Going on vacation and I'm heartbroken about leaving my cats :(

Hello my fellow cat lovers! I'm going on vacation for 5 days and I am dreading leaving my cats at home [emoji]128553[/emoji][emoji]128546[/emoji]. They're two Persian cats and require so much maintenance and my parents nor my partner's parents are cat lovers, so they don't understand. Any ideas? I will not do PetSmart boarding because of their terrible reviews and their recent negative reputation on animal cruelty. What do you guys do when you go on vacation? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions [emoji]9786[/emoji]️.

I paid my sister to come twice daily to feed Baby. I figured that it was better to pay family than it was to pay strangers to take care of Baby, and that way Baby also got to stay home in an environment that she's comfortable with. She had her own bed, her toys and no strangers or strange cats. It worked out wonderfully.

BabyHuffman said:

I paid my sister to come twice daily to feed Baby. I figured that it was better to pay family than it was to pay strangers to take care of Baby, and that way Baby also got to stay home in an environment that she's comfortable with. She had her own bed, her toys and no strangers or strange cats. It worked out wonderfully.

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My sisters all have young kids (2 and 3 year olds) and I don't trust them with the cats lol. The kids are so wild and they don't understand that cats are like family and shouldn't be chased or thrown around (not that they have done that, but I can see it happen).

Maybe a friend would be willing to come to your house to feed your cat and take care of the litter box. I only said family because my sister was willing to do it. And it was just a matter of her coming in for a few minutes to feed the cat and then leave again.

We have a professional pet sitter come twice a day. Your vet might be able to recommend somebody - perhaps a vet tech who does it on the side.Your local shelter or a groomer might also know of somebody reliable.

Do you have neighbors with cats who would be willing to trade catsitting services?

I was out of town last month for 8 days.  I had two of my friends come and check on my cats while I was gone. They alternated days between the two of them so someone was there every day I was gone.  My friends know each other and are comfortable communicating with each other if the schedule needed to be adjusted as to who was coming over on which days. When I go on shorter trips I just use one friend to cat sit. I agree about reaching out to your vet's office to see if any of the tech's do pet-sitting. You could also ask any co-workers who have cats or dogs if they know anyone that could help.  Also if you are in an area where you have people out walking their dogs ask them if they know anyone.  A friend of mine found a cat-sitter by talking to dog owners in our neighborhood. I usually took care of her cats for her but she found out she had to go out of town for work while I was going to be on vacation.  I did not know about this until after I got back from vacation. My neighbor and I used to cat sit for each other all the time but she got a new job where she was traveling a lot.   I am very sure that if I had asked my friend who was taking care of my cats she would have been willing to visit my friend's cats too since we were also neighbors.  When my friend told me about it I asked my friend who watches my cat if she would be willing to check on my friend's cats too if the situation came up again.  She was more than willing to walk next door and spend time with my friend's cats too.  I gave my friend my cat sitters number with her permission so she could contact her directly if she needed to. My cat sitter  stepped up and checked on my neighbors cats for me when I had to go out of town unexpectedly for an out of state funeral.  One of her cats required daily medication at this point  but he was great about taking his medicine.  My cat sitter knows how to give cats medicine and made sure Neo got his diabetes medication while I was out of town.