Would you leave your animals and not be in contact?

I am currently looking after a dog for people who are on vacation, away for over two weeks. So far, 9 days in, I have not heard a peep out of them. There are no problems, the dog is the one I found in the forest last year and who stayed here until I found him a family, so he knows me and the house and is quite happy. But could you go away for even a few days, let alone two weeks, without contacting your pet-sitter? I am usually a pest on the phone or email, remembering things, asking questions etc. And my daughter, who is staying with me right now, is in contact about her cats almost every day. She was in a terrible panic yesterday when the sitter couldn't find one of them. Of course, it was a false alarm, but one we all understand very well. So I guess what I am asking is, how long can you hold out without contacting home?

I stay in daily contact with whomever is taking care of our kitties, either email or phone.

BUT if I knew YOU were taking care of them, I'd give you my contact info knowing they were having top-notch care and that you would call if there's a problem. I'd finally have a relaxing vacation. 

Two weeks? Of course I'd call! However I actually leave my cat alone by himself, so there is no way I can contact him. The longest time he's been home alone is 5 days.

When we go on our cruise our neighbor takes care of the kitties.     I don't usually call from the ship or the islands, but a soon as we get back to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale i'm on the phone with her immediately!   I know they're in good hands with her, they know her and she is good with them.   She's the only person, outside of Paul and me, that Tony trusts!

Maybe they're afraid you'd think they didn't have much confidence in your care if they called or emailed. Your being the person who originally found him might play a role.

I used to call twice a week, but nowadays I do it at least every other day because of Jamie's age and health problems. My m-i-l always assures me that she'll call if there are problems and says I should stop worrying, so I get a bit of a guilty conscience about checking up on things often.

I would be calling at least every two or three days, just to check on things. I have only had Angel for a little over 3yrs now.

 I have only been out of town once in that time.  My mom, sister, & I went to an aunts house in the mountains,( 6hrs away), for a weekend.

I had never left him before, (& he's my heart), so of course, I cried when I left him. So far, that's the only time I have been away.

I knew he was in good hands, a long time client of mine that has cats as well, stayed the weekend, to "kitty sit" him.

I couldn't afford to pay her money, but paid her w/ a gift certificate w/ me for a massage & a facial! (this was a treat, because she usually only came to me for waxing!)

When we got into the car, my sister later told me, "I thought, she's either got a cold, or she's crying."   YUP! I was a big ole baby, leaving my baby!

we also cruise, so one week. but my sister-in-law takes care of our cat in our home, and she is a professional pet sitter with a dozen cats of her own.

I went away for one night and called/Facebook messaged the girl watching our dog. The cats are more independent and I've left them home alone for a couple of days, but we haven't ever gone away for more than that.

When l was on my cruise l sent a text to my friend who was looking after them just to check, but goodness knows what l would have been like had she said something was wrong when l was thousands of miles away   

As I am married to a dairy farmer we never go away together, so when I do go over to the UK he is here looking after everyone, I of course ring every evening the conversation goes something like this

Me,Evening sweetheart

The OH, Hi

Me hows the dogs?

ok

hows grey and Culotte?

ok

hows the cats?

ok

are they all in?

yes

sheep ok?

yes 

cows ok?

yes

chickens ducks and geese ok?

yes

pigs alright?

yes

oh yes and how are you ok?

yes

So yes even with the OH in charge I ring every day 

I would leave my contact information with the person caring for my cats.  Whether I call daily would depend on who was caring for them, and what the sitting arrangements were.  For example if it was someone I know and they have pets and I know how they are with them, and they were checking on them twice daily, or staying there, I'd probably leave it up to them to contact me if there was something wrong.

If the pets were in a boarding situation IE: at my vet's like I sometimes do, I just leave my contact information because I know they are being cared for and that they have permission to treat them if they are unwell.  I'd leave it up to them to determine if it was serious enough to contact me.
 

I wouldn't be leaving my cats anywhere I didn't have full confidence in the care they'd be receiving, so daily checkin's wouldn't be needed. And I know the carer or cattery would be calling me if there were an issue.  I wouldn't want to bother them with daily or even every few day check ups.

Most boarding places and pet sitters do weekly updates via email or text. 

I couldn't stand it.  Whenever I'm out of town I call home at least twice a day to check on the animals.  I usually have a pet sitter stay in the house.  I know they think I'm a pain but they are my kids and I want to make sure they are okay.  Yeah... so sue me
 

I travel a lot, and use pet sitting a lot.... Unfortunately, I learned the wrong way that having your full confidence on someone isn't necessarily worth much.
I call, and now I have others check in too. I am no longer a trusting person unless I know that sitter for many years, and even so, I am in daily contact, no matter where I am.

I try not to call/text/etc. I'm sure they would contact me if something was majorly wrong, and if they did say something was minorly wrong there's nothing I could do about it anyway, so it would be a lot of unnecessary stress. But usually it's family members so I might contact them just to say hi and manage to ask about the animals somewhere in the conversation. . .:lol3:.

I always ask how mine are the MIL looks after them while i'm away so I know they are in good hands but still ask, I couldn't not ask to be honest.

Usually once a week. I find cats are different than dogs though. Trout just lays around and I know that so if there is anything to report, the petsitter would let me know. (Since its DH's mom)

I do like to be in contact once daily. Just a quick check in. Makes me happy even to hear that all is well - and I am like Carolina, though, not so trusting and have had some bad experiences with sitters. So I do stay on top of my sitters now. We also have a couple of web cams - which the sitter knows about. I do not watch the web cams when away though :lol3: It is just makes honest people stay honest!!!

I got a scare with a cat sitter when Goldy's kittens were less than 2 weeks old. You can read that story here. Since then I make sure I have someone I absolutely trust, with one or two others as backup. At least two of them have keys to the house and they have each other's phone numbers. I don't generally call while I'm gone because I do trust them. I did make an exception a couple of weeks ago when I realized halfway through my vacation that I would be getting home a day later than I had told the sitter. :anon: I had to ask her to come in one extra day.

The last time that I had to leave my animals with someone else was when I had my heart procedure done in 2010. Ranger was the only dog I had at the time and he was a puppy, so my sister and her family puppy-sat him for the time I was away (about 8 days if I remember right). My mom went over to my apartment daily to check on my cats & fish and feed them. My family loves my pets as much as I do, so I knew they would be well cared for! Nonetheless, I still called every single day to check on them, and my family sent me lots of pictures/ texts updating me on Ranger and the cats. (My pets are like my children, and I was miserable being away from them for that long. It eased my mind to know they were doing well and being cared for properly with people that love them.) They even saw to it that Ranger was able to attend his Obedience class that week, so things stayed a bit normal for him.

I could never leave my pets alone without checking in on them often; I would just worry too much! I haven't left mine since then (I just haven't had a vacation or anything). In the past when I've gone somewhere though, they've always stayed with trusted family members, and I've left detailed lists with instructions, phone numbers, the whole nine yards. (I also call my vet & e-vet offices ahead of time to let them know that they have my permission to treat my animals/bill me if one of them should become sick and my family needs to bring them in. I think it's best to just try and plan for the unexpected and cover all your bases!

(I also think it's a good idea for those of you who go on vacation to put a temporary tag on your pets with your contact info for while you're out of town. It's also good to call the microchip company if they're chipped, and let them know that you'll be out of town and give them an alternate number to call if need be.)