CAT-IN-THE-BAG is glad you’re here!
Since you’re visiting our site, you’re likely looking for a cat-carrier alternative for car trips.
Maybe you’ve heard about our Cat-in-the-bag Cozy Comfort Carrier and you’re just curious to learn more. Or maybe, your “domestic” house cat – Your sweet little fluffball – becomes a mountain lion when it’s time to get into his carrier to go to the vet’s.
Just forget a longer car trip. Vacations? Moving across the country? Be prepared for those meows of protest for hundreds of miles. Your poor cat is so upset, and who can blame him? After all, he’s enclosed in a tight space where he can’t even see you. He doesn’t know why or when, if ever, he’s getting out. Some cats respond so poorly to crates or other carriers that close them completely in that they have accidents inside the carrier – and all over themselves. They might throw up. We’ve even had reports of them injuring themselves trying to get out – cutting their faces, scraping off fur or even ripping off nails.
Our cat Gremlin, whom we designed the carrier for, did all three – accidents, getting sick, and rubbing his nose raw against the bars in the front of the crate. Our vet suggested a pillowcase, saying it would be easier to use. But we could tell by his reaction to the crate that he absolutely didn’t like being closed in, and the pillowcase didn’t solve that.
It was time for an alternative for Gremlin – but there wasn’t one! We thought about the pillowcase and how to keep him in it while allowing his head to stay out. It didn’t seem doable – but then, the idea of a roomy bag carrier that did allow his head to stay out came to us. It needed to be roomy to allow stretching and moving into any position to be comfortable. It needed to be secure, so he couldn’t get loose while traveling.
Two years later, after fits and starts with several prototypes, we hit the market with our carrier. A lot of thought went into what looks like a simple bag with a strap. We created different sizes so all of our cat customers could be comfortable, because comfort, along with the head staying out, contributes to the feeling of not being confined. We carefully considered how to make the collar on the bag adjustable so that it would keep the cat secured.
We began marketing and selling it in 2000. Over the next 23 years, we would meet thousands of cat owners at cat shows, pet expos, fairs and home shows. Gremlin was actually the first cat we ever owned, so we realized along the way that we had much to learn. Learn we did — we heard thousands of stories about problems people had while caring for their cats – our customers told us instead of us telling them that we had developed a tool for medicines as well as for traveling.
As we gained decades of knowledge about cats from the people in the trenches — their owners, we added features. We lengthened and padded the handle for over-the-shoulder comfort and added a second loop underneath for a seat-belt pass-through. Our customers had issues with nail-trimming, so we added ports for front feet. We redesigned to make it even easier to put the bag on the cat.
We realized that our customers were frustrated with hard-to-reach or unhelpful customer service, so we made it a point to be available and to have a money-back guarantee if they were unsatisfied for any reason.
We are Cat-in-the-bag. We are for all things cat care – cat carrying, cat nail-trimming, medicating a cat, and brushing a cat’s teeth. We’re glad you stopped by our site! We hope you’ll come back and continue to check out our blog from time to time. While it isn’t interactive, our Facebook page is! Click the link to it, (9) Facebook which is always at the bottom of every page of this web site.
. If you have any questions or topics you’d like to see covered in the blog, you can post them there. We’re grateful for your interest!
