holidays- boarding or sitter?

Personally, I am a fan of having a pet sitter if we are going out of town.

Last year when I had to go overseas to teach I got myself a tenant to occupy my spare room and asked her to help feed Slinky (then the only cat) when I wasn't around. Andy was then living with his dad and was not always available to feed her for me. A pet sitter can simply be a friend or family member who can be given your house keys and asked a favour of.

The reason why I am not pro-boarding is because I hear many horror stories of how pets being boarded at various catteries, kennels or shops actually dying, starving to death, falling sick or used for breeding (thus contracting STDs). Cats especially are harder to board because they tend to fast when they are stressed from a new environment, so unless the cattery or shop folks are willing to coax your kitty to get her to eat, she is likely to not eat throughout the boarding duration. Unless you know a shop or cattery that is reputable, I would advise the pet-sitter route first.

If you are only going away for a couple of days you can even simply just leave the food and water out for your cats, with clean litter boxes. Cats are quite able to manage their diet themselves and will ration their food over the couple of days the food is there free-flow. Do set up an additional litter box though, if there is no one to clear the existing box for kitty, she is likely to do it elsewhere when the box is full and dirty. Slinky did it on the toilet floor next to her litter box when the box was full when I left her alone for a short holiday once.

Sometimes there will be pets boarding at Angels, and that is when Andy and I will go and have fun visiting the boarding animals! We all have one happy memory of Andy actually hugging the 3-level pens and trying to talk to a super obese big fat cat called Montel; Aswat keeps laughing over that scene. One thing which impresses me is that when the boarding cats refuse to eat Aswat actually tries to persuade the kitties to eat by talking to them, feeding them nice smelling canned food, and bottle feeding kittens if they need milk. He also has a night-light for when the shop closes, so that the cats won't be in total darkness. The only thing is that sometimes a rescued sick kitty or two might be boarded there too and there is risk of sickness if cats are not vaccinated. So, if boarding your cats, do make sure kitty's vaccinations are up to date.