I had bought a collapsable pet carrier for Socrates a while back. I really hadn't done much with it, just left it in it's plastic cover and stashed it in the truck. Today while eating lunch I decided to break it out and see how difficult it was going to be to train Socrates to go into it and tolerate being inside it. He'll need to be in it whenever I put the truck in the shop to be serviced.
I took it out of it's cover, opened it up, and set it up so that it remained in place. I then just sat it on the floor to allow Socrates to check it out and get used to it. Well, cats being cats, he immediately ran inside of it to check it out. He then came out, climbed all over it sniffing and tasting to see just what this new thing happened to be. He then got back inside and played for a bit.
After a little while I picked it up with him inside it to see how he'd react to it being moved with him inside. No problem.
I'm going to do this for a little bit at a time to get him used to it before actually closing it. Perhaps that way it won't be such a shock to him and he'll get comfortable with it more easily.
I was pleased at how readily he took to it though. It shouldn't be too hard to get him comfortable with being inside it for a little while.