cat care during vacation

My husband and I have two cats. We used to have his mother come over and take care of them while we were on vacation. She is ederly and we don't want to have her drive over to our house to check on them. My question is. is it alright to leave cats by thereselves and is so for how long, they would have plenty of food, water and litter boxes? We are not sure about the pet sitters because the way people are today you don't know if we will come home and have stuff missing. We would only be gone 3 1/2 days. I would appreciate any information you can give me. Thanks to everyone who reads this and responds.

I never leave my kitties for longer than 2 days, but that is me... There are pet-sitting companies that are bonded/insured - you would probably be fine... Or a neighbor? # 1/2 days is not too long, but kitties sometimes get into trouble very quickly!

I always have a family member take care of the cats when I'm away.

we got the people in the basement at our house to look after our kitty they just took her downstairs with them and their cat. They said that she isn't getting into trouble or being mean to their cat seem to be getting along.

3 1/2 days is a little too much for me. I have left my cats no longer than two days at a time. Anything after that I have a cat sitter coming by to feed them, play with them and clean the litter box. Our cat sitter is actually a girl I trust....she works with me. She also loves cats.....
Could you ask a friend you trust to come over? Good luck

We leave for shows on a Friday and come home late on Sunday night and leave extra water bowls and fill up the dry food.

Can you get her to stop over one time during those 3 days to check on things? And just add water or food if necessary.

I agree with another poster maybe ask a friend or someone you trust look in on the cats one or two days.

I've seen too many goofy things happen to ever let my cats stay alone. One cat I sat for got himself stuck behind the corner of a huge L-shaped desk and could not get out. Another one got hooked to a screen and one shut himself in the bathroom when he pushed the door closed. These were things the owners had said their cats had never done before, so I just closed off those rooms for the duration.