Product Review: Sleepypod Air and Crater Dot

Our product reviews have been heavily skewed towards the dog type items lately. When Sleepypod asked if I was interested in reviewing a couple of their cat items, Apollo started kneading and drooling all over the keyboard.

1. Sleepypod Air

The Sleepypod Air is a carrier geared towards those who fly with a pet in-cabin, though it’s obviously usable as a regular day-to-day carrier as well. Its claim to fame is the ability to compress length-wise from 22 to 16 inches, which would allow you to fit it completely under just about any discount carrier’s most claustrophobic seat.

This is the uncompressed version. Pretty, isn’t it? I refuse to buy any carrier covered with pictures of kittens with angel wings. This looks modern.

If you own a cloth carrier, you know the tendency of the top to collapse in on itself. The sides on this air are much stiffer, allowing it to stay upright.

This side shows the sleeve that you can pass a luggage handle through if you’re zipping through the airport. You can also use the straps to secure the carrier with a car seat belt.

Believe it or not, Apollo was in the carrier when that picture was taken. He doesn’t photograph too well on black backgrounds for obvious reasons.

So Dug stepped in instead. He looks pretty comfortable on the padded bottom there (Apollo liked that part too.) If you want to be extra fancy there’s a place to insert a warming kit. That might actually convince your cat to get in it all on their own. 😉

I used my dining room chair to try it in the smaller form. I couldn’t figure out if there was a way to fold it other than just smooshing the sides up, which is what I ended up doing. As soon as the pressure on the sides is gone, the ends pop back down.

There are 2 zippers that run the entire length of the black panel at the top and sides, which serves 2 purposes:

It allows the carrier to fold flat for storage, and the two zippers allow you to make an opening any size you want along the edges. You can slip a hand in without the cat darting out.

Apollo came into work with me 2 days in a row in this carrier, so I got a good feel for its usability. One unforeseen bonus: if the top piece is entirely unzipped, the sides fold away and voila: exposed kitty. None of that holding the carrier vertically trying to gently shake an angry cat out.

This carrier gets a thumbs up for high quality durable construction, usability, and fresh looks.

2. Sleepypod Crater Dot

It doesn’t sing lullabies. It doesn’t have a place to hang catnip. It’s not for those looking for the equivalent of a pillow-top down comforter. What the crater dot is, though, is a simple, cozy modern spot for your cat to curl up.

It’s flat enough to store easily, but still contoured so a kitty would feel comfy curling up in it while still keeping an eye out for, say, a wayward Golden Retriever approaching.

If you really want to spoil your cat, like all Sleepypod products it has a spot in the bottom to slide in a warmer. The colored part easily detaches to wash so you don’t have to stuff your entire big puffy bed in the wash and wait 2 days for it to dry. We like this.

I have no idea if it’s comfortable or not, so I left it on the couch for a minute to go get the camera and came back to this sight. He stayed there all afternoon, too. He especially likes how it complements his eyes. 🙂

FTC Disclosure Notice: The samples shown in this post were provided to the blog by the manufacturer of the product.