Cat people-vacation question

[tazdev3225]

I have 3 cats and when my husband and I both go away we leave them at our house. I Have a feeder that lasts 3-4 days and there is always a bowl of water. I am lucky that my kids all live 5 minutes away so they work out a schedule where one of them comes over once a day and checks they have food, fresh water and their treats. They have yet to see my cats because they all hide away.

The one time I tried to take the middle cat to the vet he stressed so badly that we had a shedding issue for over a month and it took 3 times as long for him to come near me again.

If you can get someone to come to your house that would be my first choice. We left them for 9 days when we went to Scotland and they were fine.

 

[kcool]

I would leave her at home. Cats don’t like to go to other peoples houses and she will probably hide. She may even refuse to eat. Ask around for someone who will look in on her. Ask them to stay an hour at each visit and pay them accordingly.

This is what we do. We ask them to stay an hour so that the cat at least knows someone is around.

 

[kymom99]

This is what we do. We ask them to stay an hour so that the cat at least knows someone is around.

When my sister comes to care for my cat, she said he is very noisy. Lots of vocalization. So I know it helps having her there and the fact he kind of knows her. I like to imagine he’s telling her that his people left him and he is afraid he is going to die.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I would never, ever bring my cat to stay at someone else's house. The cat will be miserable, and if he gets out, you've lost him for good.

We hire a teen to come over twice a day (my cats are spoiled), and we encourage her to stay a while--I even buy her special snacks. It helps that DD17's BFF lives just a few blocks away, and has a chaotic household (not in a bad way, just 4 siblings), so she's thrilled to come over, pet kitties, eat snacks, watch TV, use our wifi, whatever. We also pay well--$5/day/cat, which is $20/day. So, it's a good gig, she doesn't want to mess it up. We're willing to pay that because we WANT her to want to come over and do a good job.

Interestingly, our cat who practically lives outdoors was waiting for her every day on the porch--came in, ate, went out again. One of the indoor cats, she never even saw (he's a big, fat chicken).

 

[theluckyrabbit]

We board both cats with the vet. Both cats have special health issues, so at least we have peace of mind that they get great care while boarding with people who know them and their needs. They get put together in a large cage and do quite well. We get daily reports and have heard through the grapevine that the techs compete with each other over who gets to cuddle and hold our cats most. (And we always give the techs something nice at Christmas to thank them for the great care they give our kitties!)

 

[ksanftleben]

We've had a number of cats over the years. Currently, we have a pair of Siamese brothers and until very recently a Labradoodle. We board them with our vet, where they all stay together in a very large kennel. We supply their favorite foods, treats, toys, beds, etc. They seem to love it, almost like a vacation of their own. They get daily attention from the techs (who they know and like) and the dog also gets (oops, got) supervised outside exercise time. We always receive daily photos and updates by email, plus we feel a little more secure knowing that if a health issue develops they'll get immediate care (the dog was getting senile in his old age, and one of the cats has asthma and periodically needs an inhaler).

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I agree that the best choice is to let her stay at home and find somebody who will check on her regularly, and spend some time hopefully.

 

[sweetpeama]

Growing up we had cats and we had neighbors with cats along with various horses, cows, goats, sheep, hogs, chickens, and dogs all around-yes people in my area did not take their dogs with them when they traveled unless it was for a specific reason like a herding competition and the dog was competing. I am using my growing up experience because while we have 3 cats currently we have not traveled since getting them as 10 day old orphans along with their brother who we lost in July 2020 to a urinary tract cyst blockage that came on so fast and sudden there was nothing we could do treatment wise. We did travel when we had rabbits but they were outside in a shed so my mom just walked over a couple times a day to check their food and water for the 3 days we were gone. We cleaned their smaller litter box and the larger pan under the cages the morning that we left and then again the afternoon the day we got home so we were able to keep up with their regular cage cleaning schedule. The rabbits really didn't require that much attention and were fine if you just let them be or they were fine if they were handled by someone who knew how to hold and carry them. My mom would give them a treat every day and even commented that one of them did not care for the carrot-my answer to that phone call was no he does not like carrots but he loves dandelions so that bunny got some danelions as a treat after that which my dad dug up from their yard-win win for my dad and the rabbit (I have a reason to dig these up and you get a treat you like). They were all fine though we did loose our doe less than a month after we returned but not from the care my mom provided them. We learned later that she had retained kits but for some reason they had never developed enough that we or even an experienced breeder friend could tell that she had taken for the breeding we did and we thought she had a false pregnancy and was pulling fur out for a nest for that reason-very common in rabbits.
Growing up everyone kept a list of neighbors to call or at least one of their kids between the ages of 10 and just out of high school or in the summers home from college. Those jobs rated up their with weekend babysitting jobs for several of us for a little extra money. A couple times a day it would be ride your bike over to which ever neighbors take care of the animals, water plants, change lights around so it looked like someone was home, sometimes take in the paper and the mail for them if those were not canceled. Sometimes people would cancel or suspend those deliveries but the places were not even close to getting that done so it was just easier if you had a kid coming over every day to care for your animals and water your house plants and the garden-we never did weeding that was wait till you got home and deal with it rule for everyone with the exception of one's parents or grandparents. The rule for them was weed the garden and go ahead and take anything that comes up-my parents have been told they are not allowed to go on a long vacation when beens are coming in so heavily that they are having to be canning and us kids are being called 2-3 times a day with there are beans in the garden you just need to go pick them along with them calling friends and neighbors. Same goes for zuchinni season as none of us are into either peddling them to everyone we know or heading to the nearest small town hoping to find an unlocked car parked outside the post office to place some in. Small town rule lock your car doors during zuchinni season the rest of the year your generally safe even leaving the keys in the ignition and it unlocked because no one will touch it but watch our for zuchinni season because everyone has it in abundance and is trying to get ride of it.
Personally if you can find someone I would recommend getting someone to cat sit and plan on them spending a good 30-60 minutes once or twice a day at your home. Not only for the cats but to make it look like someone is actually in your home and it is not empty. Just remember payment in zuchinni is not acceptable form of currancy. Pay in cash and possibly a nice simple souvineer of something you know the person collects that is not too expensive especially if you find a responsible kid in the neighborhood to care for your cats. Check with places like your local extension office for the number to a 4-H club in your area or your local high school if they have an FFA program while a high schooler may not be interested especially if they have a job one of them might have a little sibling in late grade school to middle school age that is interested in a temporary job.

 

[smokeyblue]

Generally, home is best in my opinion. My cat is very social, so he does well going to my mom's, but she doesn't have any other pets and it's super quiet. I think healthy cats are okay for a weekend on their own and if its going to be more than 48 hours a drop in is required. If you're going to be gone a week, a daily visit is in order. Also, pay fairly. Consider your sitter's travel time.

 

[fly girl]

I'm with the majority, leave cat at home.

Our subdivision has a few ambitious teens that promote being pet sitters. I have my regular (who is now in college) and his sister fills in when he can't make it. They are very good with coming twice a day to check on our cat.

Our cat is always happy to see us when we get home, then he gets the full on cattitude letting us know his displeasure that we were gone. Still think keeping him in his space is the best option.

 

[hsmamato2]

I would leave her at home. Cats don’t like to go to other peoples houses and she will probably hide. She may even refuse to eat. Ask around for someone who will look in on her. Ask them to stay an hour at each visit and pay them accordingly.

agreed.

 

[Farro]

We board both cats with the vet. Both cats have special health issues, so at least we have peace of mind that they get great care while boarding with people who know them and their needs. They get put together in a large cage and do quite well. We get daily reports and have heard through the grapevine that the techs compete with each other over who gets to cuddle and hold our cats most. (And we always give the techs something nice at Christmas to thank them for the great care they give our kitties!)

We've had a number of cats over the years. Currently, we have a pair of Siamese brothers and until very recently a Labradoodle. We board them with our vet, where they all stay together in a very large kennel. We supply their favorite foods, treats, toys, beds, etc. They seem to love it, almost like a vacation of their own. They get daily attention from the techs (who they know and like) and the dog also gets supervised outside exercise time. We always receive daily photos and updates by email, plus we feel a little more secure knowing that if a health issue develops they'll get immediate care (the dog was getting senile in his old age, and one of the cats has asthma and periodically needs an inhaler).

I'm happy to read this! Even though I said to not feel guilty if you need to board at vet, I always do!

For some cats, especially those on medication or with a chronic illness, if you don't have someone experienced with giving meds willing to stay at home with the cat for longer trip, boarding at vet really is the best option. If I had a "normal " cat and we were going on a short trip, I would feel more comfortable having someone stop in a couple times a day.

Trust me, I agonize over it and cry the whole night before when we drop him off! But as you said, they just love on him the whole time.

 

[Orion Nebula]

+1 for leave her. If someone can stop by and clean the litter box / check on her I am sure she will survive. I would imagine she would be more stressed out being dropped off to an unfamiliar place than being in her own house. I use to have cats and now only have dogs and I somewhat envy the people with cats who travel.

 

[leebee]

We had 2 cats for 20 years. When we traveled, we'd have someone come over once or twice a day (depending on cats' needs and health) to feed/water them and scoop the litter box. We paid $10 a day, but we live in a small town and our "sitters" were usually neighbor-kids so nobody was going very far out of their way to check on "the boys." Usually they'd stay a little while, play with the cats, etc. We'd always leave the TV on, and sometimes call the house, let the answering machine do its thing, and then talk to the boys during the "leave a message" part. I am not sure the cats heard us, but it made DD feel better to talk to her kitties while we were gone. IF we were just going to be gone for a weekend (Fri night to Sun night) we'd just leave LOTS of food and water and they'd be fine for the weekend, no sitter needed.

Boarding didn't work well the time we needed to do it (we were between homes in a new town with nobody to leave the cats with, no affordable hotels that would take pets), not because of the kennel (they were GREAT) but because one of our cats has issues with being confined and would dig, trying to escape, until he pulled his claws out. The kennel was great and opened a full room for just our two, so it worked out, but we never considered it an option again. However, if I had a cat with medical needs, I'd board him. Injections/infusions, etc., are a lot to ask anyone to do... unless I could find someone qualified (vet tech?) who wanted to pet sit.

DD had 2 cats when she was married. They used to hire a pet sitter (searched the internet) to come in and take care of the cats. It was about $10 a day and worked well for them. They KNEW that someone would be in every day... not forget, or be too tired on the way home from work to bother to stop, or whatever...