When moving to Bellingham and considering whether it’d be possible to live here without a car, one factor BhamByBus had to weigh was veterinary care. Essentially, was there a veterinarian within walking distance or within a reasonable bus trip of home? When you peruse the transit accessibility of local vets and animal hospitals in Bellingham, most of them are located along WTA bus routes, which is great. 

But transit-oriented access to local pet care isn’t necessarily even. Some are located on once-hourly bus routes. Fairhaven Veterinary Hospital (2330 Old Fairhaven Parkway at 24th Street), for instance, is located along Route 105 (Downtown to Fairhaven via WWU), which only sees transit service once an hour. It’s the same situation for Bellingham Veterinary (720 Virginia Street at James Street) along Route 4 (Downtown to Cordata/WCC).

But vet appointments, like other things in life, don’t necessarily align neatly with bus schedules, so if your appointment wraps up 5 or 10 minutes after the bus comes by, you may be waiting around for upwards of 45 or 50 minutes for the next bus when your assertive kitty really wants to get back to familiar territory at home. Similarly, living car-free with a cat, you may leave way early for vet appointments, just to build in enough buffer time in case something goes wrong en route via transit, like a missed bus transfer. 

A cat in a neon green cat carrier at a bus stop.
Our vet is located along a frequent bus corridor in the Lettered Streets neighborhood, which makes it more transit accessible than PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)

For our cat, the decision of where to go was fairly easy. Although it wasn’t located in our Southside neighborhood and requires a bus transfer in Downtown Bellingham, the Chuckanut Feline Clinic (1214 Dupont Street at G Street) in the Lettered Streets neighborhood had been recommended by friends and colleagues. But it’s also located on a frequent bus corridor — the WTA’s Green GO Line — served by Route 232 (Downtown to Cordata/WCC) and 50 (Downtown to Lummi Nation). 

And that’s more than BhamByBus can say about the transit accessibility of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, the area's lone medical center for humans, considering Route 4 (Downtown to Cordata/WCC) only has hourly service and lacks Sunday service. 

When our cat’s recent appointment was wrapping up, a Downtown-bound Route 232 bus had just gone by. Fortunately, another was about 12 minutes away — not too bad. BhamByBus and our healthy and vibrant 8-year-old cat also made a very seamless bus connection at Bellingham Station and were home in under 30 minutes. 

Through previous vet appointments accessed via transit in Seattle, and now in Bellingham, BhamByBus has found that our indoor cat seems to enjoy the adventure of a bus trip. Cats on buses — in approved carriers, of course — we’ve found, can bring joy to bus operators and passengers, eliciting smiles and other expressions of awe and adulation across town. Our cat is incredibly sweet and pretty awesome. 

A curious tabby cat looks out from a chair.
Our cat is still relatively new to town but has certainly been on local buses more than many Bellinghamsters can claim. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)

As far as we can tell, Bellingham lacks a recognizable “transit dog,” like Seattle’s late Eclipse, who used to ride King County Metro buses alone to the local dog park, becoming a beloved local legend. Dogs on WTA buses can be a more complicated issue, however.