Move Cat To Hotel Room Or Subject Her To 12 Hours Of Construction?

So my awful landlord just let me know tonight that handymen are coming tomorrow morning to demolish my bedroom wall. She didn't build it to code so the city's making her take it down and rebuild it correctly. She's been terrible about keeping me in the loop about all this, so I haven't been able to make concrete plans about what to do with my cat.

The handymen were in my neighbor's unit for around 12 hours today, drilling and knocking down their wall. It's going to take them as long to do this with my wall, and they'll have to rebuild it on top of that. I haven't been told when the rebuilding will be but I assume that won't be as loud as the demolition.

The only place I'm able to put Smo while all this goes on is a foyer area which is adjacent to my room - it has very poor sound insulation so Smo will hear everything going on like she's in the bedroom. Would it be better to move her temporarily to a hotel room for the day or subject her to construction noise? She's not particularly skittish around strangers, but she is reactive to loud noises. She does, however, get terrified when we take her out of the house in a carrier as only unpleasant things have happened to her when she's transported (thanks to my landlord, her previous owner).

Smo was just in the ER last Friday for idiopathic cystitis, so I want to minimize stress on her as much as possible. What would you guys recommend I do in this situation? I'm really at a loss here and need to figure out what I'm going to do in the next 12 hours.

Personally, I’d opt for the hotel. But Krista travels pretty well.

I’d also opt for the hotel. Our two cats don’t love leaving home, but we recently spent 10 days in a hotel room when we moved and they adjusted surprisingly well. I think it’s less stressful overall, and you can bring comfortable things that smell of home.

Another option could be to leave her at the vets for 24 hours, not the best place but maybe better than a strange hotel room. I definately wouldnt leave her at home when the work is being carried out

I spoke to the neighbor who had the work done in their unit this evening, and it turns out the handymen were there for around 8 hours, not 12 as I had thought originally. They were also knocking down three walls in that unit whereas I just have one getting demolished. My neighbor assured me that while will be some drilling going on, the workers will mostly be spending their time carving the drywall out by hand. It turns out the drilling I was hearing was my neighbor's husband fixing up their apartment, not the handymen. I let Smo into the foyer in the early evening and she spent a couple hours on her window perch, which is about ten feet from the neighbors' room where the drilling was going on. She didn't seem bothered - maybe my landlord has subjected her to this kind of thing before.

For now, I think I'm going to camp out in the foyer with Smo and keep all the access points to the house closed. She is usually not terribly reactive to strangers or noise, but I was freaking out as I had thought she'd be subjected to drilling for a full 12 hours. If she gets anxious I plan on calling my boyfriend to crate her and grabbing a room in a pet-friendly hotel five minutes away.

My landlord used to dump Smo at a horribly-rated vet all day every few months, just so she could get bathed - she would just leave Smo there because she didn't feel like picking her up. Also during her recent ER visit the vet didn't call me back for an hour and a half so Smo was waiting for me in her carrier for that long - she got so scared I abandoned her that she pooped herself, and she is not the kind of cat that soils herself out of fear. She just seems to get so scared in general when she's taken out of the house, and my neighbor assured me that the work wouldn't be as loud or take as long as I had assumed. Thanks everyone for the input...I'm hoping everything will be okay tomorrow since the foyer is very familiar to her and I'll be there with her the whole time.

Sounds like a plan. Let us know how things go.

Yeah, good luck! Hopefully it goes smoothly!

I suppose all you can do is be grateful you found a landlady who lets you have pets and that you not she is Smo's now and forever person.

It sounds like you have a plan for Smo. Make sure you have activities and comfortable seating for your self while hanging wih her. If you're not stir crazy she won't be either.

Hey everyone, we ended up spending six hours together in foyer waiting for the work to wrap up. Smo was confused and annoyed but spent most of that time asleep in her usual spot in the foyer. The handymen didn't make as noise as I was afraid they would, just took longer than I had anticipated. I've let her back into the bedroom and while she's sulky she's eating a bit and drinking and doesn't seem overly stressed. They're coming back in a few days but the bulk of the work is done, so I really hope Smo will be okay. I figure today's upset was still better than the terror she experiences when we take her out of the house.

K Kflowers That's one way to look at it, but I admit I do get irritated by my landlord's lack of cooperation (with regards to everything) when I did her a favor by adopting her cat with behavioral issues that no one else would have been willing to take. She still has no issues with letting Smo outside and has almost done so multiple times, when I've told her so many times that she could get hit by a car or get sick outdoors. Her response is always "the cat is an adult and can take care of herself" - which is ridiculous, as she's an animal. Nevermind the vet bills I've incurred from medical issues the landlord caused and the behavioral issues she instilled. I love Smo more than anything, but I wasn't looking to get a cat at all when I adopted her - it was either that or let her die outside where my landlord dumped her. It would be nice if this woman could at least try to meet me halfway and help me keep Smo safe and happy.

Glad the worst is over for you and Smo and it wasnt too bad. Nevermind your landlady, she obviously has no idea about animal welfare. Smo has you to protect her now, she's one lucky cat.

I understand that there is, theoretically, that one gets a cat when one is looking for one. I never had a chance to get to that point. In the real world cats in need come.

V verna davies Thanks Verna. I was getting snippy yesterday because we both had quite a long day...lol. Right now Smo has constant access to the living room and after the initial shock of that, she's loving it. She keeps following me to the kitchen and purring.

K Kflowers Yes, it's uncanny - I'm not particularly spiritual but they do seem to have psychic powers. Smo knew very early on that I was her person (way before I did), and it took one night for her to settle in here. I've never owned cats before her, so I just locked her in my room one night after asking my landlord if I could. I now know that's a really abrupt introduction, but all Smo did knock one book off the shelf then fall asleep on my bed. After that, she slept here like she'd always belonged here. How weird and wonderful that they know these things - Smo decided that I needed a cat, so here we are.