Cycling with Cat: from Absurdity to Reality

By now many of you are familiar with our cat Peppy. She occasionally comments on this blog and even has her own twitter account. And no, I do not help her with that (though I have my suspicions who does). Although online she can come across as argumentative, in reality Peppy is an exceptionally friendly and sociable cat. And she is fond of flowers and bicycles, sniffing them with interest every chance she gets. This makes me daydream of cycling through the meadows, with her in a basket enjoying the fresh air.

Ever since we got her though, Peppy has been agoraphobic. No sooner would we take her outdoors than she would howl to be let back into the house. She also did not react well to wearing a harness. All of that is common with cats: They are not typically considered walkable, let alone bicycle-portageable.

We had pretty much resigned ourself to thinking of Peppy cycling as an absurdity, realisable only in our imaginations. Then this Spring she surprised us by developing an active curiosity in the outdoors. Noticing that she was spending a lot of time sitting on the windowsill and straining to sniff the fresh air, we tried the harness again... and somehow this time it was okay. So we took her outside. At first she panicked as usual, but eventually she was fine as long as we stayed very close to the house and the front door remained open. She relaxed and began sniffing around, enjoying herself.

We've done this several times now and each time she seems to like it more - to the point that she has started to scratch at the door asking to be taken out, donning the harness willingly. So I'm thinking, next step: bicycle basket. My plan is to procure one of those animal baskets with a fully enclosed wire dome and get her used to sitting in it. Then once she is comfortable in there, I will mount it on the bike and off we'll go. Not so long ago this seemed completely unattainable, but the way she is acting now I honestly think it might work. 

[image via Adeline Adeline]

The basket I was thinking of is the front-mounted Pluto model from Basil. The Pilen test-ride bicycle was given to me with a heavy duty front rack that I have not attached (because it's heavy and the bike is already 47lbs!). Now I am considering attaching it and then mounting this basket. However, the Basil basket has its own attachment mechanism and it may be a clumsy solution. There is also this one from Nantucket Baskets. It seems simpler, but I think it is too small for the likes of Peppy. As far as I know, there are no other commercially available front-mounted bicycle pet baskets with wire enclosures.

[image via ~jitahs~]

Possibly the nicest animal transport system I have seen so far is this one by "GR Jim." At first I thought the little Dachshund was amazingly well behaved to be staying put like that, but it turns out she is on a leash that's tethered to the wire roof.  With my cat I would need full enclosure, and it would also make me feel better to have the basket in front where I can see her.

[image via Dorthe Alve Olsen and Copenhagen Cycle Chic]

Lest you think the idea of cycling with your cat in a basket is totally unrealistic, Todd from CleverCycles tells me that he's done it multiple times. Has anybody else cycled with their cat (or any other pet) successfully? Would love to know your method and container recommendation.