I would be really worried about leaving the cats in a house full of contractors with none of their humans present.
All it takes is one person on the contractor crew who doesn’t see why he should pay any attention to the note on the door, or to any other instructions about ‘don’t let the cats out.’
But if you have a 17 year old cat, let alone a sick 17 year old cat, who’s never been anywhere else but home and is afraid of people who aren’t you –
hate to say this, but I wouldn’t go overseas for a week. I’d find a good cat-friendly hotel not too far from home, and stay there with the cats until the contractors are gone. Or else I’d stay home, holed up in the room the cats are shut in if necessary to stay out of the way of the contractors.
When my house flooded six years ago I was put up in an extended stay hotel with the dogs but the cats stayed out in the catio and I’d come by every day to feed them and clean the litter box that they seldom used out there because gravel is apparently much better to dig in. The weather was warm, they have plenty of fur anyway, the catio was covered and rain proof and they were perfectly happy with the situation for the three weeks it took to make other arrangements. That was an unusual circumstance and I would not have been comfortable with trying something like that if there were crews working on the house who could potentially have let them escape.
DummyGladHands, are you sure about the price? I lost my sweet elderly Maine Coon, my only non-fish pet, a couple of weeks ago, and because I specifically want another Maine Coon and a Balinese and a kitten from the shelter (the latter two being my plan for this spring since long before Shamus died), I’m not going to have a lot of choice about when I get the two purebred kittens; it could be February, it could be June depending on waiting lists etc. If they’re ready to be taken home before my work trip to Austin in May, I’ll probably have to board them, so I’ve looked into both reviews and prices.
Assuming I have all three kittens then, most of the best-rated boarding places here are going to charge me $40 a night for 3, or $30 for 2. For 2 cats for 2 whole weeks, that’s only $420 and even 3 cats for 2 weeks would barely be half of what you’ve suggested boarding your two would cost.
We have always had good service there. Our one cat is diabetic, the place is run by a vet and they handle the 2x daily insulin shots. They don’t go so far as to send daily updates, but they do send occasional updates and pictures or videos.
So, good experiences, but it does cost noticeble money, which might be a hurdle for some people. But I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that someone doing remodeling and traveling to Europe won’t be put off by the cost?
I board my cat at a local kennel and she apparently loves it as they all gush over her and she always looks very pleased when I pick her up. She learned if she looks cute, behaves herself and lets them handle her she gets tons of attention and petting. And treats.
To find a good one I’d ask a vet. Years ago I mentioned to the vet that she was heading to a kennel and he said, very sharply, “which?” I responded with Wiseman’s and he relaxed. " That’s a good one. I board my dog there. "
Yeah on the price, the one recommended for my old guy is $40 a nite, but it’s a board with vet on staff, and it looks much like the place RivkahChaya uses, little cat condos. My little girl cat is going to a somewhat cheaper place at $17/nite. So it’s 2 weeks for both of them - right around $1000.
Icarus, we’re far from wealthy, the trips are because we had a catastrophic leak and have to replace our entire bathroom, tearing it down to the studs. Not Europe, rather a week cruising cheap and then a week in an extended stay. Not our choice overall, but we have got to do it .
I sincerely hope you won’t mind if I extend this thread to include not just cats but most any kind of animal.
I once had to go out of town for a few days and I took my full sized parrot to a place that advertised they boarded animals. It was a pet store and they boarded any and all diff kinds of animals.
This pet store was only open maybe 12 hours a day. Nothing wrong with that for a pet store. But I really don’t like the idea of my pet being locked up in a dark place for 12 hours at a time. I worried about an emergency. If there was a fire or any other kind of emergency, I would want someone to be on the premises always so my pet would have a reasonable chance to avoiding injury.
When I returned to pick up my bird, I noticed she had a bite mark on one of her legs and the asshole who owned the pet store told me in a kind of “off the cuff” way, “Oh we just had a bit of an accident. Someone put her on top of a cage with a bigger bird and that bigger bird bit her leg.”
I felt like telling him, “Oh. Well I just had a bit of an accident and I forgot my wallet at home. But it’s hardly a big problem since you fucked up her care so badly, you will understand if I don’t pay you pending the lawsuit I’m going to give you.”
I would like people here to profit from my bad experience.
I suggest that if you are going to board any kind of animal, you should only board it at a place where someone is there at all times and your pet is not locked up at night in the dark.
Also I suggest you should only board your pet in a facility that specializes in boarding that kind of animal. I don’t think I would ever again board a pet in a place that will board any kind of animal. There may be some really good places that take good care of your pet and that board several diff types of animals at the same time. But I just get a bad feeling about that. I feel like that just indicates a lack of care.
I don’t want to board my bird in a place that also boards cats. Just too easy for an “accident” to occur.
Fucking pet stores just looking for any and every way to suck in as much money as they can and so they are willing to board any kind of animal and they don’t care if they provide no care at all for your pet. Really ticks me off!
That is a wonderful way to find a good place to board your pet. Just ask a vet. They meet all kinds of people and their pets and they must hear about all the good places to board as well as all the bad places.
I used to board my cats at a cage-free boarding facility. They had two large rooms, one for indoor-only cats, one for indoor/outdoor cats. The rooms were filled with custom-made cat structures. As it turns out, since they were all in new environments, most cats didn’t have territorial disputes, and would just hang out.
They did have a few isolation rooms where they could put single cats, or pairs, if needed, but most of the time there was no need.
I boarded 6 different cats there, in groups of 2 or 3, at various times, and never had a problem. This included a couple of cats who needed regular medicine.
I just happened to see a news story in today’s issue of the NY Post. It’s a story (with a video clip) of a house cat that fought off three coyotes. I never knew anything about this story before I saw it today. But I got the feeling that people in this thread - as well as most any cat lover - would really enjoy seeing this story.
I realize it’s not exactly “on topic” (strictly speaking), but I thought most people here would enjoy seeing this:
Thanks for that video, Charlie! Glad to see the cats win one…although it sounds like he eventually needed rescuing by his people. I live in L.A., and we’ve had bad coyote problems over the last several years. That’s what scares me with the boarding at home idea. Our guy is a dachshund and probably couldn’t fight off three at once.
And I did know someone who’d put a sign on the door not to let the cat out, and the ditzy worker “didn’t see the sign,” the cat got out, and, sadly, was never found. That option would make me really nervous.
I saw that vid, Charley Wayne. My cats go in and out and yes, it’s Arizona and we do have coyotes. But coyotes, although they will of course, take a cat, don’t much like messing with them when there’s easier prey around that won’t hit them with teeth and claws and a cat’s uncanny knack to defy physics. My cats have managed to avoid being coyote food, and frankly I worry more about cars and people
We use Cat Country Resort up here. Tonka has been several times. The late Creamsicle liked it. Goo hasn’t been yet. They seem to spoil the cats there. The rooms are nice (especially when you get a larger one for two cats) and they have playtime. The rates are very reasonable too.
I get nervous about boarding my cats at the vet. They are closed Sundays so they just have somebody check in a couple of times a day. When I had my diabetic cat I was worried that she was alone for several hours at a time.
I would just like to add a brief note concerning a personal experience.
One evening I was working my part time job in a gas station when I found a female cat. She appeared to be very distressed. I figured she was lost or abandoned. I tried to make friends with her to help her out and she was slowly coming around.
I was holding her in my arms when an air pressure hose somehow became lose from its coupling and emitted a loud hissing sound and part of the hose behaved like a crazed Cobra snake thrashing all around at very fast speeds.
The cat lost her mind. She must have figured she was under some kind of attack. She must have scratched me at least a dozen times in the same number of places on my body. Thank Goodness she never got me in the eyes. I can’t blame her at all. I’m sure she felt she was being attacked and just wanted to escape.
As soon as she started scratching me, I tried to drop her as fast as I could. I have never reacted as quickly ever before or since. But she really got me good. My body was covered with many serious and painful scratches. As soon as she hit the ground, she was across the street and disappeared in a flash.
I never ever ever want to get attacked by a cat again. I have often heard about dogs killing cats. But after that experience, I would never want to get into any kind of fight with a cat unless maybe … I was in a Sherman tank or something similar. I kid you not. House cats can be the most fearsome and ferocious creatures in the world when they are fighting for their lives.
It started out with me just being annoyed with work this morning, and I started thinking about opening a cat-boarding operation rather than give another minute of my time to an employer. I could totally wrangle 20-50 cats at a time. As the day wears on, I’m failing to think of that entirely as a joke/daydream. Might take some work to talk myself out of it.
That makes sense, but I’d still be concerned about someowne introducing a virus to a rotating population. You’d never be rid of it.
Re: viruses. I had to provide all my cats shot records and in addition they took blood to test for feline AIDS and something else I forgot, even though the cats always get their shots every year.
I visited both facilities today. The very $$$ vet run boarding place was nice, each cat has a window and a 2 level 3 room “house.” They are also rotated singly to a play area each day with lots of stimulation like toys and it’s 3 glass walls, so that’s nice. They’re going to go ahead a do a dental he needs, he has a broken canine and a broken molar on the other side. I had been hesitating since I didn’t want him home until he was fully conscious and my reg. vet couldn’t do that since she doesn’t board.
And the cheaper place was fine, it’s actually the employee break room, kitchen (double closing doors) and when people are up there, they let the kitties out if no cat wars start. And if no one is up there, the cats are let out one at a time to do important cat things.
That sounds like Cat Country Resort (linked above, with photos). We have to bring in the vax records, and each cat has a window. Only one ‘room’ but each room has levels. AIUI, the cats are brought out singly for playtime. (Or cohabitating cats are brought out together.) While they are not run by a veterinarian, the owner has been a vet tech and ‘We are Veterinary approved. We are able to care for special needs cats requiring medication, shots and special diets.’
I always miss the kitties about two minutes after we drop them off, but it’s good to know we have a good place to board them.
I saw the title of this thread and thought, “Boarding cats? What kind of boarding? Skateboarding? Surfboarding? Snowboarding? That could end badly. Or it could result in great YouTube videos.”
I now return you to your actual, reasonable discussion on a completely different topic. I have exactly nothing of actual use to add.