Cat care when you are out of town...

[malkin]

I'm not sure what to arrange for Txukka when we leave. We'll be gone for 5 days in December and a bit longer in about February. He's not quite a year old. Our former cat was ok in the condo if someone came in to leave food and check water and his box, but I'm worried that our little Txukka would be lonely and/or get into trouble or wreak havoc in our bigger house.

Boarding?
House sitter?
Go stay with friends?

What do you do with your furbabies?

[Veronica]

We have the best neighbors who come down twice a day to feed our indoor babies and our collection of ferals.

We actually make sure we schedule our vacations at separate times because when they are gone, we take care of their fur babies.

Veronica

[indysteel]

I have a professional pet sitter who comes once a day. We have two cats currently. When the youngest was still pretty young (I think she was about 4months), we left her in a bedroom by herself for a week so that she wouldn't get into any trouble. She probably hated it, but she survived. We paid the pet sitter for an extra long visit each day so that she could spend plenty of time with both of them. A few months after that, we went on another weeklong trip and just went back to our regular routine of having a pet sitter in once a day. Of course, our house is otherwise cat/kitten proofed. They're alone most of the day anyway so leaving them by themselves didn't seem to pose a huge threat. I wish I could afford twice a day visits, but it's usually cost prohibitive.

ETA: Most, but not all, cats do not do well when taken out of their space/routine. Boarding or moving them to somebody else's house for the week, for me, would be the least attractive options for this reason.

[Koronin]

Where we used to live a neighbor (two houses over) would check o them while we were gone. When we are gone for long weekends, we just leave them with plenty of food and water and clean the litter box that morning. If we're gone longer than that one of hubby's co workers will come and check on them.

[bmccasland]

I admit I board my two fur babies. Partly because Calypso has the very bad habit of pooping near but not IN the litter box . They're boarded at PetsMart together, and they're out twice daily for some personal play time.

I think if Calypso had better potty habits, then I'd get a neighbor to pet-sit, coming in to check on them, pooper-scoop litter boxes once or twice daily.

[indysteel]

I admit I board my two fur babies. Partly because Calypso has the very bad habit of pooping near but not IN the litter box . They're boarded at PetsMart together, and they're out twice daily for some personal play time.

I think if Calypso had better potty habits, then I'd get a neighbor to pet-sit, coming in to check on them, pooper-scoop litter boxes once or twice daily.

I hope I didn't make you feel bad about boarding them. I was just speaking generally about it. What's important is that they're cared for. I will say that this is where having a professional care from them is helpful. I have used several and they have all been immune to animal issues like going outside the box. Our current one was quite understanding of Sophie's issues in using the box as she got old. She's also comfortable medicating them and otherwise humoring their odd habits.