Military and pets

I am thinking of joining the Army Nurse Corps and I was wondering if anyone out there has any advice on what to do with the fur kids while I am gone. I am thinking of joining Reserves but I still have that 2 week (at least) a year commitment. I am single so having an SO watch them is not an option. I will probably be moving away from my family and friends by the time I join so they will probably not be a feasible option. I have never had a house sitter, but I would be willing to consider something like that. Anyone out there a reservist or active duty and run into this?

Probably not what you want to hear, but I don't think pets and the single military lifestyle go together very well. The 2 week a year training is one thing, but you also need to consider the other possibility. An awfully large percentage of reservists and national guardsmen are going to end up being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan for a year or more. If you're having a hard time figuring out what to do with your kitties for 2 weeks, what are you going to do if you should get deployment orders? If you can't figure that out, it's not fair to your pets to join up IMO.

I agree single military life and pets probably don't go together. However, I currently live on a Reserve Base, even though we are active duty. If you can live somewhere near, within an our or so, of where you will be stationed reservist serve a regular workday, sometimes a couple hours longer, when they come in. (Which is one weekend a month and a two weeks a year) Plus any field time your MOS (Army may different term) may require. And don't forget about boot camp. (I know the Marine Corps requires it for reservist too)

EDIT: Pets are not allowed in the barracks. You would have to live out in town if you wanted to keep your pets. Most military housing will not allow single occupants, but here you can get a roomate...not so at most bases.

I would enlist as an officer so boot camp is not quite the same as with enlisted. The Nurse Corp reservist can be deployed, of course, but it doesn't seem to be as high of a percentage as regular reservists. I have a married friend in the Air Force (he's a nurse as well) that was deployed because he volunteered but hasn't gone otherwise. My best friend (she has 2 rabbits and a dog that her parents watched)was deployed because she volunteered as well. I don't mind being deployed-- deployments with the Nurse Corp are 9 months unless you want to go longer. I am just trying to figure out if there is a way to do this. I am 1 that researches all options before jumping into it.

If it something you really want to do and have done your research then I guess you have a few options. You can board your animals while you are away, get a house sitter, or just get someone to come over to feed your cats and clean their litter boxes once or twice a day. We had an outdoor cat where we lived before and I always got the neighbor kid to come over and feed and water her everyday and then I'd give him $5.00 or so when we returned.

Good luck and hope you figure it all out. Just make sure that whatever the recruiter tells you that you get it in writing, otherwise they tend to give false promises.

I think your best bet would be to find a responsible person that you trust and just have them house sit and watch your pets. The only other option would be to board them somewhere if you dont have any friends or family that could watch them. I would choose a house sitter over boarding though. I had to board my two dogs once and it was very stressful on them. They were only there for a week, but they lost a bunch of weight while they were there. I won't do that again, I would def go with a house sitter, just make sure you find someone you can trust and have a written contract of what they are and are not to do, along with emergency contacts and stuff should something go wrong with one of the pets.

How close are you to your vet and his staff? One of our vet's techs lives near us, so if we had to travel, we'd pay her to stop by to and from work.

But I'd definitely get a reference from a vet for a sitter!