Getting a frightened cat into a carrier through a front door is a two-person job and a bad start to the day. A top opening changes that entirely — you lower them in rather than posting them in — which is often the difference between a calm trip to the vet and a scrap in the hallway.

The Odyssey has both, so you choose which to use. The doors are chrome-dipped metal rather than simply painted, there is a multi-point lock on the front one, and Moderna lead on the ventilation openings, which are large enough to keep air moving through the whole box. The carry handle is integrated and folds flat against the top when it is not in use, and the shell is a premium plastic that cleans with warm soapy water and nothing more exotic.

• Openings on both the front and the top
• Multi-point front lock
• Chrome-dipped metal door, not painted
• Large ventilation openings
• Integrated soft-touch handle that folds away
• Cleans with warm soapy water

On sizing, which we cannot help with here. This is the medium, and Moderna have supplied us with no internal or external measurements against that name — no length, no height, nothing to check your animal against. If your cat or small dog is anywhere near the top of a size, that is a real problem, and it is worth asking us to measure one before you order rather than after. A carrier an animal cannot stand up and turn round in is the wrong carrier whatever the label says.

Who it's for: cat owners who dread the carrier more than the vet, and owners of small dogs who want something rigid and lockable for the car.