Reintroduce Litter Tray?

[catmam]

Looking for advice from all you wise cat people. atm I'm home full-time so she's in and out, in and out, in and out.... I have to open/close the door (no cat flap or open window) We are going away for 2 days/1 overnight and NDN has agreed to come in, feed her and stay with her a bit, check on her and the house. This is the first time we've left her. I was thinking of reintroducing the litter tray so she wouldn't have to go outdoors and give my NDN extra worry about looking for her and maybe not find her. She had stopped using the tray herself a long time ago. Should we introduce the tray a week beforehand? Will this all confuse her for when we return and remove the litter tray? She's 2. TIA

When are you going? Would you have time to put in a microchip cat flap? Is there somewhere she could sleep when outdoors?

When my parents had a cat she would be outdoors all summer and when we went on holiday the neighbor would come and feed her. She had access to the shed though. There was a cat flap on the shed door (just a normal one, not microchip as this was the 80s). She was fine. We would go away for a week or two.

Thank you for reply. We have a shed with a roller door which I suppose we could prop open slightly to give her access to come and go. It's round the back behind locked gates too so at least nobody looking over would see it's open or its contents. I just thought the litter tray would mean she'd be more contained in the house and we'd give her free access to other rooms so she wouldn't just be in the kitchen for example

Personally I think all cats should have access to a litter tray 24/7 even if they choose not to use it. It means that if they're ever unwell or need to stay in, they know they have a place to go to the toilet.

Would your cat be stressed shut inside? You don't want to cause issues for the neighbour coming in to lots of accidents.

Our previous cat always toileted outside but we did have two trays in the house just in case. When we went away she would use the tray (or sometimes the bath) and we had MIL pop in twice a day for her.

She was sadly pts earlier this year and our new boy is very, very enthusiastic about the litter tray - he will come in to use it and then go back out. I wish he would toilet outside!

We also have no cat flap so cat is in if we are out/always in overnight. (We have a utility between the kitchen and the back door so we would need either two cat flaps or to keep the middle door permanently open. Our boy can squeeze in and out the bedroom window which was a surprise.)