Going away on a trip - how to help kitty adjust?

[catanalyst]

Hi everyone, I have a question about how to help my cat adjust when I travel.

A little bit of background:

I adopted my cat about 6 months ago, and she is the first pet I've ever had. She is a wonderful, very social tuxedo girl and just over 1yo. Since I got her, I have gone on 2 trips. The first time was for a wedding, and I was gone for 2 nights. I asked a friend to check in on her that weekend, and she seemed fine when I got back.

The second time, I was gone for much longer (a total of 6 nights), and my cat-sitting friend also had to travel, so I decided to hire a professional cat sitter. I left very detailed cat-care instructions, including how to feed her and play with her (she's hard to get playing). When I came back from my trip, I was slightly irritated, because the cat sitter failed to follow some of my instructions (all minor things). Also the cat was acting really strangely and didn't seem like herself. She's usually very calm and sweet, but when I came back, she was extremely loud and meowed A LOT more than normal. She also seemed anxious (pacing around a lot) and didn't want to play much. The cat sitter said that she meowed every day during the cat visits. The day after I came back, I took her to the vet, because I knew she had an anal gland issue. The following day I tried to pick her up, and she bit me, which she had NEVER done before! Anyway, it took more than a week for her to get back to normal.

Long story short, now I'm kind of anxious about her well-being when I have to travel.

Fast forward to this weekend. I'll be going on a trip with friends, and I'll be gone for a total of 3 nights. I hired the same cat sitter again, because I didn't have time to find a new one on short notice.

Is there anything I can do to help soothe her while I'm gone? I left out a t-shirt I was wearing last time, but that didn't seem to help. Or should I just accept that she will always be agitated when I'm gone?

Also, should I try to find a better cat sitter?

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

 

[magiksgirl]

Hi, my apologies for you not getting an quicker reply.

It's very unprofessional to not follow the instructions for care of the owner. I don't know if you found sitter through an agency, but if you did, I would have complained to the agency about her lack of attention to my kitty. I mean, you are paying this person for certain things to be done, if they don't do them, they should have a darn good reason not to do them.

Below you can find a couple of useful articles for you:

 [article="0"]How Long Can A Cat Be Left Alone​[/article]  

 [article="30312"]Separation Anxiety In Cats​[/article]  

 [article="29656"]A Pet Owners Guide To Pet Sitters​[/article]  

I seem to have missed it, but what is kitty's name? 

 

[catanalyst]

Sorry about the delay in replying. I went on my trip, and things got really busy after that.

Yes, I found the petsitter through an agency. I decided to use her again for this last trip, because I couldn't find anyone else on such short notice. Also I thought I'd give the sitter a second chance in case the first time was a fluke. The good news is that the cat wasn't as agitated when I came back. Of course I was also gone for a shorter period of time.

However, I'm still dissatisfied with the sitter. The first time I hired her, I noticed that she let the water bowls get very very low (<1 inch deep). I'm not sure if that means she wasn't changing the water every day (as I requested) or if she just liked to fill the bowls very low. Also, she either didn't water the cat grass or didn't water it enough, because it was almost dead by the time I came back. Because I was unhappy with those things, I gave her very specific instructions for this last trip about them, but when I came back, I found the exact same things again!

Thanks for linking me to those articles. Also, my cat's name is Catniss. She's also my avatar.