Hello everyone, I feel like I have a somewhat unique situation that I'm trying to figure out if it will work. I'm really hoping it will.
I am adopting a beautiful little Balinese traditional-type kitten from a litter born at the beginning of May, as soon as they turn 12 weeks old. My husband and I finally bought our first home (an apartment), and since we aren't renting anymore, its the first time we're able have pets, so I'm wasting no time on getting a kitten we would love. We need a Balinese to not upset his allergies. As soon as I first met the kittens at 3 weeks old, and sent a picture to my sister, now SHE'S going to adopt one as well! (Honestly, it took no convincing at all to get to her want one herself, just one look at the sweethearts and anyone would want to take them home!) Two sister kittens, to two sisters. Funny huh? Which is excellent news. She lives with her boyfriend in an apartment as well, about 30 min drive from me.
Here's the thing... we want to be able to babysit each others cat when we go out of town.
My husband and I are homebodies, we rarely rarely go on trips or vacations, at most we will spend 2-4 days usually around Christmas time out of town visiting my father-in-law. We would only need a cat babysitter once or twice a year max.
My sister and her bf go on trips often (at least for a week or so every year), plus lots of weekend camping trips during the summer months.
We've done tons of reading about introducing two cats together (usually two stranger kitties of course, one resident cat and one newbie). But this would be a bit different. Both cats right now of course, live with their mom and other brothers and sisters... the two cats already know each other. They get along with all the siblings. We're worried that once I take my cat home, and she takes her cat home, and they get settled in their new homes, they will forget about their siblings. Do cats remember their litter-mates if separated for some time before introduced? Or would they remember the smell, etc, and welcome each other with open paws?
To help them not forget about each other, we're hoping that once we spend a few days, get the cat accustomed to each of our places, we'll go on little play dates. Maybe she brings her cat over to my place one day for a few hours, and then the next week, I bring mine over to her place?
We're hoping to do these play dates about once a week (hard of course, with work schedules and transportation coordination with our significant others on who gets the car, etc), to maintain the bond between the two cats, and so they can each learn both apartments and feel comfortable there. Because if I have to go out of town for a week say, I'd feel 100000000000x better about leaving my baby behind if I knew she was being looked for with care 24/7. Both my sister and I don't have anyone else we could trust to pet sit, and since we don't live super close to each other, it would be hard to leave the cat in the apartment alone, and rely on each other to come over every day or multiple times a day to feed/play/change the litter etc, while we too have our own kitten at home. Plus they are kittens! they need the food given several times throughout the day, its not like once a day visit, pop open a can of cat food would do the trick.
Do you think we could make this arrangement work? We figure among the difficulty of not only visiting each other often, we need to bring our pets along, get the cats each used to each home, and constantly reminded about the fact the other cat is someone they know and trust already.
Do you think we would still have problems with cats being territorial over each other?
What if we also exchanged clothing or blankets with our pets smells on it, so if the other cat isn't around, at least I could have the blanket out and my cat could get reminded or perhaps tricked into thinking she also shares this space with her sibling? So that when my sister does go away for the weekend, I could have her cat over as well, and it wont be such a shock to my cat?
So ya, we live too far from each other leave the cats in their homes and just drive by several times a day to check up and feed the cat.
We don't have anyone else we could trust to pet sit.
We don't like the idea of boarding them... kept in little cages with lots of other unknown cats or perhaps dogs around, sounds traumatizing for a kitten to me! Plus what if they get sick?
I also think my main worry would be if they did get super territorial and did need the proper re-introductions (over a few days or weeks, opposite sides of a door, etc), because our vacations are always so short, there would be no point in doing the proper re-introductions because they'd be coming home before it was complete!
I know this must be confusing to read, but I hope it make sense, and if anyone has any comments, or hints or helps, or suggestions, please let me know!
I am adopting a beautiful little Balinese traditional-type kitten from a litter born at the beginning of May, as soon as they turn 12 weeks old. My husband and I finally bought our first home (an apartment), and since we aren't renting anymore, its the first time we're able have pets, so I'm wasting no time on getting a kitten we would love. We need a Balinese to not upset his allergies. As soon as I first met the kittens at 3 weeks old, and sent a picture to my sister, now SHE'S going to adopt one as well! (Honestly, it took no convincing at all to get to her want one herself, just one look at the sweethearts and anyone would want to take them home!) Two sister kittens, to two sisters. Funny huh? Which is excellent news. She lives with her boyfriend in an apartment as well, about 30 min drive from me.
Here's the thing... we want to be able to babysit each others cat when we go out of town.
My husband and I are homebodies, we rarely rarely go on trips or vacations, at most we will spend 2-4 days usually around Christmas time out of town visiting my father-in-law. We would only need a cat babysitter once or twice a year max.
My sister and her bf go on trips often (at least for a week or so every year), plus lots of weekend camping trips during the summer months.
We've done tons of reading about introducing two cats together (usually two stranger kitties of course, one resident cat and one newbie). But this would be a bit different. Both cats right now of course, live with their mom and other brothers and sisters... the two cats already know each other. They get along with all the siblings. We're worried that once I take my cat home, and she takes her cat home, and they get settled in their new homes, they will forget about their siblings. Do cats remember their litter-mates if separated for some time before introduced? Or would they remember the smell, etc, and welcome each other with open paws?
To help them not forget about each other, we're hoping that once we spend a few days, get the cat accustomed to each of our places, we'll go on little play dates. Maybe she brings her cat over to my place one day for a few hours, and then the next week, I bring mine over to her place?
We're hoping to do these play dates about once a week (hard of course, with work schedules and transportation coordination with our significant others on who gets the car, etc), to maintain the bond between the two cats, and so they can each learn both apartments and feel comfortable there. Because if I have to go out of town for a week say, I'd feel 100000000000x better about leaving my baby behind if I knew she was being looked for with care 24/7. Both my sister and I don't have anyone else we could trust to pet sit, and since we don't live super close to each other, it would be hard to leave the cat in the apartment alone, and rely on each other to come over every day or multiple times a day to feed/play/change the litter etc, while we too have our own kitten at home. Plus they are kittens! they need the food given several times throughout the day, its not like once a day visit, pop open a can of cat food would do the trick.
Do you think we could make this arrangement work? We figure among the difficulty of not only visiting each other often, we need to bring our pets along, get the cats each used to each home, and constantly reminded about the fact the other cat is someone they know and trust already.
Do you think we would still have problems with cats being territorial over each other?
What if we also exchanged clothing or blankets with our pets smells on it, so if the other cat isn't around, at least I could have the blanket out and my cat could get reminded or perhaps tricked into thinking she also shares this space with her sibling? So that when my sister does go away for the weekend, I could have her cat over as well, and it wont be such a shock to my cat?
So ya, we live too far from each other leave the cats in their homes and just drive by several times a day to check up and feed the cat.
We don't have anyone else we could trust to pet sit.
We don't like the idea of boarding them... kept in little cages with lots of other unknown cats or perhaps dogs around, sounds traumatizing for a kitten to me! Plus what if they get sick?
I also think my main worry would be if they did get super territorial and did need the proper re-introductions (over a few days or weeks, opposite sides of a door, etc), because our vacations are always so short, there would be no point in doing the proper re-introductions because they'd be coming home before it was complete!
I know this must be confusing to read, but I hope it make sense, and if anyone has any comments, or hints or helps, or suggestions, please let me know!