New kitten advice for the holidays?

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie to the site and bring with my a 9 week old kitten. I am having the HARDEST time naming him. He "found" me after I had to put my two other cats down recently. He's the best Christmas present I could ask for. I'm thinking of naming him Mistletoe or Chestnut.

Anyway, I wanted to ask for advice on how to handle going away this coming weekend. I will be spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas day at my sister's house and hate to leave him alone overnight. We are thinking it's probably not a great odea for me to bring him because she has a 2 1/2 year old Golden Retriever. Do you think he's OK alone for 24 hours?

Thanks!

Katie and little No-Name

I would not be comfortable leaving a 9 week old baby for 24 hours. Will you have a separate bedroom at your sisters house where you can keep the kitten? Or have a friend come to check on the kitten at your house? Many breeders keep kittens until they are 12 weeks old, so 9 weeks is very young to be all alone.

he will get bored, lonely and destroy your house! lol

take him with you, better he gets used to dogs now at an early age.

is the dog well trained? cat friendly?

I agree with taking him with you. Golden Retreivers are gentle dogs and they very well might get on well together. I'm assuming you will have your own room for privacy and he could be kept in there with you. I'd take a tin foil baking tin for his litter (which you can also put in the car for the trip like we do for our kitties). (Don't forget the scooper though!)

Noel is a nice name for a little boy too.

congratulations on your new kitten

as for names...hmmm, santa's little helper? seriously, i think the names you have thought of so far ar great or noel.

as for the holidays, last time i went on holiday i had a nine week old kitten and i had to take her because i was gone for two weeks and i didn't trust bonnie with a kitten that would fit in the palm of my hand, pandy was fine, i took her cage if she needed to be away from the other cats (my mum has two cats) and she was very well behaved on the drive too, even though we broke down at midnight in the middle of knowhere and had to be towed to the nearest town lol

i think you should take your kitten and take a carry cage just incase, like the others said, if you have your own room then the kitten will be fine in there with a littler tray, kittens that young are very needy and i think it helps the bonding process to be with them as often as you can when they are kittens.

goodluck and make sure you post some photo's soon



felicia

I was thinking Noel too....I would take him with you!

I certainly wouldn't leave him either, not at that age. Not a wise thing to do.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I didn't want to leave him alone because a) he is so little an I worry about his well-being and b) I can barely stand leaving him when I go to work. I just love him so much!

Thanks for the name suggestions too. I have narrowed down the
Christmas-y names to Noel and Chestnut. But I think his name might be Cosmo!

Merry Christmas!

Cosmos a nice name. Kittens shouldn't leave their homes till ten weeks old. That baby needs a lot of attention!

I'm glad to hear you are taking him with you. I also wanted to say that you should spend as much time holding him and reassuring him as you can while he is in a strange house. The crush of people around may freak him out, too, depending on how many he is used to at home.

If you keep a good eye on him, the dog will not be able to bother him much. Keep him on your lap whenever possible and make sure you take him to the litter box every few hours so he has a chance to go if he needs to.

Good luck!