Is 3 weeks too long to leave cat, with daily cat-sitting?

[GardenAnarchist]

We're planning a summer holiday for the first time in a long while (yay) which means sorting out holiday care for DCat. For short breaks of a few days, we have an agreement with neighbours (we do their cat, they do ours). But I don't want to impose on them for a longer trip.

I'm trying to find a cat-sitter in our area, to my surprise there are hardly any particularly as I would like (and obviously would pay for) someone who will come in twice a day. Most seem to be dog-walkers who do cat house visits on the side.

My main worry though is that DCat will get lonely and sad only seeing a person briefly twice a day - she's very cuddly with us. How long do people leave their cats in this situation?

If you can't get a professional cat sitter what about a cattery. It might be hard to get a three week stay at this stage but worth a try.

I leave mine for 3 weeks with a cat sitter who comes twice a day, staying for 1/2 hour each time so plenty of time for play, cuddles and brushing. They are fine but always pleased to see me home.

We have done this . Cat was fine but I must admit she had made bestest friends with the neighbours while we were gone and it took a while to remember she lived at ours…

I'm a professional dog walker who offers cat visits - I've had several clients travel for a month or more and the cats have been just fine. Saying that, though, they were all older, indoor only cats - it might be different with younger cats who need to get outside.

We have considered a cattery but got the idea that cats are usually happier on home territory, that's why we were going down the cat-sitter route.

I am reassured that 3 weeks (with a good cat-sitter) is OK, but I expect DCat will also inveigle herself into neighbours' houses because she has form for this even when we're at home

Will redouble efforts to find a cat-sitter!

One problem with even the best catteries, in my experience, is that some cats think they have been abandoned or find the non-home environment too stressful with multiple cats and strangers.

I do think that three weeks is a long time. We have done up to two weeks with twice-daily lengthy visits from a very kind and dependable local friend our cats already knew, but that was when we were a 3-cat household so they had each other for company. Have you thought about a live-in cat sitter for the three weeks, rather than the daily visits?

I've had a look at Trusted Housesitters but the participating houses seem to be gorgeous places in desirable locations, which makes sense because why else would somebody want to house-sit? We have a shabby suburban semi in a boring town, shower is dribbly, oven is broken, guest room is a dumping ground doing double-duty as a home office.

We would consider paying somebody (who doesn't have high standards in accommodation ) to live-in - guess this would be extremely expensive though?

We catsit for our neighbour for a couple of weeks at a time, but in practice this means that the moggy spends the day hogging the heater in my home office. She has breakfast at home, takes herself off to the garden for ablutions, then turns up at ours just as I have more or less got back and turned on my PC. She nips out for a wee and a wander at midday, might come back, or might invade another household. She has tea in her own house and sleeps there (I presume). I always go up a third time if I haven’t seen her at tea-time to check she’s eaten, and she’s usually in her teepee thing by then

she does tend to split her time between our households when neighbour gets back , then gradually forgets about us till next time

I think 3 weeks is too long to leave your cat, I'm afraid.

Do you have any friends or relatives that normally live with their parents and don't have their own place yet that could combine house and cat sitting for the time you are away. It would be a nice change for them to have their own place for 3 weeks and your cat would be well looked after.

There is no way I would leave my cats for 3 weeks without someone staying in my house. I wouldn't even do it for a couple of nights, I just think it is cruel. Pay for someone to stay in the house or use one of those facebook groups where people use your house for a holiday while looking after your pet. Those that say their pets are fine, how do you actually know? They must be so confused and worried

Three weeks is too long. Can't she stay in your neighbours house? Or a family member in a spare room?

I wouldn't leave my cats for 3 weeks with someone just popping in for half an hour twice a day. It's a fairly big responsibility for the neighbours too, but it depends on how willing/able they would be to do it.

We used live-in cat sitters in the past (our house was a small Victorian terrace in a city, nothing grand). The best known catsitting agency is probably Animal Aunts, they have been going for donkeys years.

https://www.animalaunts.co.uk/cat-sitting/

We use a cattery now.

We use trusted house sitters for anything over about 5 days. Less than 5 days our neighbours pop in and feed and check on him.

Have never had a problem finding people on trusted house sitters, but you do need to have house in decent enough order ie your oven and shower have to be fixed, and it’s clean.

One option could be a family member or friend who would like a change of scene? Or ask at your vet or other local vets as sometimes a vet nurse might be interested in doing this. Even if it is a family member or friend, I do think you should insist on paying them at least what a twice-daily cat sitter or cattery would cost you and tidy up the spare room for them. I wouldn't worry that you don't live in a magazine shoot quality show home as not many people actually do! Just make sure it's acceptable levels of clean and tidy.

@Caspianberg the additional cleaning (oven, fridge, shower etc) was partly what put me off house-sitters. It was just more stuff to do before going on holiday.

I’ve done this a few times with my cats. Maybe just under three weeks at max but they are so much happier at home with someone coming every day than they would be to be taken somewhere else.

We left ours for 4 weeks this summer with a once daily visit. In the summer they are out the house 20hrs a day so hardly notice we are gone I suspect…

@Marinel i don’t really find it a problem. I wouldn’t want to go away and come back to a dirty house even if it was left empty. So we always clean enough anyway.

So only addition is making up bed and leaving towels etc for house sitter. They always strip bed, and in washing machine when they leave. And housesitters have always cleaned up after themselves. Most houses it regularly on trusted house sitters so they know the drill and they also want good reviews so the can sit again in another place.

You need to fill out instructions on trusted with where stuff is, local vet, emergency contacts etc. but once it’s down once it remains so you don’t have to refill out unless it changes

Our housesitters also water garden or indoor plants as needed. Ie if no rain for a week in summer outside. Take in post. and other bits if needed.

@Caspianberg well no, I don't leave the house dirty, but I felt the house should be left in the same state as if I was air b&bing it so it needed additional cleaning. Plus as you say you need to leave various instructions, not just about the cats but appliances, bin collections etc. So it was considerably more 'work' than driving to a cattery.

But my main reason for switching was that one of my cats was run over, and I wouldn't have enjoyed a holiday worrying about that, whereas I knew they were safe in a cattery.

I’m a cat sitter, and three weeks is the max my clients leave their cats for. One client who takes regular long holidays usually gets a family member to stay in the house for part of it, even if it’s just a weekend, to break it up a bit.

Quite honestly though, the cats are fine. They get used to the new routine of me popping in and don’t seem any different whether it’s two weeks or three.

The only exception is indoor cats. They tend to get more upset about being left because there’s less stimulation. One particular solitary indoor cat that I look after gets really quite distressed when I leave, and I really feel for her.

My indoor/outdoor cat was left for three weeks every summer. Our neighbours gave him lots of fuss, and he continued to enjoy sunning himself in the garden for most of the time, as was his usual habit.

When he got older, and the neighbours started to worry about the responsibility, I used Trusted House sitters. I had three different sitters and they were all great.

I didn't leave the home suitable for paying Airbnb clients (the sitters had free accommodation after all), but I arranged for my cleaner to come prior to their arrival, just so that I didn't have to stress too much when getting ready to leave.

@GardenAnarchist with TA your profile includes photos of your house, so sitters know what they're getting. All of mine had good reason to need free accommodation (two had been working abroad, were returning and needed somewhere in the area to stay so that they could house-hunt, for instance). So they're not looking for fancy holiday accommodation. Just a base.

I highly recommend Trusted Housesitters. We have a very average house in Leeds but always get several applicants for each sit. People do it for all sorts of reasons. For example, these days loads of people work from home so they just fancy a change of scene. They enjoy seeing new places. Many of our sitters have got friends or family in the region so just want a local base to see people. Others come here for a specific event.
They've all been brilliant and my cat has absolutely loved having company. They send photos of him sleeping on their laps. We've always got back to an immaculate house and a happy cat.
I couldn't leave my cat alone for three weeks and there's no way I'd put him in a cattery. He'd hate every minute!

Our rescue cat only really looks sad when the suitcases come out. So far we've only left her for max 10 days, with cat sitter visiting twice a day. They say they come for 15 or 30 minutes but from the doorbell camera it's often less. We tried asking friendly neighbour etc to pop in for extra company but it just seems to stress her more (which is normal for her with anyone but us).
But she is fine when we get back, and I'm not prepared to give up holidays completely. She can also get out into the garden anytime so that is a good distraction in the summer.

I move in with our sons cats when they go on holiday but they are indoor and Siamese and frankly even leaving them home whilst you go to work is neglect in their view . If I’m not busy I call in and do playtime and lunch on work days so they very rarely spend more than 4/5 hours home alone . Do you have any relatives / friends that would move in ?