Leaving Cats While on a Week's Vacation

[RPM]

I thought I would have no problem with this.

Friend and I are planning to get away for a week plus one weekend - 8-9 days.

I didn’t think I would have a problem leaving my kitties in their own home, with two cat-people friends coming by to check on them, feed, water, scoop.

But I have never been away from my kitties for such a long time! I have cat-sat for other friends, who were away for several weeks.

If I were going to be away for two weeks, or a month, I would want to take the kitties with us. But I do NOT want to subject them to two day-long car trips, only to have a week in a strange place. And kitties aren’t allowed where we’re going, anyway.

I “know” they will be fine. They will catch up on their sleep, maybe annoy each other a bit, get checked on every 2-3 days by two friends who are cat-people.

But I have never been away from them for so long.

Please tell me they will be fine, or what alternatives I might have! I do not want to board them in a cage in unfamiliar surroundings surrounded by strange kitties and within earshot of barking/yelping/howling dogs.

[jetsmom]

If reliable people are going to be checking on them they should be fine. I’d leave some lights and TV on.
Microchip cats if that isn’t already done. Leave CC # at vets office, as well as emergency vets office. Leave instructions for both people checking.

[Windsor1]

Could or would cat-friends be willing to stay over at least one or two nights? For extra money, perhaps?

[Louise]

I wouldn’t be comfortable having someone check on the cats only every two or three days. What if something happened to one of them, and they were there, injured or sick for those days before someone came by? And, when people are checking on that irregular a basis, without being paid, the possibility exists that they will forget. I admit I am a worrywart, however.

I have a cat sitter who comes in twice a day, feeds, cleans litter boxes and fusses over the cats each time. That way, I know that there is an experienced eye on them at very regular intervals. She always has my itinerary, the vet’s information and the information for the animal emergency facility, just in case.

My pet sitter does a lot of extras like bringing in the mail, watering plants in the garden and keeping the outside birds fed and watered, so she’s pricey, but I would imagine you could find a more basic service for less. Ask your vet. Often they know people, and sometimes their vet techs are even available to do the sitting for you.

[macmtn]

We left for 2 weeks and had cat sitters stop by twice daily.
The cats were fine…slept all day and at night they partied!!! But-all the pussy party debris-cans of tuna, gallons of milk and baggies of catnitp was all cleaned up and the stray felines gone home by the time the day sitters stopped by in the morning. Of course the head of the Siamese MAfia got a holt of my cc and ordered up a ton of cat toys…which I could not return because they were all covered in cat spit!

In reality They. Were. fine. Got a little company twice a day, spoiled rotten feedwise and the rest of the time they slept.
Someone did get really bored and found a way to get on top of the drop ceiling tiles in the den. Whereby they could crawl down into the walls…and hide. Drove the sitters nuts when the head count came up short a couple of days before we got home. They finally figured it out and left us a note to where we could find the missing ones. To this day I have to keep heavy stuff on top of the drop ceiling tiles where they got in, and from time to time they still check to see if it can be cat burgled…

Ya they will be fine. And maybe-just maybe they will miss you a little.

[wsmoak]

They will be fine. My in-laws come and visit or house-sit for us for up to a week, and she leaves four cats in the house with multiple litter boxes, water dishes and food bowls.

She has a big mess to clean up when she gets back, but everybody is Just Fine.

[RPM]

[QUOTE=wsmoak;7666353]
They will be fine. My in-laws come and visit or house-sit for us for up to a week, and she leaves four cats in the house with multiple litter boxes, water dishes and food bowls.

She has a big mess to clean up when she gets back, but everybody is Just Fine.[/QUOTE]

Does she leave them on their own for the week? Or does she have someone come in for kitty checks?

[Twisting]

My parents leave their cat alone for up to two weeks while they come visit us in Hawaii. Big bowls of food and a watering system, as well as extra water bowls. Several litter boxes. Cat is just fine when they gets back. They don’t have anyone check on the cat. Chances of the cat getting sick in the isolated environment of the house are slim.

Any longer than 2 weeks and cat goes to the kennel. Cat also went to the kennel when parent’s vacation fell just after cat had emergency oral surgery. Just so kitty could be watched while recovering.

[Blondie22]

I’ve left my cat for a week alone with a cat sitter coming once/day to feed/clean box/cuddle. He’s totally fine. Somewhat clingy when I get back but no worse for the wear!

[Trakehner]

We leave our cats (3 of them) alone for a week…Fill up the dish with dry food, have the big water container bubbling away, an extra litter box and lock them up downstairs in their evening quarters. Comfy, warm, food/water/litterbox…they keep each other company and do fine.

[hoopoe]

I do it all the time, the longest having been 26 days

My neighbor “does” for me and I her

she scoops the box, feeds, waters. I invite her to make herself at home , watch TV and play or love on the kitties if they are inclined.

[fooler]

We left our inside kitties alone for up to 8 days. We purchased the “tower” dry food feeder, an extra “tower” water container and an extra deeply filled litter box. They just followed their normal daily process. Yup had some extra cleaning to do in the bathroom, but both girls were fine.
They were used to me being away for most of the day at that time as I had a minimum 3 hour commute daily and DH is on the road most of the time for his job.
They did “speak” to us for a day or so about being left alone and no doubt about the transgressions of the other cat.

We have someone who comes by 2x daily to take care of the horses and outside kitties and a dog when she was alive.

[joiedevie99]

My parents leave the cats alone when they go on vacation. My sister who lives nearby stops by once a day to check that the automatic water and feed systems are working and give them some love. Once in a while they miss a day, and they are always just fine the next day.

[charismaryllis]

i’d have them checked on at least every other day, preferably daily, even if just for a quick peek to make sure the water bowls are full. (i cat sat for my boss for a week; power went out in their apt bldg and it got very warm and the cats sucked down their bowls. when i got there they were trying to drink out of the faucets. i filled a bunch of extra bowls for them.)

don’t worry, they’ll be fine.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=Blondie22;7667020]
Somewhat clingy when I get back but no worse for the wear![/QUOTE]

The number one reason to go on vacation… re-vitalizing your Cat’s Luv.

Making a cat appreciate you and changing the sheets on your bed/cleaning your whole house stem to stern are things one should do so that coming home from vacation is as good as going on vacation.

I think people should temporarily abandon their cats once in a while so as to keep the romance alive.

And has it occurred to you that the cats might be just as happy (or just as asleep) to have you get the he!! out of their house for a while? There might be, for example, places they aren’t allowed to sleep or explore that are ripe for the taking while you are gone. Cats need a vacation, too.

[wsmoak]

[QUOTE=RPM;7666481]
Does she leave them on their own for the week? Or does she have someone come in for kitty checks?[/QUOTE]

On their own. And they are fine.

(Even if someone came in to check on them, they’re just going to hide. At most they could shine the flashlight under the bed and count eyeballs.)

[tabula_rashah]

I have 5- 2 of them would be fine, but the other 3 not so much. One has seizures occasionally, 1 has to eat a very specific diet and can’t have free choice and the other turns into a destructo-bot when I leave (seriously, she’s torn the front of my wooden dresser drawers off before). I’m lucky though that I have built in pet sitters since my in-laws live with us.

[RPM]

[QUOTE=mvp;7668085]
The number one reason to go on vacation… re-vitalizing your Cat’s Luv.

Making a cat appreciate you and changing the sheets on your bed/cleaning your whole house stem to stern are things one should do so that coming home from vacation is as good as going on vacation.

I think people should temporarily abandon their cats once in a while so as to keep the romance alive.

And has it occurred to you that the cats might be just as happy (or just as asleep) to have you get the he!! out of their house for a while? There might be, for example, places they aren’t allowed to sleep or explore that are ripe for the taking while you are gone. Cats need a vacation, too.[/QUOTE]

:lol: Thanks, mvp, I needed that. :lol: Thanks, everyone! I feel all better now. :yes:

[mvp]

[QUOTE=RPM;7668135]
:lol: Thanks, mvp, I needed that. :lol: Thanks, everyone! I feel all better now. :yes:[/QUOTE]

Also, time doesn’t work the same way for our two species. We mark days. We have some ideas about the planets and such. We are afraid of jail sentences…. but we know that sentences are shortened, too. And then there’s that Einstein guy with ideas about time dilating if you are going way, way faster, like, near the speed of light.

For cats? Not so much.

So long as you are not hungry and the world is boring, you can Sleep and make time contract, just on your own steam…. not going fast like the speed of light… .At All. For a cat, many sleeps and long ones can appreciably shorten some interval we perceive to be of a fixed length…… not traveling at or near the speed of light.

See? All science-y, but from a cat perspective.

[spotteddrafter]

I’ve left my four home alone for an entire week, without someone to check, and they were fine. I wasn’t all that comfortable with it, but there wasn’t anyone I would trust that was going to be around (we were all going away together). I sat out a bunch of extra food, filled all kinds of water bowls, and sat out several extra cat boxes. All was fine when we got home, no real extra mess to clean up. In the most recent past, I’ve had someone come in about midweek and check on them. Count heads, feet, and scoop the boxes. This year, I’ve got a dog sitter coming to check on my dogs (rather than leave them in a kennel) three times a day, so the cats will have eyes on them every day.