Leaving Cat At Friend's House For A Few Days?

[wahine01]

Does anyone else on here ever send their cat to another person's house for a few days?

We're going away for 3 nights and will be leaving our 6 month old kitten with my friend. Ideally if we had the option of keeping the kitten at home and having our friend pop around a couple of times a day we would have done that, but unfortunately my friend lives too far away to do that.

Our kitten has spent 2 weeks in a cattery before and was fine, he loved playing with the other kittens there. We would have booked him in again but unfortunately it's booked out. My friend offered to look after the kitten at his house. His wife LOVES cats and they have a 2 year old that will love to play with the kitten. They have outdoor cats at another house they are renovating but no cats in the rented house they currently live in (they stop by every day to feed the outdoor cats).

I'm planning to pack his litter box, bowls, food, some toys, a soft blanket and maybe one of my shirts for his stay. I've asked my friends to not let the kitten outside and to just keep him confined to a couple of rooms for the stay. Is there anything else I can do/suggest to make sure he's not stressed during the stay?

 

[jcat]

You could get some Feliway spray or a diffuser for your friend to use.

Kittens love to explore so much that he'll probably be fine after the first few hours. Several years ago I had another TCS member's kittens (around 6 and 9 months old) here for 10 days, and they had a blast checking out everything!

 

[wahine01]

Yeah I think it's good to do this kind of stuff when he's young. If he was older I would hesitate to do anything like it. If it all goes well I might look into taking him to my friends house regularly for half hour visits just in case he ever has to go there again when he's older.

When I was young we had a cat that would come on holiday to our cabin with us. It was a 3 hour drive away but we would go there every few weekends. She didn't like the journey so much but loved it when we got there. I'd like to expose my kitten to lots of different situations so that there's less chance of ending up with a cat that dead set in their way and isn't stressed if/when things change.

 

[foxden]

Please ask them to WATCH the 2 year old child. A child this age cannot understand a kitten is breakable, and is not just a toy.

Some of my family have had their cats stay over with friends during vacations. They have all had good results, and the cats behaved well after the trips.

 

[wahine01]

Please ask them to WATCH the 2 year old child. A child this age cannot understand a kitten is breakable, and is not just a toy.

Believe me they've been watching him like a hawk (he's an only child so there's no other distractions). He's actually very gentle and sweet with animals, the cats they care for especially. Quite an amazing kid really, he's only 21 months old and learning Japanese, Greek and English and can understand all three!