Petmate Vari-kennel Traditional Pet Crate

These kennels are designed for dogs, but I use them for cats. I bought 3 of these kennels to ship 3 cats via air cargo from Anchorage, Alaska to Minneapolis, Minnesotta. I spent a lot of time shopping for the right kennel for this shipment of my very special cargo. I wanted a sturdy and very hard plastic kennel with ventilation on 4 sides. I also talked with a dog breeder friend of mine who shipped dogs from Alaska to as far away as Australia, and she gave me tips on what to look for and potential problems that I may have when it came time to check the cats in for the flight.

For air cargo shipments, the animal needs to be able to stand up and turn around easily inside the kennel. Also, the animal's ears must not touch the inner roof of the kennel when sitting/standing. For a floppy eared dog, this is probably not as big of a problem as it would be for a dog with long, pricked-up ears. I could have gotten away with the smaller sized kennel (medium) for two of my cats, but I was shipping the heavy weight Triscuit and wanted all 3 cats to be in the same shape and sized kennels as each other. Didn't want to give airline personnel a reason to question me on that. Air cargo prices are based on weight, so the smaller kennels would have been cheaper to ship my cats in.

When it came time to check in the cats for their flight, the kennels had to be inspected for anything suspicious, so I had to remove and hold the cat while airline personnel checked it out. I also had to sign a form basically stating that I hadn't placed any explosive devices inside this shipment. (I was hardly on the terrorist watch list.)

I also use this sized kennel for transporting a momma cat and her kittens up to about 3 months of age. With older kittens, the kennel gets pretty heavy with mom in it also. I like that the door is a large size that I can place the cat inside without too much of a struggle.

Given the dimensions of this kennel, trying to walk with it and animals inside from the one handle located on the top is difficult as the kennel will bang against your legs. The next sized up kennels have a hand hold on each side of the kennel to carry it by 2 people with 1 on each side.

The screws and bolts and nut lock mechanism is kind of a pain to assemble to top and bottom together, but they can be tightened down tightly and I didn't have too much concern about the kennel coming apart at the screws during shipment.

The was a two compartment dish that attaches to the front cage door for water and food. They aren't very deep and can't hold a lot, but it is better than nothing.

Pros: Large sized door for easy animal access

Cons: Handle on top for intermediate size difficult to grip and hold

We crate trained our puppy in this and it worked very well. She used to get stressed easily and this is the first place she would go. We called it her bedroom. Easy to clean and I like that the door comes off.

Pros: easy to clean, dog liked viewability, door removes

Cons: none