Separation Anxiety - Them *and* Me!!

I know that dogs can get depressed when their owners go on vacation and stop eating, etc...what about cats? I plan to leave my 2 kitties at home because I know that's where they're most comfortable...and just have a friend stop in every couple of days to scoop the box and top off the food and water.

Before, I just had one cat, who was pretty independent. I know that he MISSED me when I was gone...just not too much. But now I have another cat who is VERY dependent on me. This sounds sort of ridiculous, but I'm sort of worried that he might get depressed if I'm gone.

Has anyone had this happen with their cats?? Any ideas?

This post makes me thing that I am OFFICIALLY a cat person.

I was in the same sort of situation a couple of weeks ago.

I went to my boyfriends for new year for a few days and like you had a neighbour go in everyday to check on them.

I received a text message on the first night from him just to let me know that they were ok, but that Sophie must be missing me because she was hiding under the bed and wouldn't come out which is very unusual for her because out of the pair of them she's the biggest flirt when it comes to people in the house and Rosie is the timid one!.

But by the second day she was fine

I came home after 4 days and went straight up to their room and Sophie looked at me as if to say " Where have you been!" but 20 minutes of being home she was headbutting my legs for ages and came straight onto my lap as soon as i settled down for the night

So don't worry, it helps that theres two of them because when i just had Rosie she was very clingy for a week after i'd been away

Hi Julia. We used to catsit a neighbor's Ragdoll. She was always friendly to us when our neighbor's were there. However after they left for vacation, when we entered the house to feed her, and to try to make her feel better, this poor girl would just sit on their bed staring at us. It was clear that she was sulking, and sad that her humans were not around. By all accounts she felt just fine when they returned however. So dont worry, your furbabies will be a bit sad, but will brighten right up when you return

I am in the same boat. we go on vacation Feb 14-20, three friends are taking shifts coming into play with her and fed clean etc and my husband says the separation anxiety is all on MY part. but i care for this little creature more than I can say in words.

PJ was always able to be left without any problems. She's a very independent cat (with tortitude, too!).

Teddy, on the other hand, was different. The first few times we went away after we adopted him, even when his IBS was being straightened out, he would throw up almost every day. There was nothing physically wrong (he's been to the vet a million times), so what we thought was that he had separation anxiety. It took us going away about 4 times for him to realize that yes, we do come back!

Because PJ is an absolute wreck if we try and take her out to the vet, we have a sitter come twice a day whenever we're gone. She made sure to come over, meet the cats, play with them, etc. before we left them with her the first time. Teddy was still doing the throw up thing then, so we kept having the sitter come over each time before we go away. She still does it, so that PJ and Teddy can see, smell, and touch her before we go away. Teddy has done absolutely wonderfully over about the past year - his anxiety seems to be passing.

I'm also in the same boat right now. I am finishing some things up overseas and I had to leave my cat home with my family. And let me tell you, it was not only painful for me at first, but from what I was told, Miya cried and cried the first three days. She was eating and she used her litter box just fine--two things I was worried about.

Miya is also very dependent of me. I try to get her to be more independent, but I think I am very dependent on her as well!

I know she still misses me, but I have a very strong feeling she knows I'm coming back home soon. I can't explain it, but I have a feeling and from her behavior--like spending most of the time upstairs in our room, she knows mommy will be home.