To make a long story short, I’m a 23-year old guy living on his own at a (respectable) job. I make ends meet.
I’m currently engaged to my fiance who lives in Canada, but she is coming down for the weekend and we plan on checking out a local shelter.
I could use the companionship in my apartment. This is not to say that I want 2 cats for that reason, but we planned on getting a few once she moves here but if she has a say in the decision, then I see no trouble in doing it.
That said, I go home 2-3 weekends a month to stay with my parents and socialize with my friends. This normally consists of Friday to Sunday afternoon(ish).
My mom is vehemently opposed to the idea of me leaving both of them alone while I visit home. Our beloved Buddy recently passed away after ~14 years of comfortable living, and she treated him like a prince. As a result, she thinks that doing something like that would lead to a sense of abandonment, etc. She may very well be right. I’m seeking your opinions.
I figured I’d get two because it was not only the eventual plan with my fiance, but also so they could have some companionship when I am away. Cats are exceedingly independent when compared to dogs, for example, but I just want to know if anyone thinks this would be a reprehensible thing to do. Keep in mind that I plan on staying there for at least 3-4 weeks after adoption so I can assist in the acclimation process. From then on, my only absence would be random weekends (and work during weekdays, 7-3).
My sister in law does this with her single cat and the cat is just fine. I don’t know if I would feel comfortable doing it with my kitties (my wife and I just adopted two a couple of weeks ago) but that is more because I am a chronic worrier than because I think it will hurt the cats.
That said, if you had someone who could come by once and scoop their litter and make sure they didn’t run out of water it would probably be for the best.
The cats should be fine, but I’d make the first time away an overnight visit, just in case. Have a friend come over and check on them the first few times etc.
Are you adopting kittens, or adult cats? Kittens changes the answer somewhat.
Mention your plan to the shelter, it’ll help them match you to a good pair of cats, who won’t mind.
Very good concern. I am avoiding kittens for this very reason. While I would love the idea of being an impressionable influence (or vice versa?) on my kitten overlords, I’d be much more comfortable with 1-2 year old cats that are mature enough to handle being alone for periods at a time.
That’s a good idea. I’ll probably go home for a day and see if there are any ill-effects.
Thanks for the post. I plan on investing in a few of those “auto-dispensing water devices” (heh) which dispense water based on the weight in the “bowl.” It worked wonders for our cat, but my mom ended up changing it daily with Brita filtered water because it was “too dirty.”
I live alone with two cats - when they were kittens, I would have someone come and check on them if I was away for the weekend. If I was away longer, I sometimes had them go stay with a friend. Now that they’re older, though, for weekend trips (usually Friday night to Sunday afternoon), I just leave extra food and water. They’re always fine. I recently went on a vacation where I was gone for almost two weeks and they were fine with daily visits from my neighbor. That’s one of the reasons I got two - so when I’m at work or traveling, they have each other for company.
If your cats can free-feed dry food they’ll probably be fine for a weekend. However…
1.) Some minority of cats shouldn’t be allowed to free-feed because they act more like your average dogs and either scarf up everything immediately and/or if faced with a never-ending source of food ( a big-ass food dispenser ), will get fat. One of mine is that sort of little pig.
2.) It would never work with my cats anyway, as due to health reasons they must eat wet food only for hydration ( well only one of them, but that de facto means both of them ).
3.) A few cats are needier than average and may respond poorly to being left unsupervised for a couple of days. “Poorly” being anything from inappropriate elimination to willful destruction of your property. I doubt that would be an issue, but it is something to be prepared for.
For me it’s rarely a problem because I have neighbors with a set of keys that will happily feed my two if I’m out of town ( I feed their dogs and cat regularly as well, so it is reciprocal ). The best compromise is to find some similarly useful local friend to perform a similar service, even if checking on them just once.
I’ll note in passing that I’m kinda sold on the superior benefits of a primarily wet food diet and some sort of scheduled feedings ( as opposed to free-feeding ), but millions of cats do fine with neither, so I’d consider it more an ideal than anything approaching mandatory.
Yep, we’ve got two cats; they’re almost 2 years old now. For weekends, extra food and water and they’re fine. For trips longer than, say, 4 days, I have someone check in on them, a couple of times if it’s not too inconvenient. They’ll be fine.
Oh! We feed ours both canned and dry food - they share a can a day. When we’re gone for a weekend, we do put out a little extra canned food along with the dry, and so far it hasn’t been a problem. Maybe they gorge themselves that first day, maybe they don’t - I don’t know, and they’re always good when we get back.
Why two cats? Cats survive very well being solitary, despite what the overlords here will tell you. And ifyou decide to put the beast into a cattery for a week end it is a lot cheaper.
My fiance and I are relatively set on getting two, but she won’t be living her just yet. That’s actually not a bad idea. One would be a lot easier to handle, and cheaper to boot. We can get the second when she comes here permanently. Makes sense. I was mainly concerned with the “someone to play with” while I’m away, but our cat was always fine by himself after a weekend.
If you’re worried about free-feeding, you can always get one of these automated feed dispensers. No worries about a piggy cat eating everythign at once. And if you have two cats, you *won’t * be leaving them alone. They’ll be together.
Two cats is definitely a good idea, especially when they’re younger. We own two cats, and we have the gravity water and dry food feeders. We’ve had as many as four cats at a time. We have no problems leaving the cats for a few days. but we also have a pet door, so they can come in and out on their own, and we don’t have to deal with litterboxes.
Note: Wet food only can be a bad idea. Their teeth get coated with crud that never gets scraped off by chewing on dry kibble. I was at the vet a few weeks ago and saw a dog that had to get 19 teeth extracted for this reason.
It all depends on your cat. When I was young I had a cat and she was the type to get up, eat something, walk around making sure everything was to her satisfaction, and that was it.
If she needed a pat she’d hop up and allow you to pet her but otherwise, she was happy just to left to do her thing. I also had a dog, but the two simply refused to acknowledge the other existed. LOL
Some cats are needy, some require very minimal interaction. If you’re looking to adopt then get a grown up cat. You never know what you get with a kitten. A shelter can get you a cat that will suit your needs very well, as they are familiar with the cat’s personalities and needs.
And remember your idea of companionship may be having Mr Cat sit in your lap and pet him. HIS idea of companionship may be that you’re filling his food dish and scooping the box and leaving him alone otherwise
Haha, yes. Truer words have never been spoken. I fully acknowledge that it’s actually up to him/her/them. I am merely providing them with a suitable throne.
If you are adopting two cats, I recommend choosing two from the same litter or a pair that were previously living together. My two unrelated cats fought a lot in the beginning. After 9 years, they tolerate each other but still are not friends. My situation is not unusual.
I have two cats that I adopted at around the age of 1-2 years old like you plan to. Go ahead and get two. Taking care of two cats is really not noticeably harder than taking care of one (the biggest adjustment is in going from 0 cats to 1 cat, not from 1 cat to 2 cats). Their antics with each other can be amusing (even though my pair have never exactly been friends, they tolerate each other and do interact).
Another nice bonus is that it saves another life. Cat overpopulation is an even bigger problem than dog overpopulation and in my part of the country the shelters have to euthanize more cats than dogs. The adult cats in particular are often overlooked, so I give you credit for giving them a chance. The adult cats are better in my opinion because then you know what kind of personality they will have. Kittens are very cute but they are more trouble and the personality is unpredictable, so I have never regretted adopting adults instead.
Sometimes shelters will have pairs of cats that have already bonded together and that they would like to see adopted out as a pair, so ask the shelter workers about if they have any cat pairs like that when you go.
Early on when I lived alone I sometimes left the cats alone for like 4 days straight. As long as you clean the litterbox right before you leave and they have plenty of food/water, it’s not a problem. Even though one of my cats is a very extroverted people-loving cat, he still seems okay when I leave him alone.
Personally I use the cat food dispensers that do not rely on mechanical parts to dispense the food just so there is no risk of a malfunction depriving them of food. I use the food and water dispensers that rely on gravity, like this: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4001472
Enjoy your new kitties!
If you’re adopting adult cats, you have a little better chance to get the sort of cat that you want. Adult cats are a lot easier to size up, personality-wise. Talk to the people at the animal shelter and tell them what you’re looking for; they love their animals and will be happy to help you select cats of the approximate personality you want. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s better odds than you’ll get with kittens.
The cats will function just fine with two nights alone. My parents leave their cats alone for as long as three weeks, but the neighbors check in every couple days and they live far enough out in the country that it’s no big deal to leave a window open so that the cats can come and go at will. What you have to worry about may be what they do to your house-- if they get in the habit of not using their litter box, you can get stained carpets very quickly. Getting a neighbor to check in and clean boxes is probably essential.
Yeah, my fiance had mentioned this to me, and it’s a good idea (she’s a vet tech). Unfortunately, she also said that it’s not terribly likely that they will have adult cats from the same litter, but there’s always a possibility.
Thanks for the post! Yeah, I think I’d like to rely on gravity rather than mechanics. That’s a solid point. I know our water dispenser was entirely based on gravity, and it worked wonderfully. I’ll make sure that I mention the kind of personality I’m looking for. It’s funny, our cat was the most docile cat I’ve ever seen (you could scrunch him up, rub him intensely, etc.). He would never get even remotely angry with you. On the other side, though, he never went out of his way to be overly affectionate unless he wanted food. I think I want fairly extroverted kitties. I loved our Buddy, but he was aloof a lot of the time.
Yeah, I plan on investing in some of those “paw protectors” as I am not an advocate of declawing. I will happily accept a kitty that’s already declawed, but I won’t go through that myself. Also, I will stick around for a few weeks to make sure that they are adequately house-trained. I’m not afraid to clean up a few stains for them. I have a limited amount of carpet so it shouldn’t be too serious.
