As I wrote in another article, I bought a gray kitten yesterday. I named him Socrates and he's going to be my trucking companion. As I'm spending the weekend in a hotel I thought it would allow some quiet time to get to know each other a bit before setting out in the truck on Monday.
He got over his fright over being relocated pretty quickly. More quickly than I had expected in fact. In a few short hours he went from being afraid of me to begging me to pick him up so he can nap on my lap. I hope that he adjusts to being in the truck as quickly. I'm sure that's going to be a pretty scary experience for him at first but I'm encouraged by how quickly he has adapted to me and his new surroundings here.
It surprises me how he's such good company for a cute little ball of fur. His play times are pretty amusing and he is bursting with energy and his nap times are pretty much "hold me" times. I expected him to make decent company for me while on the road but I'm surprised at how entertaining he is and how quickly a bond is forming between us.
I wanted a cat for a truck pet basically because they are less trouble on the road than many other pets. You have to stop fairly often to walk a dog, where a cat just uses the litter box. Cats do a lot of sleeping compared to dogs which also makes them a better fit for a truck.
Once he adjusts to living in the truck with it's noises and motion I will start trying to harness/leash train him so that he won't have to spend all of his time in the truck. I figure just adjusting to a new person and new living conditions is enough stress for the little fellow without adding the harness training right away.
With any luck he'll adapt to road life pretty quickly. He's very young yet, born May 26th, so I think he's at the perfect age to adapt easily to a new life. I just never knew they could be so amusing and make for such good company. I'm already picking up on his communications. I can tell "pet me" from "I want a nap" and "I'm hungry" or "let's play". He makes his desires known with no problem.