To ask for a local teenager to feed my cat?

[Owlsintowels]

I've got two holidays coming up

I'm trying to work out how to get my cat fed. My mum normally pops over a couple of times to check in the house, my cleaner will visit. A lovely neighbour with a cat mad 3 yr old often fills in the gaps as a favour.

I buy all these people thank you gifts from my holidays, they all insist they're happy to do it / will ask me for return favours etc

Just setting the scene, we're all friendly and no issues

I'm on holiday twice in Aug. Mum will pop by and cleaner but neighbour has a newborn so I don't want to ask her.

I was wondering about posting on local Facebook group for my kid's school asking if anyone has a responsible teenager who'd like to earn some pocket money feeding the cat.

I live in a nice, fairly close knit community. I don't know that many people here, only lived here a year. I don't know anyone with teenage kids to ask hence considering facebook

Is this the worst idea ever? I'm inclined to trust a local teenager, but I'm willing to be told I'm naive and U.

If a teenager is a vaguely sensible idea, is there a lower age limit, and how much should I pay them?

Keen to get views from others. TIA

Ask at your vet, they usually have details of local cat sitters (ours certainly does)

Cat in a Flat is great - and most importantly gives you the peace of mind of insurance coverage.

Catinaflat and Tailster are great for this.

My son started doing this for friends aged 12. They gave him £20

per week for it. Ultimately though, I took overall responsibility. I took him and made sure doors, hutches etc were closed properly. He did all the feeding, cleaning though.

Have you tried asking at your local vets ? My sister has a veterinary nurse from her local practice look after her cats when she’s away. Maybe a bit more reliable than a stranger and also able to deal with any medical problems /accidents while your away.

We have a local teen who does our animals when we are away. I don't know her particularly, but she has a reputation in the village for being quite sensible. I arranged it via messaging her mum through the village Facebook group.

I much prefer paying a teen than asking favours from friends.

I'd still ask your neighbour. I know you said she has a newborn, but if she's literally just popping next door to feed your cat, then it shouldn't be a problem. She can either bring the baby with her for a few minutes or wait until her DH/DP or someone is home, leave the baby with them for a few minutes and pop into yours. Would that work?

I sympathise though. Had a similar situation recently myself. We have a neighbour who, like us, has a cat and we look after each others cats if we're away. It's been working brilliantly for the last 5 or so years, but we had a dilemma last month when we were away at the same time.
In the end DH's sister did it, but my God did she hammer home what a big favour she was doing us. She works 5 minutes away, so all we asked her to do was go in once a day and give her wet food, change the water and check the litter tray.
The neighbour had a similar situation with his sister.

We've decided than in the future, we REALLY need to coordinate our schedules.

we-love-pets.co.uk/

Or do a local search - though most of the ones we found in our area didn't return calls, whether they had so many clients or just weren't professional I couldn't say.

It's an ok idea in principle but I think you need to kind of know the person rather than a total random. That said I did similar when I was about 16-17 (was certainly before I drove), I stayed in a random persons house and looked after their 5 dogs. They advertised in the local paper back in the day.

As a university student I worked as admin in a vets. I was frequently asked to do cat visits, dog walk, house sit etc. as a known person with little other responsibilities.

Do you have a friend/colleague etc. with a reliable teen?

Don't get a teen to do it. You can guarentee your cat will never be fed in the morning, probably like 1pm at the earliest after they've dragged themselves out the house. They might forget/not bother a lot of the time. They might invite people over. Of all the people in all the world, a teenager is the last person I'd get to do this! I'd literally trust a 7 year old over a teenager (not that I'd ask a 7 year old to do it but you know what j mean!)

I do, he comes twice a day, feeds, brushes and plays with the cat. Lives about 5 doors away, has responsible parents who are used to pets and have vet's details in case if emergency.
He's very conscientious and reliable

Pawshake is a wonderful website to find catsitters. You can view their profile and read reviews. We had a lovely woman feed and fuss our boy whilst we were away last year and she sent photo updates.

I think it's generally a really bad idea to ask a woman with a newborn to do anything, for you, especially anything that they have to do twice a day for a week, given that they are v busy.