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Would you leave your cat with a non-cat person?

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Discussion starter · #21 ·
Marcia said:
The second best option is boarding at a close friend's house. Are you going to be out of cell phone range?? If so, it might be unnerving otherwise tell them to call you if they have questions or concerns about the list of instructions you give them anytime day or night. You just might make cat lovers out of them!
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1st question, my close friends are with the mindset like many of my family members "why don't you adopt a human baby instead of a cat?"

I always transfer my call to hubby's phone whenever I travel, so I can still be contactable and anyway, her son's dog goes to the same vet as ET's.

If ET is a super friendly, lap cat, that may still be possible. With ET's personality, hisses and growling at every stranger, I really doubt if anybody can be converted, lol.. ET living under the same roof as hubby but it took him nearly 2years before he is totally comfortable with hubby.:(
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
Heather72754 said:
This may not be possible even when the person is a cat person, although it definitely is worrisome.

She owns cats, came to my house multiple times before we left, etc. My cats still will not cooperate. But for a short trip, I didn't want to disrupt them and take them in to be boarded so I took the risk.
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I am 100% sure ET will be like that too even with a cat person. For short trip, I actually would love having my neighbour come over.

In fact, before my neighbour offered to help, I have found a home boarding place that I like, but places are limited, I may not be that lucky that I will get a place for ET. Cats are not kept in cages and there are no place that they can hide, so they are able to know and see when any trouble arises. That's a place I would feel safe leaving ET with, managed by cat lover. If I can't get a place, I can still turn to my neighbour.

Marcia said:
I have keys to 2 of my neighbor's houses and they have ours - plus each other's security keypad #'s. We have wonderful friends/neighbors here in my neighborhood. I trust them implicitly.
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Wow! over here, handing over house keys to neighbours are unheard of. Most of us just hand over or leave a spare key with family members, the only problem is, they don't live next door, lol...but generally most of us always try to find a house near family members. My mom's place is 20min drive, my deceased parents-in-law, a 10min drive, my sis-in-law, niece, nephew, 10-15min drive. So, we all live nearby, so just we don't need to travel far to visit each other or whenever any of us needed help. But, only human help, if I needed help for my cat or fishes, NO WAY!:(
 
#23 ·
i don't suppose you have the option of paying for a professional cat sitter, do you? we have a lot where i live and know 1 very good one that we have recommended to a friend and she was very happy with her for the 7 days she was gone. and she has sort of a scaredy cat at well who throws up or has diarrhea when stressed and who also has very bad allergies. her cat, however, seemed very happy and healthy when my friend returned home. the cat sitter was very professional and followed instructions to a "T". she was a vet tech for 17 years before she started her own catsitting business. she even stayed overnight that whole week to give the cat company. overnight stays here cost @$35/nt i think. she texted updates to my friend throughout the week as well.

might be better than having a non-cat person who would have no idea of all the little nuances of taking care of a cat. and there are many nuances as we all know!!!
 
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Discussion starter · #24 ·
Sigh...hubby won't allow complete stranger, however professional, into the house w/o us around, so that idea is totally out. We had been talking about this for such a long time, the answer is still "boarding". I don't wanna start arguing anymore and insist, just respect his decision. But when I brought up the possibility of having my inexperienced neighbour come over, he was ok with that cos we have known each other for over 20years.
 
#25 ·
Have you checked with your vet's office? Lots of vet employees do pet-sitting on the side.
 
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Discussion starter · #28 ·
doodlebug said:
Also, you should educate them on things they should be on the lookout for. For example...that it's a problem if they scoop the box and don't find any pee balls. If he doesn't eat for more than a day. etc. etc. Non pet owners will have no idea what red flags to be watching for, so you need to provide a list.
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I wanna thank you again for bringing up this point, I thought hard about it and trying to come up with a list, but its hard trying to educate a non-cat person about everything in such a short period, it may just be too overwhelming for them. It took me that many months to learn everything about what to look out for, in the litter box, in the cat itself. Wow! how to have all those nitty gritty stuff put down in writing.

If its a 8days trip, w/o grooming ET, he'd probably start vomiting hairball, even if it isn't hairball, he does vomit often enough but not too alarming, neighbour wouldn't know if its resurgitation, hairball or something else. I'm not too worried if it is just a 3-4days trip.

Hah! look like there is more to consider before entrusting our cat to a non-cat person.
 
#29 ·
snowy said:
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Wow! over here, handing over house keys to neighbours are unheard of. Most of us just hand over or leave a spare key with family members, the only problem is, they don't live next door, lol...but generally most of us always try to find a house near family members. My mom's place is 20min drive, my deceased parents-in-law, a 10min drive, my sis-in-law, niece, nephew, 10-15min drive. So, we all live nearby, so just we don't need to travel far to visit each other or whenever any of us needed help. But, only human help, if I needed help for my cat or fishes, NO WAY!:(
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Maybe it's because we are all military related here. This is a big time Navy town and lots of people retire here with no close relatives nearby. My closest relatives are hundreds of miles away and many states. Thank God! :p
 
#30 ·
I use a certified pet sitter. she's insured and bonded and I feel more comfortable with her than a neighbor. I don't believe a neighbor would take anything but there is the chance that they may get a bit curious and snoop around. What if hubby met the pet sitter beforehand? We always make sure to lock up valuables and papers with personal info.
 
#32 ·
I don't "go away" on vacation (can't afford to!) but if I did, in my present living situtation I wouldn't have to worry about this. My landlord has had cats for 20 years and his daughter, who lives upstairs from me, has a cat living with her.

I would prefer having someone looking after Shelly who has some experience, so I wouldn't have to go back to Square 1 with them and explain WHY it is so important that the litter box gets scooped at least twice a day. Why you can't just dump a day's worth of food in her bowl and be done with it (she is currently overweight, so she can't be free-fed, and that way of feeding wouldn't be done even if she was at optimal weight). Even if I was dealing with someone with experience, Shelly is my cat, and I do things a certain way for her benefit, and that is how I expect them to be done in my absence.
 
#33 ·
I have a certified professional pet sitter as well. She takes care of the dogs and cats, waters plants, checks mail and even spends the night. She texts me daily to let me know how everyone is doing :smile: It's very comforting to not have to worry. Well, worth the expense!
 
#34 ·
If i was you i would listen to what your gut tells you and find someone whom you can trust that is a cat person. If you do decide to leave your precious cat with your neighbor you are just taking a chance on something bad happening as well as always feeling that you done made a wrong decision. So tell your neighbor that you appreciate it but would feel that you want someone with more experience in taking care of cats. In that way your neighbor would feel like she been lied to when the next time you and your husband decides to go out of town for any form of vacation or family Emergencies.
 
Discussion starter · #35 ·
Thanks for all the input. We have decided against leaving kitty with neighbour for longer than 3days. Just mentioning a few things is a little overwhelming for them. Past 4days, there are more things to look into, the litter box will be full of sawdust and needs to be changed, the water fountain needs to be cleaned, they can't handle this.

3days of just feeding and clearing poop is fine with neighbour, so anything more than that, I'll have to send kitty for boarding, since hubby is still not allowing pet sitting by professional. I have contacts for pet sitting, hubby had met her before and I found another one in a pet magazine, her photo is in there, showed hubby, his answer is still "NO". Talked to him about leaving the keys with neighbour and for pet sitter to collect keys from neighbour, answer is still a "NO". So, my decision "don't go on holiday".
 
#37 ·
Maybe hubby needs to be fixed. I hear that calms them down a bit and does wonders with behavior issues (stubbornness).
 
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Discussion starter · #38 ·
lol...stubborness, sigh...I thought I found a good solution...leaving keys with neighbour and for pet sitter to collect from them, sigh!!!!!!

MowMow - not going away for longer period for now, 2/3 days, I can depend on neighbour.
 
#39 ·
Snowy,
Take ET on Holiday with you :p
and...
Board Hubby!! ;):D
 
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#40 ·
10cats2dogs said:
Snowy,
Take ET on Holiday with you :p
and...
Board Hubby!! ;):D
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LOL - that sounds about right.

Seriously though, unless it's for 2 weeks or longer I wouldn't worry about any of those issues you are talking about and I would let my neighbor come in and feed and scoop poop/pee. Cats really don't need the water fountain cleaned and scrubbed in that time period, they will be fine. As far as the litter box goes, I don't know what you mean by 'sawdust' but I'm sure if they add litter it would be okay too. And then when you get home you can go back to your regular routine.
 
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snowy
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