Review | Sleepypod Atom Pet Carrier (+ Giveaway!)

I have been a fan of Sleepypod for a while. After many years of coveting the original Sleepypod, we bought one and immediately fell in love with its design. Although I’m not a cat, I have to imagine that the plush interior of the Sleepypod is much more comfortable than hard plastic. And as a pet owner with sadly weak arms, I love love love being able to put the carrier strap over my shoulder instead of lugging an unwieldy carrier around by the handle. With four cats, we find ourselves going to and from the vet all the time, so we’ve definitely put our Sleepypod to good use.

Since we love our original Sleepypod, I was excited to have the chance to try out the Sleepypod Atom. Like the original, the Sleepypod Atom is stylish–it comes in a variety of colors from Jet Black to Blossom Pink. I decided to go with Robin Egg Blue, as you can see from my photos. Although this carrier is made with nylon rather than plastic and metal, it feels really sturdy. There’s a mesh panel that covers the top of the carrier and goes halfway down each end for ventilation–this panel unzips to let your pet in and out. The ends also have pockets for carrying treats, kitty Prozac, and whatever else your pets need when traveling–genius, right?! And, also like the original Sleepypod, the Atom has a plush interior that can be removed and washed.

The Sleepypod Atom is designed to be the perfect size for stowing under airline seats. (And when you’re not using the Sleepypod Atom, it folds up and stores flat, another thing that I absolutely love about this carrier.) There are also seatbelt straps on two sides of the Atom that transform it into a safe car seat for pets. While I found this particular Sleepypod to have less room than the original, it’s definitely a great carrier for when you’re on-the-go. It’s much easier to carry around than the original Sleepypod and it takes up less space too. That said, its more compact size means that it’s not the best choice for pets above 12 pounds. Our cat Mochi is a little bit over 12 pounds, but beyond that, he’s very tall for a cat, so we weren’t able to fit him into this. (Well, we probably could, but I’m pretty sure he’d hate me for it.)

Our cat Aikku is the smallest of our four, so I thought she would be the perfect cat to test out the Sleepypod Atom with. We left the carrier out for a few days so she’d have the chance to acquaint herself with it. (This, by the way, is a good tip whenever you’re going to use a carrier–we always take it out a few days ahead of time before going to the vet.) When the time came to put her in, she was totally chill about it and didn’t even make a noise! Even when i was carrying her in it, she was completely quiet. (I’m not sure whether it was the novelty of a different carrier or maybe the fact that it’s dark inside the Sleepypod.) With the size of this carrier, I was concerned she wouldn’t have room to move around, but she was able to stand in it and turn around too.

The Sleepypod Atom is the winner of both the Cat Fancy and Dog Fancy Editors’ Choice Awards in 2011 and Sleepypod products have been recommended by veterinarians as well. If you have pets and you travel, Sleepypod has just about everything you could need to make your journey go as smoothly as possible.

Oh, and guess what? Sleepypod wants to give one lucky Dealectica reader the chance to try the Sleepypod Atom too! One winner will receive the Atom in his or her choice of color. Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a Sleepypod Atom to facilitate this review. This review is my personal opinion and not an endorsement of Sleepypod.