Neighbours on holiday and left dog in house

I keep seeing this thread pop back up because I commented on it last week, and every time it upsets me.

I’m WFH today and our cat is currently lying on the ironing board watching me - he has been out in the garden for a bit, come in to use the litter tray, hustled me for snacks, then come out with me/back in while I hung up the washing. I honestly cannot even imagine him being left to fend for himself for a week, and this is a boy who was found abandoned as a kitten in a woman’s shed.

There's a word for people like you but I'm too polite to use it. Just know that karma will arrive. In spades. You deserve every evil thing coming your way! DOMESTIC PETS are NOT fully capable of looking after themselves, not even cats! I imagine he was happy to see you return, he'd just been abandoned for an extended period of time (a week to you, heaven knows how long it felt for him!), so yes, he was relieved! You don't deserve him!

I'm shocked at how many people here are implying that it's ok (not great, but ok) for a dog to be let out only once a day! Have you ever held your pee for 24 hours? I'm guessing not!

Could you offer to have the dog when they go away?

Councils have animal welfare departments- try that too. Totally unacceptable to leave an unhappy animal like that.

I had this happen once. Lived in a new build semi with paper thin walls. Youngish couple lived next door. First I knew of it was the dog (a Dalmatian, so high maintained and a fairly recent addition) was crying when I went to bed and didn't stop. 2am I knocked on the door, no answer. I called the police as I had no idea what had happened. They turned up after about an hour, took some details and said they would try and contact relatives. Turns out they had gone away for the weekend and left the dog in the kitchen...

Anyway, 6 months later and the dog was gone, presumably given up as it was hard work. Year or so later they had a kid and split up shortly afterwards.

How utterly predictable.

I would contact RSPCA/SSPCA - depending where u are. Also contact local
council and dog warden. Also the police. Also if accommodation is rented contact housing association or landlord. I agree that RSPCA will likely not take much action if someone is feeding/ watering and letting out. But clearly the dog is distressed. So contacting other agencies means hopefully they will talk to each other and hopefully dog will be helped.
if by any chance you know if dog was bought/ got from rescue you could also contact them - as I’m sure neither a breeder or rescue would be happy with this situation.

Irresponsible pet owners, that dog needs far more than one visit in 24hours.

if you cannot afford pet care while on holiday don’t get a pet - or if they can cope with the car journey go on say UK holidays you can take your pet.

I knew someone whinging about cattery costs while they were going on a month long trip to Australia (that cost quite a few thousand). Joke.

We have had our rescue 7 years, we have to pack for the holidays whilst she is elsewhere because the first time we got the suitcases out she got herself into such a state that we ended up at the vets. I don't doubt that before us she had been left for extended periods whilst previous owners were away. It is so cruel.

That is absolutely unreal.
Why not put the cats up for rehoming?

Some people need to be banned for life from
keeping animals of any sort.

They all need routine daily care, wether a stick insect or a horse.

People are A-holes!!
my mum and dad had a couple living opposite with a couple of cats… they went on holiday and arranged for someone to come and feed the cats…. When they got back they decided they’d be holidaying every year from then on….
so they had the cats PTS !! We were stunned when we asked where the cats had gone!

Cats and dogs are NOT the same! Dogs are not so independent

You're a fucking disgrace

Cats are indigenous in most places and the domestic cat is a fairly recent adaptation by felines, they having found that humans valued ratting and mousing in grain stores. That function diminished, humans found cats to be companionable and both species have adapted to that.
Coming 'from nature' and being 'natural' are overworked emotive concepts. Hobbes said it, I am afraid: the state of nature is nasty, brutish, and short. We are now far from nature in the UK, happily for us - and cats (who need shelter and to be fed, as do we - and dogs).
Off thread, but as a teenager I loved stories by Gerald Durrell, who was a collector for zoos and set up a breeding sanctuary in Jersey. He said to critics that it was all very well to admire natural habitat but the animals he provided to zoos had a life free from disease, hunger and pain, from which they were not free in the wild. It was a justification for his job, but does underline that a natural life may not be a very long or very healthy life (ferral cats, for example, have much shorter lives than their homed brothers and sisters).

Most on here are reacting as if dogs have the same feelings about abandonment as a human would. They do not. Also, dogs sleep for around 16 hours a day - if you have a dog you can check this - my six-month-old puppy is asleep at the moment, we having had a half-hour in the garden twice this morning, where he skeetered around chasing an old plant tray and a mushroom punnet (no idea, but I am trying to teach him 'fetch', with varying results). He has gone to sleep after both sessions, his alternative entertainment being to sit on my Victorian sofa and bark at nothing through the front door (or possibly at my late DH, since dogs 'see' things we do not and late DH is forever leaving hearing aid batteries, etc where I know I have swept and they cannot be). Does the dog howl 24/7 or just when the carer comes and goes away? 'All the time' is misleading, the only way to check is to note times it howls and when it stops. RSPCA will not be interested as the dog is being looked after.

Exactly! What kind of shitty person would do this? Well, I guess we know. Poor cat.

RSPCA are absolutely useless but it sounds like they helped some people on here so might be worth a try. If you do pm someone Def do some vetting on your side first, otherwise it could be a scam to take the poor animal and do something much worse to him.

These people sound like absolute scum, poor dog :(

If they rent their house then inform
their landlord.

That’s surely torture for the poor dog?
my heart!
Maybe the dog sitter isn’t doing their job properly? I cat sit and I visit twice a day and in the evenings stay for an hour and hang with the cat. And that’s a cat!

It’s absurd that a family would do this to a any dog let alone one with separation anxiety.
Sadly the rspca have limited powers and there is someone visiting, as long as the dog has food, shelter, water and is being let out several times a day they will not be able to do anything. Once home they may advise the owners on future steps they can/should take, but it doesn’t sound like they would take it on board.
Ive worked in the animal care sector for a number of years and sadly cases like these are not uncommon.
You can call your dog warden, most councils do still have one who may be able to advise but again because ‘care’ has been put in place there probably isn’t anything that can be done if they deem the care in place is meeting the dogs basic needs.
I don’t think you are odd for finding it distressing to listen to, I think most people would and if it were me, I would ask the person visiting the dog to get in touch with the owners and tell them the dog is distressed and then step in and offer some sort of care ie extra walks etc

Domestic cats do not 'come from nature' and even if they did, they do not come from British nature. Would you like yo be left outside for a week to fend for yourself?

Thank you for clarifying this. I get really pissed off when I hear people moaning about the RSPCA doing 'nothing' and criticising them, when the reality is they're a charity, and not a statutory body. They have no authority to act unless the police intervene, which more often than not they don't.

Aww she's very cute @oakleaffy
Have you snapped her hiding under the bed?

@Grammarnut
I didn't feed Barry. Bit of an assumption there. I would never do that. Barry made his own mind up. He's a very smart lad. His owner didn't give a shit by the way