We have a heinous ant problem in our apartment at the moment. My husband called the apartment manager and they told us that they’ll take care of it Wednesday, however the chemicals could pose a danger for my cat.
So this is kind of the problem. They’ll be here Wednesday, and they want the cat out for a few hours (afternoonish to about 6pm) so he doesn’t get sick or poisoned. We don’t really know anybody who can take the cat, so as far as I can tell I’ve got two options:
board him
put him in the car
I have a car cat-carrier thing but I think several hours in a car will drive him nuts. This is further complicated by the fact that my husband and I have a doctor’s appointment at 5:15pm so he would have to travel with us to that and sit in the parking lot for an hour… no, I don’t like this at all.
What should I do with him? Will a boarding house take him for just a few hours, or would we have to pay for overnight? Am I overreacting about putting him in the car? I just don’t want him to be traumatized. I’ve never owned a cat before, he’s only been with us a few months, so I’m not sure what the rational response to this situation would be.
Call a vet, or someone else who boards cats, and ask. Your biggest problem, in my opinion, is likely to be the short notice. I would not be surprised if they charge you a for a night’s boarding–or even a little more, just for a few hours. (It’s one of those things where the time and effort to clean the place where your pet boards is likely to be higher for a short stay than a long one. Certainly whenever we boarded our cat, the recept said something about a minimum charge).
On the other hand, as long as you are removing the cat for the cat’s health, perhaps you should leave the cat at the boarding place overnight.
The vet won’t charge much but they may not do it. Boarding them can be a little more costly. It would be worth it, though. You don’t want the softies to get sick.
We ran into a similar problem a couple months back when our apartments decided to spray for roaches. We boarded our kitty Toxie in a wonderful little Cat Kennel outside of town; not a vet’s office that also boards cats, as those can be stressful for cats with all the freaky smells and sounds, but a place that specifically boards just cats in really quite fancy “suites”, has someone there 24-7, plays with them and exercises them, etc. Spoils them rotten, basically. Little bugger didn’t want to come home!
I know it’s short notice, but look in the phone book for cat kennels, and see if you can drive over and take a look at their facilities. You’ll probably want 24 hours to wash all the surfaces in the apartment and let it air out, and the kennel will charge you for an overnight stay anyway, so you may as well make it a vacation for the little guy. The place we boarded Toxie at was surprisingly affordable - we got him one of the biggest luxury “suites” they had, and it was 30 bucks a night.
Editing to add: if you’re kenneling him, he’ll need to be current on his shots and they’ll want paperwork stating as much, FYI.
This is only for a few hours, right? Haven’t you ever taken your pet to the vet?
That takes a couple hours, but everybody survives it. (And it usually includes trauma and pain-- being surrounded in the waiting room by strange animals, and then vet sticks a thermometer up her tail, or gives a shot of vaccine.)
A cat can live perfectly well in your car, believe me. Especially if you are there with him for half that time. Yes, she will meow, and yes you will feel like the Most Evil Person in All of Human History.
But you will both get over it, trust me.
With my last cat, I let her run free inside the car. My current cat gets stuffed into her cat carrier box, where she complains at first, and then calms down.
It’s only a couple hours. Just imagine that you are taking her to the vet and got stuck in traffic.
Stay calm. It’s a 2 hour trip out of the house–not a terror alert.
I’ve never been a cat owner. Do cats go to groomers?
When we used to have pugs, we’d take them to the groomers for the day while we bombed the house for fleas. They’d come back in the evening washed and dipped and flea-free to a flea-free house and yard.
I don’t know my neighbors and I don’t have any friends who live less than an hour from here.
I think we’re going to have to board him. Problem is, all of his medical documentation is with my friend, his former owner, and owing to transportation issues (we have one car, which my husband must use 9-6pm) it will take a while before I can get ahold of it.
So we have postponed the ant treatment until I can get a hold of his vet records. And in response to ''haven’t you ever taken him to the vet?" the answer is no, I haven’t. I’ve had him a few months, he had JUST gotten a vet checkup when I got him, and he is incredibly healthy and happy so I haven’t had the need to do so.
You just answered the question I was going to ask…but I’ll add 2 cents anywhoo.
When it comes time to board Blackie and Raggedy Anne it becomes an all-purpose boarding. Let’s wrap up as much stuff in one visit as possible…rabies, feluk and every two years a tooth cleaning.
I think this is wise. I don’t know if the ant spray treatment is vastly different from the roach spray treatment our apartment got, but we were advised not to re-enter the apartment ourselves for at least 6 hours, and to clean Every. Single. Surface. thoroughly before bringing the kitty home.
Another thing I did when our apartment was sprayed is call the actual exterminator myself and ask him a bunch of questions - what were they spraying, where were they spraying, had they ever had any problems with pets getting poisoned after spraying, what did they suggest to make sure that didn’t happen, etc.
Look at it this way: hopefully you’ll find a great little place to board kitty so that the next time you go out of town or something you’ll know just what to do with him!
Would it be faster if your friend called her vet and asked the vet to mail/fax you a copy of kitty’s records? If your friend has the info handy herself, she could mail it
I wish I lived closer, I’ve been looking for ants for my new ant farm for a couple weeks now.