Anxious about going on holiday

[Letmeinletmein]

Going on holiday on Wednesday for a week and now that it’s getting closer I am feeling dread and anxiety creeping up. DP and I love going on holidays and exploring, it’s our number 1 favourite thing to do, but we don’t do it often and when we do, it is dampened for me a bit due to my anxiety over leaving the cats.

my sister comes to live at my house while I’m away, so nothing changes for them apart from my sister is here instead of us, and by this point they are very used to her. I just worry that something will happen to them while I’m away as they go outside. As the weather is getting colder, one of them is staying in much more but the other loves going out still, even in the rain but I worry so much in case something happens while I’m not there. I also just feel like no one can look after them as well as I can, I hate having the lack of control over feeding them, brushing them, bedtime routines and litter trays etc. I wish I could just let go. Especially because my sister has been doing this for us for 5 years now and I know she looks after them well.

does anyone have any advice?

Well I haven't got any helpful advice.

We decided to stop going on holiday because of the cats.

I had to go away for a week last year. I have one mostly indoors boy and 7-8 outside semi ferals. My indoors guy went to a cattery and we got the photos of him and his disgruntlement sent over, and my neighbour came over every day and gave the others their wet food for breakfast and refilled their dry food machine mid week. I still worried about them all terribly, breathed a huge sigh of relief when I got home and they were all alive and kicking, then had a fortnight of 'the boy who had to go to the cattery' not letting me out of his sight day or night.

I hate going away and when we move we are planning in buying a house with a secure barn and huge garden [we are in france] so that they can all move with us and have loads of indoor and outdoor space to call their own.

The cats will be staying in their home environment with a familiar human. The cats will be fine. In the unlikely event of anything happening to them, I’m sure your sister is as capable of taking them to the vet as you are. It might be worth looking for some help with your feelings of anxiety.

I know the feeling, OP. I force myself to go anyway but I'm always so relieved to be back.

We leave dcat inside while we go away. A dear friend of mine just lost her cat while on holiday and they were helpless until they got home. This is why I always leave ours inside. Bored but safe.

Yes I was actually thinking of telling my sister to just keep them inside. Yeah they may be bored but I’d rather know they are safe than have to worry about them being outside. One of them fell off a roof earlier this year and tore her cruciate ligament and had to be on cage rest for 4 weeks followed by room rest the house rest, so didn’t go outside for 3 months. So I’m sure she can manage a week indoors.

Ours are kept indoors when we go away except for on the day we return when I ask the sitter to let them out after she’s fed them breakfast.