can store the bowl and other “ reassuring” personal effects.

After the use, wash the carrier carefully with simple water and neutral soap avoiding substances  with scent of ammonia or citrus that cats hate.

Let’s leave it open at home in a quiet and accessible place with some biscuits inside.
Let’s give the cat all the time needed to trust it and mark it with facial pheromones that communicate “ familiarity” and will remind him that it is a safe and welcoming place.

A last important suggestion: don’t introduce the cat in the carrier by the head. Let’s have him go insider from the back so that the face is the last part to enter the carrier and can “ control” the situation.
We can eventually spray “reassuring” pheromones to be bought in the devoted stores.
With these small expedients we can help our cat to travel quieter in the carrier.