1st time alone at home

Need some advice about keeping little Calvin at home alone this Saturday. The maximum we've left him alone at home has been about 2 hours. He is 17 weeks old and has been with us for 11 days. He is pretty dependent and follows us around a lot. When my husband goes to work, he seems to get unhappy and meows at the door. There are times when we keep him in his "room" while we eat (he gets on our plate - trying to train him but still work in progress) and he just sits on a chair and stares at the door and calls out once in a while. At home he may play on the main level by himself while we are in the 2nd floor or basement but he comes and checks that we are there periodically. However, we will need to go to a different town about 3 hours away and be there for 3 hours or so. So a total of 10-12 hours is the time we will be away. He eats his wet food at around 6-6:30 in the morning and around 6:30 in the evening and then again at around 11:30 at night. We will be at home during his mealtimes. The rest of the time he has access to dry food. He also has water in each floor of the house. Any advice as to how we can make this trip of ours most comfortable/ least painful for Calvin?

Thanks Darlili for the advice.
Unfortunately, we are not allowed more than 1 cat in our rental house, or else we would have got another.
I will definitely turn on the radio when I leave and I talking to Calvin does not sound like a silly option at all. I speak to him all the time and can definitely explain things to him beforehand. Had not thought of the answering machine conversation, but that seems like an excellent idea. I am feeling guilty for leaving him home but, unfortunately, it has to be done.

Again, very useful advice. Thank you
I am hoping Calvin does not figure out the connection between the refridgerator and food - at least not yet. LOL

As for petsitters, I've heard that one of the ladies working in my vet's office (and they are a great group of people) petsits. She has recently bought a house a few doors down from where we live. So I am hoping to talk to her when I see her next. I do not plan to go on overnight trips without having a petsitter come check on him.

I guess the first few times will be tough on all of us - I know there will be days in the future when Calvin will have to be alone for 10-12 hours, but I just try to tell myself that he's still better off with us since he's so loved and cherished. When we are home he gets hours of playtime and he sleeps in our room. Oh yes, he is pampered.

I suppose it's not advisable to take him with us, is it? 3 hours drive each way and running errands in cold Michigan winter is no fun for us. I don't suppose he'll be up for it and there has to be a 1st time, right?


I get what you are saying and this is where I am very conflicted. When we first got Calvin we set up a room for him- our office. We took the closet door out and his littlebox is kept there. In the room he has his food and water and bed and his toys. It's also the best insulated room in the house. However, we've seen that he does not like to stay in that room by himself. The only place he plays by himself is the open living room/ dining room. It's open to the kitchen, too, but unless we are there, he's not alone in the kitchen much. He just loves looking out of the living room bay window perched up on the sofa back. And since these floors are not carpeted he likes to bring out his toys and play there. Every time he's been alone in his room, he's just sat on a chair and stared at the door. This really breaks my heart. There are 2 windows in that room but he does not look out of those. Even when he's hungry and we just served him dinner and shut the door while we were eating, he did not eat (that's another story - he does not eat his wet food if one of us is not in the room with him) and just sat and stared at the door and called out a few times. In this case, is it still advisable to keep him locked? Also in case i don't, what are some things that I can do to kitty proof the place?
Thanks for any inputs

Thanks, everyone, so so much for all the invaluable advice. It was a strange experience leaving Calvin alone yesterday. We had to leave early and Calvin was not hungry but he played with my husband some. We decided against keeping him locked in his room. We usually keep the bathrooms and guest bedroom on the main level locked. We locked our 2nd floor bedroom and we took the chance that he will not go to the basement. He does not like going there unless we are there and he can play with us or nap. We kittenproofed the house as much as we could. It is our cabinets that do not have child lock but we did take care of wires/ powercords, breakables etc. I was anxious and I have a feeling he picked that up. I took away a grocery bag that he likes to keep at a particular spot since I was scared he could get tangled on the handles - that really upset him that he could not find it - it seems to be his blankie. So we decided to do away with the handles and give it back to him, which made things normal.
Anyways, we left and were constantly worried. We returned home 10 hours later and I think I saw him on the window as we were pulling in. He usually comes to the door when we return home and he did not this time. My heart nearly sank and then we walked through the kitchen to the dining room and he was on one of his favorite spots under the table on the carpet and looked as if he was napping. He walked over to us and scolded us a little and then rubbed himself against out legs and once we were down on the floor he walked over to each of us and showered us with love. It was so cute. So, one hurdle crossed.

Thanks Darlili, Jcat, LDG, LuvMyParker, Ducman69 for all the advice and kind words. I am glad that we crossed that bridge. Would be fun to have a kitty cam, though - maybe will look into it. Planning to get Calvin a cat tree for Christmas - hope he'll love it and will be able to entertain himself when we are not around.

It really is funny how perceptions change after having a pet. We were so particular about keeping out house "perfect" before Calvin came into our lives and now all that's out of the window. We cleared out a closet to put in Calvin's litterbox there and all the stuff from the closet it dumped in the spare bedroom and we have not got around to rearranging them. We got Calvin the Sunday of thanksgiving weekend. The day before we bought a Scanner and I wanted to scan some old photographs. Guess what? The scanner is still unopened - we spend all our time with Calvin. We have his toys (real ones and also paper balls, paper bags, boxes) all around the house since he likes to carry them. We hardly used to use our living room (spend most time in the basement when home or in the study/ Calvin's room) and wanted to keep it pristine for guests. Now we have Calvin using it to stare out of the window and has a blanket on the love seat where he naps.
As for the tree, I am not sure we will be able to keep it where we spend a lot of time, since its the basement. Calvin loves the living room window and may keep it there or the dining room with the patio door - though the outside view is kind of obstructed there. Let's see what we can do. But thanks for the great advice on the tree.