Helping kitty adjust to cat sitter

[Juniper_Junebug]

I've been working from home almost the whole time since I adopted Juno at 4 months last October, but I'm going to have to start going into the office (I have started back gradually to help her adjust), and, more critically, eventually start traveling some for work. I've been following the other thread on here about how long is too long to leave your cat at home (with someone stopping by), and that got me thinking about what I need to do to prepare for travel.

If it's a short trip, I can have someone stop by. If it's more than two or three days, I might want to hand Juno off to my mother (since she won't necessarily be able to stay at my place the whole time). Does that sound right? If so, what's the right action plan so she's not overly traumatized the first time I travel? She's met my mother but never been to her house. Is it better to take her over there for a day while I'm around, or will that unnecessarily stress her and I should just wait until I really need to drop her off. Ideally, I'd like to get to a point where Juno sees my mother's house as a second home, but I realize that may be a pipe dream....

 

[fionasmom]

Cats get very attached to their own places and homes. If you are going to leave Juno with your mom, she needs to go over there, get to know your mom quite well, and learn where things will be like a litter box. Letting her have the run of an unfamiliar house is not the best strategy and at first she should have her own room, not to mention check the house to see if there are any escape hatches, hidey holes, etc. If you take her to your mom's suddenly and then do not return, Juno will be very uneasy unless she has become accustomed to it.

 

[daftcat75]

Some cats enjoy traveling more than others. Krista had words to say when I walked her to the car in her carrier. But she usually calmed down very quickly inside the car. I rehomed her with a friend for a week or two when I last moved. I had overlapping leases and felt it would be more comfortable for her if I didn't have to lock her away in a room every time I needed to shuttle a car's worth of boxes and furniture out of the home. She spent all of about 30 seconds surveying my friend's apartment before she decided to make herself at home on her roommate's bed. She was the same way with every hotel room we stayed in together. She never hid. In fact, usually the first thing she wanted to do in a hotel room after she surveyed the basic geography was to get up high, on top of the fridge or even higher if she could. She was a great sport. I wish we traveled more.

What I would recommend is practice trips to your mother's house. She may take to them like no big deal. She may not. But it's better to know that before you have to leave for travel.

 

[She's a witch]

She’s still very young meaning she’s more adaptable than she ever will be, so I’d start taking her to your mom’s house often to get her introduced to a new space with you in there. If you can make these visits regular thing, then awesome. But if Juno doesn’t like it, then I wouldn’t force it and she’ll just have to deal with it when the times comes. It may still be easier for her to stay alone (with visits) at your place even if your trip is for more than 3 days, though.

 

[Juniper_Junebug]

Thanks, everyone, for the input. I will try to make weekend trips to my mom's house in the near term to see how she does. I would have done it while she was even younger (and thus more impressionable), but for COVID (I was only visiting my mother outdoors, given her age; though she had visited me once during a lull in Covid transmission and once after I had gotten a negative test). But now that we're both vaccinated, its totally doable.