Moving cat into family members' home while we're on holiday

[AtLeastThreeDrinks]

We're away for 10 nights in March and wondering what's best for our cat. She's indoors only at the moment (has been outdoors in the past but is now elderly and prefers to snooze!) and last time we were away we had someone pop in once a day to feed/change litter/play. That was for four nights and our sitter commented that the cat seemed lonely – very vocal when they arrived, trying to dart out the front door.

We work from home and she's used to having people around –is usually in the room with one of us at any given moment.

I'm wondering about moving her into the home of some relatives (retired/wfh) while we're away. Does anyone have experience of doing this? She's only ever moved once but it didn't seem to bother her. I'm more worried about her being bored and lonely, but I know moving can be very stressful for cats!

Advice appreciated.

I've had a lot of indirect experience of this, in the sense that I've been involved in searches for cats lost when being looked after by someone's family; and reuniting cats via their microchips, sometimes after being missing for many months, after going missing when being looked after by relatives. It something I hear about so often I often think it's one of the main causes of lost cats.

Not only is this a very real worry (how much do you trust them not to leave doors open for example?) it's also much more distressing for a cat to be in a different environment than it is for a cat to be alone for a while.

If you possibly can leave her in her own home and arrange for her to be fed.

Could your relatives stay in your house while you are away? When I had cats my friend’s mum used to house sit for us, we paid her a nominal amount to cover her costs. Or would a neighbour teenager like to watch your tv in the evening and keep the cat company?

We have left our kitties with my parents and they did okay. Then again Biggie has never shown substantial interest in going outside (he's a bit odd) and Jayda doesn't run for the door. (We didn't have Gatsby at this time.) My parents also have two cats so Biggie and Jayda enjoyed making new friends.

I am leaving my cat at my parents next month for a few days and took her with me to stay there over Christmas. It was a good way to get her familiar with their house - she settled in very quickly.

They will not allow her outside there - and will be very careful with the doors.

Thanks so much for responding.

I don’t think the relatives would be keen on house-sitting, and I wish we knew some local teenagers! The only neighbours we have are scared of animals...

I do trust the relatives to keep her indoors and safe, but of course I don’t want to stress the cat out by moving her into a new environment. Tricky one! We’re semi-rural and turns out it’s very hard to find pet-sitters around here! I’ve looked online but my partner isn’t keen on having a stranger in the house.

I was going to say the same TCN said about cats going missing when being looked after at someone else's house. Maybe a lot of stays with relatives go absolutely fine though and us cat rescue people only hear about the cases when it goes wrong and the cat escapes... but it seems to happen for the most stupid reasons like leaving a window open.

Maybe she was keen to see the cat sitter last time because she was hungry rather than lonely? Could you get a timed feeder to also feed her an extra meal or to outside of the visits from the sitter maybe? If she is an older cat she will probably just sleep most of the time.

She does tend to make a fuss when we get home –the longer we've been out, the louder the meow, which is what makes me think she's lonely! But you could be right about the food. I think I will invest in a timed feeder and get someone to pop in here to play with her.

She's 16, so only has short bursts of energy these days!