Cats and vacation

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My husband’s family has invited us on a little family reunion vacation for 5 days this month, and we have two cats.</p>

<p>When we went on our honeymoon, the predicted weather in upstate NY was pretty mild, so I asked my sister to check in on them once a day, spend some time with them, give them fresh food and water, and so on. When we came home they were really happy to see us and weren’t eating super well for a couple of days, but they were overall healthy and no worse for the wear. </p>

<p>However, as the vacation will be in mid-July, I am concerned that this time we will not be so lucky with the weather. When it is hot out, our apartment can get pretty warm because it is on the second floor, and both of our cats have long hair (one is a Himalayan). We can’t leave the AC on because we have a window unit (if it was central air I would just leave that on while we were gone). Worst comes to worst, I will stay home with the cats while my husband goes on the vacation, but I am trying to consider what my other options might be. </p>

<p>I cannot think of a family member I could send them to stay with. I could ask my sister to come twice a day, once to turn the AC on and the other to turn it off, but she has three kids so that would be a lot to ask of her (during our honeymoon the two oldest were still in school and she lives about a block away so it wasn’t as much to ask). </p>

<p>Do you have any other suggestions or thoughts? What predicted temperatures would you feel comfortable leaving cats alone in without air conditioning?</p>

2

<p>I know there are special places to leave a dog while on vacation. Maybe they also take cats?</p>

3

<p>Yes, most kennels take cats if they have up to date immunizations. Some vets also board pets.</p>

4

<p>I would check with your vet about pet sitters. It would be easy for someone (that you pay) to come by twice a day. It usually isn’t very expensive for cats. Do you have friends with a high school or college student that could do one or both of the visits? Unless your apartment gets to 90 degrees or more, the cats would be fine with plenty of water. In our area there are many pet services that will come by, bring the mail in, take care of the pets etc for a reasonable fee.</p>

<p>Most cats hate to board, so that would be my last resort.</p>

5

<p>Look for a pet sitter to come in every day, scoop the litter box, spend a little time with the cats. Making cats leave their home environment does not tend to make them happy. </p>

<p>As far as temp, it is not fun to live when it is around 100 without air con. But I do it and my 2 cats survive as well-and one is Himalayan, though shorter hair than some. But coping with this is a careful process of letting in night air and closing up during the day. </p>

<p>Can you put the air conditioner on on a timer? A few hours of cooling to take the edge off the heat might help a great deal, say 4 to 6 PM. Perhaps your sister could check every day or two.</p>

6

<p>If you can’t put your AC on a timer, try leaving an oscillating fan on. Also, leave block of ice/ice cubes in water dish helps. They’ll be fine if you can get someone to stop in every day or so…</p>

7

<p>I am a big animal person, and I have several different animals: two guinea pigs, a dog, and a bird.</p>

<p>I have lived with a cat when I was little, but I have never been responsible for one myself, so I don’t have too much cat-specific advice, but I have dealt with a lot of boarding issues, so here it goes.</p>

<p>First of all, personally, I would never kennel one of my animals (except maybe in a disaster emergency), and unless it was absolutely necessary, I would avoid the vet as well. I don’t think any animal should spend his or her days in a small cage, with other strange animals around, possibly making them uncomfortable and putting them at risk for disease, etc.</p>

<p>So, for my dog, I leave him with a host family. How it works is there is a service that has families working for it that agree to host an animal (for a fee, obviously). You can get references from past clients, and you can get matched up with a family that fits your needs - no kids or no dogs or no cats, etc. That way, he lives with a family, and more importantly to me, is not locked up in a little cage or stressed out by other animals.</p>

<p>For my guinea pigs, being moved anywhere is very stressful. Also, they need a lot of room (at home, they have 20 sq ft), so I prefer to keep them in the house. I found my petsitter through a forum about guinea pig health. Personally, I would NOT pay a neighbor, a high school kid, or a random service. It might be A LITTLE easier with cats, but guinea pigs are very fragile, and you really need someone who knows the symptoms that something is wrong, which is why I would chose a person who has experience with them. However, even with cats being less fragile, I would still pick someone who genuinely knows and cares about cats (and preferably owns them). A pet sitter needs to know the signs of illness and be able to go to the vet/make medical decisions, if necessary, so I would not leave care of any animal to a teenager or a random person. You never know what situations come up.</p>

<p>As for A/C, the general rule is if it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for them. I don’t know how prone cats are to heat stroke (guinea pigs are extremely prone to it), so that may guide your answer, but if it were me, I would just leave the A/C on automatic for the whole vacation. How my A/C works is you just set a temperature, and it shuts off/on depending on what the temperature is. That’s what I do now, even when I am at work. I set it to 75 degrees, and I don’t shut it off. I would not leave my animals without A/C with temperatures higher than 85 at the very absolue max (even that is pushing it). You want them to have a good, safe environment while you are gone.</p>

<p>P.S. I have a window unit in my apartment as well - why can’t you just leave it on?</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

8

<p>That’s not the greatest advice. Bad idea to leave a window unit on for a week away- there is too much that can go wrong electrically and otherwise.</p>

<p>Also, cats don’t move around a lot, so it isn’t exactly true that if it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for them.</p>

9

<p>Oh my goodness, I didn’t even think about the timer! Yes, we could set a timer, and if we had someone stop in once a day, he or she could set it to run for 6 hours or so to keep the apartment cool. Then nobody would have to come back to turn it off - it would just shut off automatically. </p>

<p>Thanks for helping me arrive at this solution. I’m sure I can get someone to check in over those 5 days we’ll be gone, and this solves the heat issue I was so worried about. I feel so bad for them in the heat because they do seem to look so uncomfortable, especially our Himalayan. Our window unit faces our dining room table and he’ll just lay there in front of it for hours. </p>

<p>Thanks again everyone!</p>

10

<p>MomofWildChild, I guess I could agree with your first point (I haven’t done it for a whole vacation, just for when I am away at work - except, since someone will be coming every day, wouldn’t it be the same thing as just leaving it plugged in for a day?), but I don’t agree about your second point. Guinea pigs don’t move around a lot either and neither does my dog, who is older, but both of them have a much lower heat tolerance and are much more prone to heat stroke than I am.</p>

11

<p>Even just with a quick Google search, I found this article that says cats don’t tolerate heat any better than people do, and apparently heat stroke is one of the common emergency medical issues for them:</p>

<p>[Cat</a> Heatstroke Causes - Heatstroke Symptoms in Cats | petMD](<a href=“http://www.petmd.com/cat/emergency/common-emergencies/e_ct_heat_stroke]Cat”>Cat Heatstroke Causes - Heatstroke Symptoms in Cats | PetMD)</p>

12

<p>Cats hate being kenneled out, though many dogs love it. We always get a house/pet sitter so that our pets don’t have to have their routines changed and also because we like to have someone in the house when we’re gone. I don’t like to leave an empty house. We usually use a college-age kid of coworkers or even now, our kids’ friends-- they love getting to hang out in a nice house somewhere other than home or apt and the pets actually love it because they probably get more attention than with their usual boring people.</p>

13

<p>How old are your sister’s kids? Offer to pay your nieces/nephews to pet-sit for a week. I would have them come twice a day - or spend some quality time in your apartment in the afternoon - watch a movie, nap/quiet time at your apartment with the air conditioner running. If your sister bears the burden rather than the kids, offer her an all-expenses-paid night out for her and husband on your return.</p>

<p>Vet’s offices can be expensive. Our vet charges $30 a day per cat. They have a great set-up - two/three level cages with litter box on the bottom level - and the cats get a lot of attention. My daughter paid for her two cats to stay and would do it again … but it’s expensive.</p>

<p>Another option: Look for someone who earns spending money babysitting/etc. My next door neighbor hired a 13-year-old neighbor to stop by her house four afternoons a week to let her dog out in the afternoon, check his water bowl, and spend about 10-15 minutes with him overall. She pays 5 dollars a day - 20 dollars a week - eighty a month. Not bad for a middle-school student. Maybe your sister would know of a responsible babysitter.</p>

14

<p>Guinea pigs and bunnies are very prone to heat stroke- heat is much more dangerous than cold for them. Cats and dogs are not as much, but of course should not be left in extreme temps. The timer on the AC sounds like it will work. We leave our cats for several days at a time. I always leave multiple water bowls in case they spill one</p>

15

<p>Thanks for the continued suggestions. My sister’s oldest under usual circumstances would probably be able to do the cat sitting, but she is mildly intellectually disabled and would require supervision to do the tasks, which kind of defeats the purpose of asking her to do it. Her younger sisters are 9 and under one year old, so they’re out. The last time I asked my sister to pet sit we gave her a $50 gift card to Walmart, which is where she does the majority of her shopping. She is a single mom and we do take the older two from time to time and have them spend the night at our apartment, which they love because they think my husband is the coolest. :)</p>

<p>As for spending quality time, I don’t know that my sister has air conditioning so I would certainly open the invitation that she is welcome to hang out at our apartment and use the air conditioning if they need to cool down that week, which would be an additional perk. </p>

<p>Alternatively my little brother might be open to spending the 5 days at our apartment if we pay him. I’ll have to look into that as well.</p>

16

<p>Glad you have some good ideas. I would sure hate for you to miss a vacation because of your cats! I love our pets (2 dogs, 1 cat), but I wouldn’t be so hot on the idea that having pets means you can’t take vacations. We’re leaving soon for a trip and my stepdad is keeping the cat (she loves it over there), and the dogs go to a kennel owned by my vet which they, too, love. They spend lots of time outside (it’s out in the country and has a big pond and lots of fun play time). Unfortunately, our 13.5 year old lab has diabetes and seems as though she is declining. The last year she has had to stay at the vet’s, but they all know and love her, so she won’t be in a cage all the time. And she will get her insulin and have access to medical care in the event she needs it. Not ideal, but she seems to do well there.</p>

<p>Have a wonderful time. Your cats will be fine; mine is always super affectionate when I get home, though in the past I’ve had cats who would stay mad for a few days after you got home. :rolleyes:</p>

17

<p>I was going to suggest just putting a timer in line with the power cord as well. Just make sure the timer can handle the current draw of the air conditioner unit - they draw more current than a table lamp. </p>

<p>To complement that (or instead of it) you might want to set the thermostat of the a/c to a temperature that’ll make sure it doesn’t get to 100 degrees in the apt but doesn’t necessarily cool it to the level you’d consider ideally comfortable either (70s). For example, maybe the thermostat could be set to 85 (as a random number) or even higher and the a/c wouldn’t be on too much yet would keep it reasonably cool enough for a cat. This way it’d be ‘not hot’ in there at all times rather than just the 6 hours a timer would give. </p>

<p>A cat will adjust. Mostly they try to stay warmer than we do but if it’s warmer than normal they’ll sleep through most of it (they’ll sleep a lot anyway) and they’ll manage to find the coolest spot in the apt as well which might be a tile floor or something. Just because it’s too warm for you to feel highly comfortable doesn’t mean that the cat wouldn’t find it okay.</p>

<p>Of course, leave plenty of water in 2 or 3 separate bowls of it so the cat will always have access.</p>

<p>Don’t worry about them too much - they’ll sleep through most of your vacation.</p>

18

<p>It sounds like you’ve got a plan! Our light timer has start and stop times so you could set yours to turn the power on in the late morning and off after sunset maybe? Then whoever is dropping by wouldn’t have to worry about it except to make sure it’s working right.</p>

<p>We’ve used a pet sitter for years for our elderly cat and have been delighted with the experience. Ours is a member of a national organization so if you do want a sitter you could find one through them. <a href=“https://www.petsit.com/[/url]”>https://www.petsit.com/&lt;/a&gt; FYI our sitter charges $16 for a half hour visit. In addition to taking care of the cat, she checks mail and waters plants.</p>

19

<p>When our cats were young, we left them to their own devices for a week with a self-regulating water feeder, a lot of food and two extra litter boxes. When one developed diabetes and needed insulin shots twice daily, we asked our vet for recommendations. There was a woman in our area who pet-sits and also had been a vet tech, so she was completely comfortable giving shots. She came in twice a day ($15 each visit because of the shots), and was just great.</p>

<p>For healthy cats, she comes in once a day and only charges $10. Money well spent.</p>

20

<p>When we go away we have a neighborhood kid come 1x/ day to feed the rabbit and bring in the mail. We typically give them $40 for the week or $5/ day.</p>