Holidays - what do you do?

When you go on holiday?
I have a cat sitter come to the house twice per day. She feeds the girls and she's supposed to play with them too.
I still always feel so guilty when we go away as the girls are home alone, with no outside access for a week, while I'm away having fun
It never seems fair.
What do you do?

I hire people to come and house/cat sit. Trusted relatives and friends make surprise visits to check on the sitters.

If i'm going away for longer then a couple days I bring them with me for christmas. Last year I went home for 10 days, so I brought my cats. But it is only a two hour trip, and there were lots of room to keep them. This year it'll only be 4 days, so I'll have someone come check on them daily, same as I do when I go away for a weekend......

Originally Posted by Jessy

When you go on holiday?
I have a cat sitter come to the house twice per day. She feeds the girls and she's supposed to play with them too.
I still always feel so guilty when we go away as the girls are home alone, with no outside access for a week, while I'm away having fun

It never seems fair.
What do you do?

Click to expand...

Not having outside access is safer for cats.
Sometimes I have my son look in on my cats.

I have always had sitters come in twice a day for care for my cat when I'm gone more than 12 hours. Since my cats never go out, there's no problem with them remaining indoors. HOWEVER, when my first cat was 19, I was away for 10 days, the longest I had ever left her, and she got a bladder infection that the vet said was from the stress of my being gone. The year earlier I had people live in the house when I was gone, but since that cat hated people, it seemed to be more stress for her to have "live ins." I think she was just too old for me to leave her at all, and I didn't leave her again until she left me for the Bridge a year later.

My current boy is only 5, but he's the most social cat in the world--just loves people. So when I go away next week, I will have someone living in the house--in addition to a neighbor teen who will come to play with him each day--because I know he needs human contact so very much.

This is all to explain that what you do for your cat is in some ways dependent on the cat's personality, age, health, etc.

We only go away on weekend trips right now. If we're gone longer than 2 days, I'll have someone come in and feed all 16 pets. Shorter than two days I dig out free feeders and make sure all water sources are available (that includes the toilet for the cats because apparently that water is fresher than the bowl I put out).

He comes with, since I'm usually going to my folks' and my Dad wants to see 'his kitty cat'.

Mine, unfortunately have to stay home; I'm never gone more than 2-3 days, and am always leary to walk into the apartment, not knowing what 'fun' they've had, but they are usually fine, aside from being extremely pesty when we get home

I don't travel - can't find anyone to cat sit for me.....not with my lot. The one time I did travel - the "cat sitter" lost one of the dogs, forgot to feed another of the cats, & did a terrible job on litterboxes.

More often than not I take Zoe with me. I also have a great group of friends who adore Zoe and practically line up if I need someone to watch her.