Great Bag
I looked at many sites for this carrier, and found this to be the best price. I purchased it for a cat adoption that fell through, but I'm so impressed with this that I will be hanging on to it, for our next pet. I went with this one as it looked much like the Sleepypod which was well out of my price range and reviews said this one was better. The Sleepypod was car tested and as this one is very similar I hope it works as well.
It arrives in a large box with a handle on the top, so you could carry it from a shop. It's a little heavy but I'm a bit of a weakling. There aren't any instructions with it, but it comes all put together with you just needing to put on one strap clip and zipping up the middle for it to be ready to go. You will need to experiment on what the zips do. There's a two clip zip on the front to make the entrance, this will fold up to be held in place with a strap and press stud. There is a two zip entrance on the top where the handle is, but this does not come apart like the other more expensive version. The whole top will unzip, and the top side parts will push down into the bed itself for storage. The shoulder handle, which can be changed for height and with a paddled bit is clipped to each side with a very strong looking clip into a very sturdy metal clip on each side. These are just above the velcro pockets.
The base is well built and feels very sturdy. The pad will come out and has a zip off cover. This doesn't have much bounce to it, so good for cats with bad back me thinks. You may wish to add a blanket if you need to to make it more cosy depending on what your cat likes. The whole bottom pad section comes out, and it has a circular piece that maybe for a heater pad but your guess is as good as mine.
The outside fabric feels like a heavy duty nylon, the zips look heavy duty too, the handle is the seat belt type webbing, and the vented lid is like a thick plastic mesh. The cream is faux sheepskin and is definitely manufactured as I was worried that some pet beds have real fur from you know where in the east. The side has lovely padding, a good inch which is very squiggy but firm to the touch. The hole bed section is removeable just like the posher version one sees on the market (Sleepypod). Oh and the shoulder pad can be moved along the shoulder strap.
The only problem I can see is a kitten sized hole at the side where the two zips meet at the side, so not for very young kittens if you do rescue work. I should imagine a normal kitten sized sent to homes at 10 weeks might be ok and no cat would get through there. It would be easy to fix with something to join the zips together and this no move. Or the instillation of a bit of stick on velcro to keep the flap in place. It is in an area where the handle would be covering it, so it should be ok.
I would highly recommend it to all cat, small dog owners. I would make sure your pet fits it first by making a mock up with paper. If you have a very large cat like a Maine Coon, Siberian, or Norweign Forest Cat you would need to check the measurements, it looks pretty big to me, but I have no cats to try it out on.