A question for cat owners...
 

If you were going to be gone for two days, would you be more inclined to leave you beloved kitty at home or would you board him? I'm so torn. My first inclination is to leave him alone in the house (with plenty of food and water of course) rather than boarding him at a kitty kennel. I know he hates to be alone, but I know he would hate being kept in a cage in a strange smelly place even more. I can ask my next door neighbor to check on him each day, but we aren't really that close and I'm not liking the idea of imposing on her.

I would - and have - left the kitties at home with plenty of food and water.

Its does seem like a nicer thing to do, doesn't it.

Hates to be alone the 1/10th of the day it's not sleeping? :haha:

Leave it

:) True dat!

I put out a bunch of bowls of water, plenty of "dry" food, and give them a big heap of "wet" food before I leave. They are fine, just a little pissy that they didn't get their twice daily wet food. If it's longer than two days I have a friend check on them (well, the ex...part of the shared parenting agreement.) :)

Two days? Like 3 nights? or 2 nights? 2 nights would be my maximum -mostly because their water dries up so fast and they're not averse to knocking it over. But I'd definitely choose home alone over kenneling, it's just not a good thing for cats imo

I put NUMEROUS bowls of all shapes and sizes...relying heavily on the stainless steel ones with wide bottoms they can't knock over. At these times, I ALSO use an automatic watering dish. I don't take any chances of them running out of water. They'll live a few hours without food, if it came to that, but I would never want them to not have access to water. Doesn't hurt to leave the bathroom sink dribbling, either.

If its only for a couple of days, I'd leave him at home. Kennels are extremely stressful for cats, especially if dogs are also kenneled in the vicinity. Buy him some nice cat toys to play with. You can also buy videos especially for your cat to watch or else leave the radio on to his favorite station!

He'll probably be mad at you and sulk for an hour or two after your return, but he'll get over it and be just fine.

Ok then, that settles it...at home he will stay. It is just only two nights. I plan on leaving the toilet lid up for him...he tends to drink out of it mostly anyway - biggest reason why I have a flush twice rule in my house. I know he will spend his waking moments howling and looking for me...he is really attached, but it is much better than a cage in a kennel. Wish I could do the same for Pico. They would be good company for each other.

Am I a wuss or what...:o

Couple days is no big deal at all.

Actually, though, I have heard it isn't good to leave TVs or radios on for cats...it actually unnerves them when you're not around. Not sure if it's true, just something I read somewhere a long time ago.

edit: I can find nothing to substantiate the above. Might not be true.

I left my two boys alone for two nights over Christmas 2008 - I stressed the whole time! I think I was more upset than they were in the end. They seemed so dependent on me, but at the time they had eachother for warmth and comfort.

I think a cat alone will fall into "safe mode". In other words will sleep more and eat more, but unless any other issues come up will not panic or assume there is something wrong. Rescue charities often have to rescue starving cats from their previous homes; they hang on where they are comfortable long after they've been abandoned. Sorry - that sounds bloody awful. I just mean cats have a long memory for the good times.

Truth is, I would probably do the same for Diz now if the precise situation arose, ie I had no choice. I'm lucky being back at the 'rents - they've cat sit so many other people - and Diz has also charmed many cat-loving visitors... His trouble is that being such a people-cat trades off against him being a cat-cat; I suspect that in a cattery he'd be completely miserable, smelling all the other cats and not being able to assert himself.

I think you've made the right choice Pico.

ETA - if he sleeps on your bed, don't change it before you go. If not, leave him a worn item of clothing.

the the knocking water over is because the fussy buggers won't drink from anything low to the ground. We once used Hebe's "chalice" because it was handy and they haven't looked back. We leave water in unexpected places -we've noticed they enjoy drinking from anything that looks verboten :lol:

Sometimes Turbo likes me to 'feed' him his water, which just means sharing from my cup. If Im drinking out of a bottle I will pour some into the little plastic lid and he will drink it from that too.

Ha! My cats, especially Taj, like to drink out of one of my cups of water...so I keep a big drinking glass near the tv (on the floor.) That gets knocked over often, but she loves it so much. My ex let her drink out of his water all the time. Not me...for one thing I drink diet coke, coffee, or beer...for another...um, ewwww! :)

I sarted giving the boys (UK) pint sized glasses of water when I lived in London. Steve always kept a glass by his bed and was disturbed more than once by the boys lapping away at it.

Diz now has his own pint glass in my room - he seems to prefer it to any other source. I got rid of the fancy Cat-It running water fountain in the end - he used it sometimes, but not enough to justify the cost of the filters.

Very occasionally he shames me by drinking out of the birdbath in the garden. But I only don't like it because it has bird poop and feathers in it (Dad cleans it on a regular basis) and not because - as Mum thinks - that Diz is too posh for it! Posh? He drinks out of a pint glass not a cocktail glass!

I do monitor his water intake carefully. But there are three sources in the house and another three in the garden. I just have to keep on top of his glass because he is shut in for up to four hours at a time (see various posts re bad Diz bullying behaviour). As another poster suggested he can go without food, but his water gets renewed every day (I keep a close eye on his litter for the same reason)

I'd agree with the others. Two days isn't long enough for cat boarding.

I wouldn't worry too much over a couple days. Food, yeah, put out a good heap. Nice big bowl of water, maybe a low pan. But, leave the toilet lid UP. If the water somehow gets upset, he can drink from the toilet, he's probably looking for an excuse anyway.

As for leaving the TV/radio on, Slick seems to like it better when I leave the radio on our local station, they talk quite a bit, what with 5-10 minutes news every hour.

He likes it better than music all the time. He told me so.

When I had cats, if I left them overnight or for the weekend, they'd be fine with the dry food and plenty of water. However, they would let me know they didn't appreciate me leaving them by shredding napkins, and tossing various items on the floor.

I've got several and regularly leave them for a night or weekend. In true cat fashion, they act as though I'm an inconvenience to them when I return. They DEMAND extra canned food, rubbing and seem to feel it is a requirement to go in and out of the house every 5 minutes till I get fed up with opening/closing the door.
Toilet lid is ALWAYS left up whether I am home or away, just in case.

I always just leave out a super huge serving bowl of water, plenty of food wet and dry. I also sometimes leave a talking radio station on very low in one room. I figure after the first night they sleep most the of time anyway.


Have a good trip pico, although you are probably gone already. :)

Some cats do not like tap water. Apparently they can smell the chlorine. Water left open for that chlorine to dissipate (ie from a toilet) is often preferred by cats.

And plants, too.

yeah, I wish I could stop the triffids slurping from the bog, they always leaf a mess

New user title for classic: Crazy cat lady

We have left our cats home alone for up to three nights. Any longer than that and we get a neighbour to come and feed them. They don't seem to worry at all. We just close off the rooms we don't want demolished and they seem to do fine.

MB and I have gone away and left Bosco at home anywhere from 2 nights to a week...if we're going to be gone longer than a couple of nights, we get a friend to check in on him every day. No matter what, he's always pissed off at us when we get back. :(

We're back. Turbo did fine...he gave me his baby kitty squeak as soon as I came through the door. He also ate every last morsel of the food I left out for him and was harassing me for more. Now hes being all lovey dovey with me. Pico had a much harder time of it. I boarded him at a place that does grooming and I don't think he was happy there. His bedding stank of pee and I'm sure he didn't eat at all. Plus he has a bit of diarrhea. He was really stressed out. Its hard to find a good pet boarding place around here. The one place that I think does a good job has really restrictive drop off/pick up times. I would have had to wait till tomorrow to pick him up if I had used them instead.

My bf's mom had to board her dog when we went to visit him at his graduation down south, and she was terrified about how awful he looked when he got home. He was so sluggish and shy that she asked me if I thought they gave him drugs to calm him down.

I let her know that because it's a stressful situation, a lot of dogs don't get any sleep while they're in, so he was probably just dog-tired.

har har har

May I humbly suggest (as I really don't know your personal living situation and don't want to get your gander up) that you cultivate more personal connections, other than "one neighbor you are not close to," that could look after your pets next time. Much as I fight against it, it's why we need other people. Friends and relatives that you could trust to care for your animals in your home for a short time are one of life's best things.

Is there anyone locally that does in-home pet sitting?

I've been doing this work for about six years now (obviously, it's not a way to make a living, but it helps), and it's a win-win for pets and owners alike. Pet parents don't stress because they know their fur-persons are being looked after, and should anyone get sick or hurt, the sitter is authorized to take the pet to the vet for treatment. The critters don't stress because they're in their own home and have a human to interact with for a bit each day.

I'd look into it, for future/longer trips.

Don't know about costs over there, but the 'rents housesit via an agency and I've never known them employed by anyone with a property under £500k ($1m). The 'rents certainly don't get enough to live on - hence doing it after they retired - but the agency charge a fortune.

Look into it by all means, especially if you have an expensive property and/or high insurance (you can get discounts for it).
But employing someone directly, with excellent references and someone known to you - if you really trust them - will save you a fortune. Retired police staff for example (how Mum got into it)
Just don't expect it to be cheaper than a cattery - that's kinda the point.

Glinda - The place I kept Pico does it - its the owners daughter - but without references from someone I know personally I didn't want to take them up on it. However, also, in their case, she only visits the home 3 times a day. I didn't really like that idea either.

Cloud - My next door neighbor helped me out a few years back when we were gone for a week. At the time I only had a cat. There's no way I could burden her now that I have Pico as well, AND, even though I have offered our services for anything she would need help with, she hasn't taken me up on it. As a result, I hate to keep asking for her help.

Its a quandary.

LOL...DEFINITELY not our situation. Two weeks a go when my husband and I went to Disney for 4 days we were able to make use of his 20 yr old son. We paid him $100 and I thought that was well worth the cost of keeping Turbo and Pico at home with someone they know well. And thats about what it would cost to board the both of them. Couldn't use him for this trip because he came with us.

My kids just got paid $60 to go feed/water/let out the neighbors dog for three days. Win Win and kids aren't going to rip off your house, their parents won't either because they want their kids to get more work..... :lol:

Yeah, we usually just pay one of the kids in the neighbourhood if we're going to be gone longer than a few days. They always appreciate the dosh.