ER! So much free time to travel! But how do you handle... cats?

[calmloki]

Really don't know what the deal was when she adopted us - she kept staring in the french door and standing against it - beautiful coat but when I put my hand around her back and chest it was like fish bones for a ribcage and not much else. She was chipped and we ended up getting the owner (3 houses away) to transfer ownership to us. Can't understand having a cat like that and not feeding it. Never thought we'd be white long hair cat people, but she is smart and very agile - she has caught multiple bats and brought them to our bed. Not for food - she does the soft mouth. 3AM live bat disposal of a bat hooked into the blanket - now that's a wakeup!

 

[NW-Bound]

Once a cat is outdoor, it will not be happy to be locked inside. Hence, we prefer our cats to be indoor since young, and they never knew to catch let alone eat anything. It's not natural, but they don't know what they are missing, and everybody is happy.

Recently, I visited neighbors, and they had two cats. They were such people lovers that after I scratched their heads and necks, when I left they followed me to the door, wanting to go home with me.

Made me miss having a cat, but my wife was adamant that it was not the time.

 

[Yodajazz]

We travel with our 2 cats in our motorhome. They love it. They think the dashboard is their beach on sunny days.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

For many years i had a great cat sitter who was wonderful with my up to 6 cats. She came twice a day for both care and play for 45 min to an hour each time. Even when a couple of the cats needed oral meds, she had no problem with that, and the cats really liked her. This was great when i had to travel several times a yr for work and once or twice for vacation, up to 10 days each time.

She has moved to another state now.

My cats are now quite old and beginning to pass away. Two died this year, one of them this past Tuesday. Both of those were 18 yrs old, one almost 19.

If I had to travel, the only way that would make sense for the 3 remaining cats (ages 16, 16, 18) is to board them at their vet. The vet has a rather large boarding area with a very large enclosure nearby with several song birds for the cats viewing pleasure and there are also floor to ceiling windows where they can view other fauna in the adjacent parkland. Cages have two section one with bedding and food, the other with litter box. One can also choose a large room for multiple cat boarding where they can see and interact with the hospital staff all day, something my very social cats, two of whom are working cats as they volunteer as therapy animals visiting mainly nursing home and hospice residents, would prefer.

Even with this option, boarding them would make my anxious as they are so used to their home routine. It is really the only option however as one needs sub Q fluids and insulin shots and other meds, and one other also needs insulin.

 

[Marita40]

I also couldn't imagine leaving a cat alone for a month or even more than a week. Despite their reputation they need interaction from humans. When I travel I have a pet sitting person come in every two days to feed, water, and play with my cat--she stays about an hour. The cost is $22/day, which is reasonable. She also checks on the house, brings in the mail, and will do other chores (ie. shovel snow) if requested. She e-mails me after each visit. It is peace of mind for me and my cat.

 

[JoeWras]

She was an indoor cat, and never knew to catch or kill anything. A trait I have not seen on any other cat: she loved to eat sweet corn kernels.

That's what a love about Cats. All the little quirks each have.

People who've never been adopted by a cat have no idea. They think cats just hide or are unfriendly jerks.

We know different. That "jerk" part is something we value as independence. The animal loves us and depends on us, but has enough guts to show who can be boss. No drooling "yes" men/women here.

Some love laps, some love sitting next to you. Some hunt, some pretend to hunt. Some will hiss on a dime and not really mean it, some never hiss. Some will stand on their back legs and beg, others will never do that. "Man, don't be a dog!"

All of them capture our hearts.

 

[GravitySucks]

My cats are now quite old and beginning to pass away. Two died this year, one of them this past Tuesday. Both of those were 18 yrs old, one almost 19.
.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

We have two cats that are both around 10 years old, so they may not be around by the time we retire. I'm not sure what we would do if they are, as both are very attached us, but our joke is that one of them "does not know how to cat", and he tries to "play" with the other one by chasing her. To be fair, he spent a lot of time around German Shepherds, and probably thinks he is a dog. So we couldn't board them together, and only let them be in the same room while we're supervising. Also, one has no teeth, and so can only eat wet food, so leaving a bowl of dry food for them is out, and the petsitter has to come twice a day instead of once.

As much as we love them, we may need to try being a catless household when we retire since we want to travel a lot. Although maybe we'll get lucky -- for a while we lived next to a wonderful couple who had three cats, and we both just walked next door to care for each others' cats whenever needed. But they moved away years ago; you never know when things could change.

 

[googily]

I'll give an update, since I was the one who started the thread. I got home last night after my two weeks (cats were fed every day by neighbors), and the one who is very attached to me squeaked at me for about 30 minutes and, as expected, never let me out of his site. The more independent one was a little aloof, but when I went to bed he visited me four times for petting, three times more than usual. And the attached one started walking back and forth across me about two hours before I got up.

So, they are a touch needy, but two weeks with only token human interaction does not seem to have caused permanent damage.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

sounds like about how mine would react when i traveled more and they were younger.
You should be fine until they get up into their teens and start having perhaps complicated health issues.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Sorry for your loss.

Thanks

 

[cranberryjoe]

I don't travel a lot, but when I leave for longer than a weekend I use a professional pet sitter. The sitter visits the house once a day to tend to the cat's food and litter boxes. Previously I had been using neighbor kids, but they weren't always reliable, adding last minute stress before a trip when trying to find a sitter. So I gladly pay for the professional.

 

[catii]

My wife is a crazy cat lady, & we have 11 Maine Coon kitties. Once our pet sitter retired in 2011, we interviewed a dozen others before we found a woman who had the right experience & a bond. The cats are fine by themselves, as long as they have some interaction with people once a day.

 

[StillFlyin]

I have a couple of friends that have 9 and 11 indoor cats and also feed ferals. When either of them travel, I usually take care of their animals. In trade, they take care of my crotchety old cat and small group of ferals when I travel. We see each other's animals with just visiting, so the cats know us and we are familiar with the cats foibles which makes it easier for all involved.

 

[kgtest]

If you leave a couple of clean litter boxes, enough food and a water.feeder, cats can go for a week on their own. .

When DW and I lived on Maui, we didn't know we had a cat...until we did. Apparently mainlander landlord kept a protein jug full of cat food that we discovered one day about a month into our stay when we noticed cat getting thinner and asked eachother if it was theirs. (outdoor stray). When we discovered that it was sort of an ohana cat, we looked around and found that container of food. My neighbor below was nice enough to get food refills the year we were there.

They even hooked up a cat cam to it once to see where it went...under the ohana lol.

 

[isisdave]

We use a house sitting web site. Works for us. There are several we pay an annual fee but the house sitters are not compensated. Trustedhousesitters.com.

We're house and petsitters for them. I'm typing this in Swansea, Wales, where we're on to out 5th sit in Britain this summer.

It's great for older animals, multiple animals, and ones who wouldn't like being alone or relocated. You pay nothing, your only costs are utilities.

 

[f35phixer]

the exact reason i dont want any pets in RE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Its all about me and DW traveling and not worring about animals !

 

[simple girl]

We have used free live-in housesitters twice.

We have been house/petsitters for free (in exchange for an interesting free place to stay) 4 times now. We absolutely love it.

The websites we have used are housecarers.com and trustedhousesitters.com.

I prefer the latter (trusted) because I can see actual reviews online from other homeowners.

You do have to do your homework/due diligence in screening applicants!

 

[simple girl]

We use a house sitting web site. Works for us. There are several we pay an annual fee but the house sitters are not compensated. Trustedhousesitters.com.

LOL! I believe I have seen your ad! None of the dates have worked for our schedule yet, though.

 

[brett]

We don't have plants, we don't have pets. Strictly lock and leave. And we do both on a very regular basis.

 

[meleana]

Our son has an indoor cat. He travels for a week at a time for work and just uses an automatic indoor feeder and waterer and she does just fine.


If he had to go any longer, he would get someone to come in to check on her and refill the feeder and waterer and change the litter box.

 

[NW-Bound]

My daughter and son-in-law will be out of town for almost 2 weeks. My wife suggested that they could bring their cat to our home for that duration. They said the cat temperament suggested that it could work. Will see.

 

[googily]

My daughter and son-in-law will be out of town for almost 2 weeks. My wife suggested that they could bring their cat to our home for that duration. They said the cat temperament suggested that it could work. Will see.

We used to take cats 1.0 to my parents' house when we were gone for more than a week. It was such an ordeal to corral them when it came time to come home. One figured out how to get into the basement HVAC ducts, and his white belly would remain ash gray for weeks.

I live in a pretty prime location, so I'm sure if I wanted to go the trusted housesitters route I'd have no shortage of applicants. But introvert me isn't quite ready for an invasion of my space by strangers! So I always try for targeted people--friends who now live out of town who might want to spend time in the city, etc. I've even been trying to get the mother of my next door neighbors to take a shift, because it's clearly too much for her to stay over there with two small children and another on the way!

But I now feel pretty comfortable about leaving them with daily visits for two weeks. I might try three next year. [emoji16]

 

[FIYes]

This thread really touches a raw nerve for me. We were just gone for two weeks . We left our cat at home with a neighbor to feed once per day. She mostly ate dry food but got wet food once per day with a blood pressure pill. The cat was very shy and often would hide when the neighbor came by. Well, we got home and she was hiding and obviously very sick. It was the middle of the night when we got home and we ended up taking her to an emergency vet clinic that was open 24hours. Treatment didn’t help and we had her euthanized yesterday. She was 15 and not in the greatest of health. I know this could have happened when we were home but I can’t help but feel remorseful. I am typing this with tears in my eyes...those of you who have lost a pet will understand. We had her since she was a kitten.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I'm so sorry for your loss, FIYes.