What do you do with your cat when away in winter?

[AmazingGraced]

I have an 8 year old cat. She’s never been in a cattery and is very needy and Velcro like. She hates being left for long and behaves much like a dog. She sleeps in the kitchen with the door closed at night and has a cat flap to the outside. In Winter she only leaves the house to toilet. Sleeps nearly all the time.

Until the past two years there was always a family member at home to feed her and look after her. Since the. We have used someone from Cat in a Flat, in fact several people. The charge is around £15 a day which I think is high, for one visit. I suspect that our current sitter doesn’t stay long . We don’t usually leave her in winter but have just got back from a week away. She was frantic and really upset on our return.

With our previous cat, we always had helpful neighbours who fed him and he was absolutely fine. He was also fine being in a cattery. I suspect this cat wouod absolutely hate a cattery. In the Summer she is out in the garden much more so seems to cope better.

I’m my wits end. I hate having someone come into the house when we are away anyway. I think if we go away again in the winter we will need to put her in a cattery. Has anyone else dealt with this? I think the current sitter has too many cats to see to and doesn’t play with her or interact for long enough.

Try local FB groups for recommendations. If you do think that you will need to use a cattery visit several and try for the odd night. Apart from that it's day trips.

You just haven't found the right pet sitter and you may need to pay more. Our pet sitter comes twice a day but sometimes sneaked in extra visits. When here she feeds our Cat, changes litter, changes water in fountain and spends at least half an hour here petting her, cuddling her, and grooming her. She takes loads of videos to send us. We couldn't go away without the knowledge that she is being well looked after and we factor the cost into any holiday. She is about £30 a day.

It sounds like your cat would prefer someone in the house when you are away. I know you say you hate the idea but could you get past that for the benefit of the cat? Our cat sounds like yours and we use trusted housesitters to find people to come and stay and it’s worked well.

Different cat sitter or a house sitter. We pay £40 a day for two daily visits currently (London, trained veterinary nurse, meds required), but for clingy cats in the past we have had someone live in. You get used to someone else living in your house pretty quickly, I think.

I pay £30 a day for two visits, each one is half an hour. I go through a local company and it is the same person most of the time so the cats know her. Occasionally it is someone else but normally someone who has been before. It really is worth paying extra for the peace of mind. They will do meds and if necessary organise vet visits.

We always try to get a friend or two to stay, someone the cat knows, for trips longer than 3 nights. Otherwise 2 visits a day from local friends we can trust to stay for at least 20 minutes. We twice used Trusted Housesittets but they are a gamble, with some brilliant sitters and some a bit careless.
I had one cat who loved the friendly local cattery but the others have hated it and we only tried once. You might try your cat at a cattery for 2 nights just to see if she settles.Or find a cat loving teenager whose parents will make sure they go as agreed, and pay well.

Check whether any local dog walkers do cat care as well, my dog walker will do a daily visit to feed the cat for £10.

I also have local friends who can pop in.

Orherwise look around the local catteries, some are better than others.

We mostly had people stay at the house. We had a business at time, which we ran from
home & always seemed to have a young o staff member only too keen to have the house to themselves in return for looking after the cats (they adored anyway!)

before that my Mum would come over & feed & fuss them, but I felt bad asking her as we lived 30 minutes drive away.

i've pet sat a lot for friends, my favourite was a friend who had 2 cats, 1 dog, a donkey, some goats, house chickens & an axolottal 🤣

these days it's mostly dogs. As a single person it's easy for me to stay at friends houses to pet sit & I get all the cuddles!!

Have you ever visited a cattery? They are like prisons (necessarily) for cats who like to go outdoors.

I found a cattery that’s just a room in someone’s house, all kitted out to a high standard with a catio and everything. There’s also high spec cat hotels that are much nicer than standard catteries, have you thought about that?