Thread: Holidays

We are away over Christmas,booked my six into their two apartments way back in March & it was not long after that the cattery was fully booked for that period....
They are all taking their stockings with them but not putting any new mice in it,they have been banned from having them in there due to them always getting drowned & then hidden in beds !

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.

I have six to budget for so put money away in their holiday pot every week,don't they have cats only where you are NCarver,most of the catteries in this area are for them alone,no dogs involved & where mine go she knows all the cats as individuals,their likes & dislikes,if they like to have interactive play or just be talked too & not touched,I know mine get spoilt more there than they do at home....
I have also seen people come into work in panic mode because their "sitter" arrangements have broke down at the last minute,stress for owner & even more stress for pet,one family the dad stayed at home because they couldn't get the animal in anywhere & would it have been fair anyway at the age of eight to put it in somewhere for a couple of weeks for the first time ever & under that situation,when we have any newbies if there are no breaks planned for several months they go down & have a couple of nights break anyway to get used to it quite early on,does seem weird to know they are only a mile down the road but is great to know that when you are leaving them for a genuine reason they accept it,& that they are happy & giving someone else the head butts & kisses,apparently the owners husband had never been kissed by a cat until he cleaned out our cats trays & Shimba put that to rights,he allows extra time now when ours are in to have kisses & cuddles with "The boy"!Couldn't ask for more & I know they are safe,no getting out by accident because someone has forgotten the open door rule,she also knows the cats so well that if they f**t wrong work gets a call to check to see if they need to be looked at,I know that applies to all the cats in her care,she is so observant within having a cat in her care for less than a hour she had determined it was not right,had it up to us & saved its life,very happy owners when they got back who admitted it had seemed off for a couple of days but thought it was due to them getting ready to go away & had said nothing too her...
Talking of trays,here we go,round two of the day already ,thats one thing I don't miss on holiday.

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!).

Makes the halloween trick & treaters seem tame doesn't it...

We had this dilemma a few weeks ago when we went to Guernsey for a few days. I asked a friend to house/cat sit but she couldn't because her dad was unwell, so I got my rather fabulous neighbour to pop in a couple of times a day for feeding, cleaning and cuddles. She's been rather looking forward to us going away to be honest - she was jealous as all hell when she heard I was getting a Coonie and doubly so when she saw Wicca too! My last option was the cat hotel, but mainly because at the time Freyja would have been on her own and I hated the thought of that. When we go to Alaska next year, I will seriously consider the cat hotel if I can't persuade anyone to move in for a fortnight. Bizarrely, the house sitter route is the most expensive one available to me - the cat hotel is cheaper and I've got two really good ones within 10 minutes from my house.