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Question about leaving a cat 1 week (self.animals)

submitted 10 months ago by ShiroTheSniper to c/[email protected]

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Hi! I'll leave home for a whole week this spring and I'm wondering what's best for my 9 years old indoor cat. I have two options:

Ask my retired mother to come home for like 30-45 minutes a day to replenish the food/water, empty the litter box and just be with the cat for a while (to pet her, play with her). My mother doesn't mind at all and has the time for this. My cat isn't shy with her.
Bring the cat to a coworker who owns a caretaking company (at his home) for animals. The cat will be in an unknown environment but will have a human presence multiple times per day, will have her own room with food, water, toys and a litter box. My cat will never be totally alone because my coworker works from home. I'll need to pay him of course but money isn't an issue.

So... I don't know what's best for my cat. she's a rescue and was abandoned 2-3 times in her past. Should I go with 1, with a familiar environment but with less human presence or with 2, unfamiliar environment but with frequent interactions with a stranger?

Thanks for your input!

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[–] Erasmus 5 points 10 months ago

So I guess this is a choice you are going to end up having to make yourself but how does your cat take to being left alone for short periods, as well as, a day or two?

We are in the same boat with ours. We’ve left her at the vet for short hops (couple days up to a week). However, when we bring her back she always seems to have PTSD. I mean literally shaking for a couple days. Our cat knows no stranger, loves everyone and doesn’t mind vet visits but being caged up for days on end with dogs that bark 24 hours a day, well, you get it.

Last short trip we went on we tried leaving her at home with automatic feeders and auto waterers. We set up cameras so we could check in and talk to her and keep an extra eye on the food. Put out an extra litter box, etc. everything worked out great. For two days she was perfect and seemed to care less we were gone.

However by the third day she started acting a little weird. She started pacing a lot. Even chatting with her she began walking through the rooms crying, looking for us. At that point we both realized she was freaking out because she couldn’t find her family and was getting nervous/scared.

So…long story short. We are planning another trip soon for just a few days and have a friend (and cat lover) coming over this time. She has already been over and they immediately bonded and played for quite a while. The plan is her to come over daily, check on food and water levels and play with her for at least an hour. I think if she doesn’t get to see someone after a couple days she starts getting really nervous like she feels abandoned, even though we’ve had her since she was 5 weeks.

[–] lady_maria 4 points 10 months ago

I'd ask your mom to come over. Cats can get super stressed when introduced to new environments.