Alternatives to cattery

[StuntNun]

I've booked my holiday for next year and I will be away from home for nine days (Friday to Sunday.) Last time I went away for that length of time, in 2022, I put two of my cats in a cattery together but one of them came out having visibly lost weight so I'm reluctant to put them back in the cattery this time. I have an older cat that I paid someone to come to the house and feed but he cat only ever comes home for food so there wasn't much difference for him with us being away. The younger two cats are much more affectionate, in fact one is downright needy, and I'm not sure how they would cope if we were away for that length of time. I'm also worried about the number of mice and birds they would bring into the house in nine days. Does anyone have any suggestions, please?

Pet sitters who stay at your home?
I couldn’t afford to do this, and our cat was distraught in the cattery, so unless I can persuade a young adult DN to stay, I won’t be able to go away again!

https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/house-and-pet-sitters/united-kingdom/?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1v6w7LCqggMVmO7tCh37KgPGEAAYASAAEgKzLfD_BwE

We have someone who comes in to our house twice a day while we're away to feed them, top up water, empty trays, etc and play with them for 30 mins. But our girls are house cats so no worry about dead animals being brought home

A few years ago when we weren’t living near family who could pop in we had someone from Trusted Housesitters come and stay

We use trusted house sitters. It’s only a one off annual fee of €180 ( about £160) for unlimited housesits every year.

We have had two sits this year, a lady came for 10 days, and then a couple stayed for 3 weeks. They will feed and sort cats, be around to cuddle cats ( our sitters worked from home a few days also so lots of cat strokes). Watered plants, took in post etc

I work as a pet-sitter and do drop in visits for cats while their owners are away. Most owners keep their cats in while they're away to avoid the issue of dead animals or cats going walkabout.

Our cats were terrified of kennels. Even the "new" ones.

We used the same cat-sitter for about 25 years (visiting twice a day).

If we were away for more than a week we'd often invite family friends to come to stay for a few days (we live in a tourist hotspot).

We are in a road with a lot of secondary school kids (some we've known since birth) and now we tend to ask one of them to pop in each day.

We have loads of pet sitters in this area so I'm sure there must be one or two close to you. They'll do however much you want - stay in your house full time or just do visits.

I'm a sitter via THS. There are 1000s of families in your situation and 1000s of sisters happy to help. I'm currently doing a 3 week cat sit in Central Europe

Thanks everyone, it sounds like a pet sitter is the way forwards. I'm not sure I could keep them in for nine days as they're used to coming and going as they please. I've always used catteries before though.