Cattery / staying at home question

Hi everyone,

Wasn't sure where to post this, please redirect me if this isn't the right place!

My boyfriend and I are going away to a wedding from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, the weekend after next, we've booked a cattery for this time, as we feel it's too long to leave them on their own with only a neighbour who doesn't really know them well coming in and feeding them..

Now, we're going away the weekend after from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. I would love to hear some opinions on what we should do in this time. Should we leave them on their own with the neighbour coming to feed them? The neighbour would give them attention but I'm not 100% sure how they'd react as they're only confident with us, and it'd only be a brief visit. Or should we put them in the cattery again? My gut feeling is to leave them at home for this time. They're only 4 1/2 months old though, and we've only had them for just under 1 month. They're settled in, and as you may have guessed there are two of them, but do you think it would be fair leaving them on their own for that time? We're out of the house from 8AM to 6PM normally anyway, so they're used to being left for quite a while, but I can't make up my mind!

Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I definitely wouldn't leave them alone at that age - even if you've cat proofed everything you can think of, they can still come up with new tricks and you don't want to come home and find some disaster (like I did once - a long, very heavy glass shelf in shards all over the kitchen floor - it had been untouched by feline paws for 3 yrs previously!). I would also think the cattery would be best even just o-nite because how would your neighbour feel coming in, seeing a kitten rush past her, and not be able to catch it?

Well the thing is, we would leave them with access to their room (which is completely kitten proof - nothing in it apart from a solid bed!), and access to the upstairs and downstairs hall, which have nothing in that they could break/attack/ruin. (literally nothing!) So that wouldn't be an issue, they happily play with their toys as opposed to items around the place. And we'd give the neighbours our back door key, which means they can come in and get into the kitchen and close the door before opening the door to the hall.

I do appreciate your opinion though! It's just more of a case of whether they'll be okay on their own boredom-wise.

I say leave the cats home and have the neighbor come in to feed them and give water for the time you are gone.

We show cats and can leave Ling home with food and extra water for a weekend trip from Friday to Sunday night. We do have a dog, so the neighbor comes over to feed and let her out for potty. But they don't have to worry about the cat.

They will be more comfortable in their own home. I wouldn't worry about them, especially since you have a neighbor to check on them. They have each other for company.

i vote for the cats being in their own territory and having someone come in. I have left my cats alone only twice and each time had people come in to change water, feed her and scoop and even to spend time playing with her and each time she did very well.

New spaces are very stressful for cats. far more stressful than a kind lowkey person who gives them food.

Yeah, since they're so young, and you're only going to be gone for 2 full days, I'd say leave them at home. You can just dump a bunch of food (they're kittens so they won't just eat and eat and get used to it) and go, but it's probably better to have the neighbor come by and fill up their food bowls, maybe play a bit with them.

Kittens learn by being frustrated, and will probably spend the time you're away exploring and looking for you. They'll know you're gone and will probably explore more, looking for you and possibly getting into things. Neither trip is very long, and my wife's family used to regularly leave their cats at home for short weekend trips, just giving them more food. 2 days isn't enough time for their litter to get smelly or anything, and they're just now comfortable with the space so it's probably better to not take them to a cattery quite yet.

Well the first trip, from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, we've booked the cattery for already, and had done a while ago, as we're not happy to leave them on their own for that time, it's only the Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon trip that we were thinking about leaving them at home. I think we will do exactly that, I feel confident enough that they'll be okay from what I've read here!

Thanks for your opinions everyone.