Cat sitter, what would you do?

[PinkSparklyElephant]

We don't have anyone who can look after H when we go away so we have a cat sitter. We're really pleased with her and she seems reliable but we are looking at around £450 for next year's holidays. I have found someone else who is a lot cheaper and seems very nice but she doesn't seem very good at replying to emails.

Would you stick with the more expensive sitter we have or would you persevere with trying to get hold of the cheaper one? (Obviously if we meet her and don't like her we wouldn't go with her anyway.)

Thanks in advance

[cozietoesie]

Is the £450 affordable or will it mean a financial crisis? What is your current sitter doing for that?

[givemushypeasachance]

Is that a cat sitter who lives in your house, or is this a lot of holidays? Just curious as when I was making recent enquiries local sitters (Bristol) seemed to be around the £8 for one visit a day, £15 for two visits a day type mark, but I guess two visits a day for four weeks would total up to £450 if there were a couple of holidays to cover...

[juneybean]

I'd enquire with the cheaper one and see if she was nice.

Incidentally I pay £6 per visit and she spends 30 minutes with him.

Not sure how much its going to cost now I have two!

[PinkSparklyElephant]

The £450 will stretch us a bit (I know we should have thought before we booked!) but if we have to pay it we will. It's £18 a day for 2 visits for 3 holidays, a short break in March, 2 weeks in May and a week in September.

I wanted to ask on here as in RL I've been told to only have one visit a day or, even worse, buy an automated feeder and don't have a cat sitter!

[cozietoesie]

Not quite so bad then.

If your original sitter is fine, she knows the cat and so on, I'd be tempted to stay with her unless the 'alternate' comes back with some very good reason for the delays in the emails. Reliability means a lot to me when I'm possibly out of country and not able to deal with any emergency.

[juneybean]

No I absolutely would have two visits a day plus an auto feeder for comfort eating but I spoil my boy :/

[PinkSparklyElephant]

We've done it, booked our previous cat sitter. It will ruin my holiday if I'm worrying that he hasn't been fed so it's definitely worth the money.

I must remember to factor in the cat sitting to the cost of the holiday though!