Thread: Holidays

Hi everyone, just wanted to get some ideas and best practices on dealing with kitty whilst away on holiday.

Were looking at going away for two weeks next year, but now that Schrödinger's with us were trimming that down to a week just incase there is any issues, etc.

This is obviously the first time we've had to arrange something like this and i'd like it to go smoothly for Schrödinger and us.

The ideas at the moment:

• Try and organise family and friends to come in daily and spend some time with him, clean, feed him, etc.
  
• Ship him off to a cattery/pet hotel (im not really sold on this idea to be honest).
  
• Use a mobile cattery service, there's a local one that will come in to your house, play with the cat, clean the tray, feed, water, open blinds, turn on lights, that sort of thing.
  
• Never go on holiday ever again

The holiday is still about 5 or 6 months away but I'd like to get a better idea and plan this out properly, maybe a mix of family and friends, possible stay overs, etc.

If you have some great cat-friendly family or friends, the ideal solution would be asking one of them to actually live in your house for a week. This would be the least stressful option for Schrodo. If that's not possible, then friend/family calling in every day, twice a day, to feed/water/get jumped on. Failing that, a good pet-sitting service. With all of these, at least Schrodo stays in his familiar environment. For that reason, packing him off to a cattery would be last on my list. It's probably the most expensive option too.

Just spoken with a friend who thankfully loves cats and they've agreed to house sit for the time where away... GREAT.. think i best start making a "know your maine coon" kit for when they come round

Great! Best not tell them too much....!!

Well at the moment they think there going to get mauled when they meet him, so if there willing now then i think we should be good :D

I find with 4 cats holidays are a rare thing for us but when we do go off they are usually cared for my a family member popping in.

Originally Posted by ayeizajedi

Well at the moment they think there going to get mauled when they meet him, so if there willing now then i think we should be good :D

Hehe, maybe he will have calmed down a bit by the time you go away. Just make sure he never learns how to open cupboards.....

Originally Posted by ayeizajedi

Well at the moment they think there going to get mauled when they meet him, so if there willing now then i think we should be good :D

Don't forget to mention Peekaboo - in my limited experience, if people aren't briefed for that it scares the crap out of them (including me the first time Freyja did it!).

We go on holiday,they go on holiday,only once had someone live in with them for a few days & they were more unsettled with us on return than when we pick them up from the cattery,in fact they are not unsettled at all,they put themselves into the pens,they know which ones go with who & when we go to pick them up they lay purring on the shelves or are outside in their pen playing with all the extra boxes that are piled in for them,never have had second thoughts about putting any of my animals into kennels/cattery...
See,have tried to tell people that I am a hard mum,would just be easier to type this if I didn't have three of them trying to give me cuddles & kisses at the same time,better go & have some pussy time.............ooooooooppppss,hope I haven't blown my cover,I am hard,really hard on them !

Originally Posted by ayeizajedi

The ideas at the moment:

• Try and organise family and friends to come in daily and spend some time with him, clean, feed him, etc.
  
• Ship him off to a cattery/pet hotel (im not really sold on this idea to be honest).
  
• Use a mobile cattery service, there's a local one that will come in to your house, play with the cat, clean the tray, feed, water, open blinds, turn on lights, that sort of thing.
  
• Never go on holiday ever again

So far we have chosen your last option, with the two adults/parents alternating family visits and the like. Not a perfect option by any means, but none of the others work well either. No friends that are cat people and/or aren't too busy, no local family, "pet hotels" become very expensive for four cats plus are filled with noisy barking dogs, visiting pet sitters also become very expensive since none are truly local so charge mileage for each visit, etc. At some point soon this is going to become impossible, so will be looking for other options. I have a hard time seeing how these guys that spend so much of their days interacting with us would get on with only brief interactions with strangers for more than a couple of days. Having dogs was a whole lot easier. Not only did they used to travel with us to family events, we have friends who have dogs and will care for them.