Going away for 3 weeks. Leave cat at home or in cattery?

[user1498726699]

Cat is just over a year and is the most outdoorsy cat I've known. She hates being in except when it's raining. We live next to a large area of woodland at the end of a cul de sac so no roads for her to navigate. She is quite a jumpy cat, not at all cuddly and really quite disdainful of us so doubt she will miss us.

Looked at only local cattery and it seems cruel to keep her locked up for that amount of time. Runs are quite small. There is a kennels next it and the dogs were very noisy which will make her very jittery as well.

Other option is neighbour feeding/checking her. We put cat flap on garage door, make a sleeping/feeding area for her and neighbour makes sure she has food/water and a small stroke if she feels it necessary.

Concern is that neighbour forgets her (don't know very well) and we come back to a starving/dead cat!

WWYD?

Cattery definitely. 3 weeks is a long time, and it's a long time for a neighbour to take responsibility for your cat.

Neighbours fed our 2 for 2 weeks. . They don't care about who's hand feeds them. . They were happy when we got back. . And so we're£ the neighbours when we gave them a bottle of whiskey!!
Cattery would have been awful for them.

Cattery for me.

I found a good one with large runs. No dogs except for pet working dogs who shut up instantly when told to.

If you'd known the neighbour well I'd have said go with that option. We've done similar with our elderly outdoor cat who's a miserable traveller and would be terribly upset to be removed from her territory. But (unless you can find a reliable paid cat/housesitter), I'd have to say the cattery is safest.

Cattery. Look for a better one than the local one you've mentioned? The one we use is about 30 minutes drive away, run by a veterinary nurse from our vets, and doesn't board dogs. Cat just about tolerates it but we know she's safe.

I have just paid a proper cat sitter to come to the house twice a day to feed my 2 kittens/scoop litter, etc over the last 2 weeks. Would that be an option rather than a cattery/using a neighbour?

The cat down the road is fed by a friend popping in when the family go on holiday. Every holiday without fail it goes missing because the routine has gone. Then appears a week or so later. Causing the friend a lot of stress.
I have no idea why they don't use a cattery or why friend agrees and puts up with it.

Pay a proper cat sitter who will come in twice a day and who has references you can check. I'd never put my boy in a cattery, he would hate it, but would want to know he had company regularly and a reliable feeder

I'd never put mine in a cattery except as a last resort so I use a paid cat sitter. Would that be an option? I wouldn't use a neighbour I didn't know that well for three weeks though.

Agree to paying a cat sitter. Usually £10 per visit in my part of London. Although we have found one who does two visits for £12 per day! Both sitters we have found are cat mad, they put out some recycling when we are away (to make the house look lived in), take the Mail away from hallway.

And the cats are always super chilled when we get home!

We pay our neighbour (teenage daughter) to feed ours. If she isn't available we give keys to a cat sitter who feeds once a day.

We had to keep ours in for 48hours recently and they were so cross and sad and generally miserable I couldn't imagine them in a cattery. Also neighbour / cat sitter is cheaper.

My neighbour and I took turns feeding each others cats. I looked after theirs for four weeks over the summer. For it to work you really need someone you can trust to pop in twice a day.

Any other neighbours with teenagers? My son used to help out and got some money from them.

Neighbour or cat sitter definitely. My cats out playing in the woods all day, but loves to curl up for a wee snooze on the trampoline. He has a fairly steady routine so would never put him in a cattery.

Our neighbours totally adore our cat though so they're always delighted when we ask them so they can totally spoil him.

Cannot find any cat sitters locally. The only one advertising just stopped doing it. DDs friend said she would do it but it's a bus ride for her so wouldn't want to rely on her. Family an hour away so no good.

Looks like cattery it is then. Poor puss.

If I were you I'd go for a professional cat sitter or a better cattery without kennels. Definitely not the neighbour.

If we go away for short lengths of time, we ask our neighbours because we're friendly with them, and they also have cats so they take good care of ours (and make a fuss of them!), plus we return the favour sometimes. Importantly, I trust them to notice and let us know if there is anything wrong, and take the cats to the vet if necessary. If we didn't have such nice, cat-friendly neighbours, I'd pay a sitter.

For longer periods of time, we put them in a cattery because I prefer to know they are safe. I don't like the idea of leaving them home alone for too long, even with the neighbours popping in. But our cattery is lovely and doesn't have kennels, it's run by a crazy cat lady in her big back garden

Our lads hated a cattery. If your vet is local maybe ask if they have/know any pet sitters. That's how we found ours.

We tend to use neighbours/friends for the odd few days, but don't mind paying for our sitter (poor lady has been popping in for 13 years now) or friends to live in if we are away for more than a week or two.

If you live near a road you need to consider what you would do if your cat gets injured. I trust our pet sitter/local vet to make the right call.

Argh, cross post, sorry!
The cattery doesn't sound ideal but the cat will be ok

Can you do 1 week of a 2x visit a day cat sitter, 1 week of a full time cat/house sitter then another week of 2x visits a day?

3 weeks of an actual house/cat sitter would be best but understand that might be a bit pricey.

Have you tried flat cat sitters? Put in your pist code. Otherwise look for another cattery mines 40 mins away the local ones arent suitable.