"-mhd" wrote in message
...
"cshenk" wrote:

Although a soft one will work fine to hold a cat, you may find the cat gets
'scared' and pees in the carrier. If you have a soft type, you will have
an
issue getting it clean again. A hard carrier will not have this problem.
Easiest hard carriers have an entry gate at the 'front' and at the top
both.
Also, put a towel at the bottom so if they do 'pee' because they are
scared,
you wont be bringing a wet kitty to the vet and trying to dry the worst off
as she/he gets examined.

I prefer soft ones as they much easier to carry and are probably much
more comfortable for the cat. As far as accidents go I would much
rather throw the bag in the washer than try to wash a car seat that
the hard carrier drained onto. A towel fits just fine in the soft bags
as well.

-mhd

I would imagine the size and weight of the cat might determine which type
serves better. I haven't seen too many x-large soft carriers and would worry
about the handle pulling off if I was lugging around a large cat. I lug a
lot of cats around though and most people only need to use their carrier on
the occasions kitty visits the vet.

I have had some cats who preferred not to have much of a view and many of
the soft sided ones have screening on the sides that would provide too much
view to a skittish cat. I'm not overly impressed with the zipper closures
either. If one has a cat who really doesn't want to be in the carrier,
having to zip close provides too much time for the kitty to engineer an
escape. I do like something with a top door though in case you need to get a
sick kitty in and out of the carrier. Years ago I had to take a carrier
apart to get a sick boy out of it and have gone for carriers with a top door
since. You do have to double check to make sure the top door stays latched
though as some have a tendency to work their way open. Bottom line is that I
would imagine you get whatever type best suits your cat.