We Actually Hear It Way (Too) Often:
- “Y’all just need to take care of our dogs and not to worry about the cat we have. She’s good with her full food dispenser and doesn’t need any attention!”
- “I need someone to check on my cats 2-3 times a week. That’s all they really need.”
Ready for Play
I must admit it worries me every time I get these phone calls as living with one dozen of cats myself,
I don’t even have one out of the twelve which doesn’t crave for daily attention from a little to a lot. My cats and many of our clients cats are very social and affectionate little fur people!
It sure is true that they don’t need to be taken out on a leash every few hours to go potty but every single one for sure appreciate the litter boxes to be cleaned and oh boy, I have a couple which surely would let me know with not so nice “surprises” that their “Katzen-klo” (translation: cat toilet) better get’s some attention now!
Food And Water – The Essentials
Now, I want to say the majority of cats are probably fed on what we refer to as “free feed” with a big bowl or food dispenser topped off with dry food where kitty cats munch away as they please. Hehe, and yes I hear Veterinarians sighing and rolling eyes as it is their daily bread to see overweight cats and trying to get them on a diet but this is subject to a different blog post (which I definitely will tackle at some point )
Food dispensers… looking at what I have in my home and numerous dispensers we get to see on our jobs on a daily basis, the majority wouldn’t quite ‘dispense’ hence, we always have to scoot the food to fill the bowl portion as it somewhat gets stuck in the dispenser.
Seeing cats only every other day or even less would risk that they don’t have access to their food unless they would go “fish” for it. Scary thought in my opinion!
Even scarier is that cats could run out of water as they are prone to not drinking enough to begin with and that on a mostly dry food diet which demands a good water intake to not risk the development of kidney disease, kidney stones and failure.
Medication And Medical Conditions
We see quite a few cats with medical conditions like thyroid disorder, inflammation or diabetes and those are conditions which demand steady and regular treatment. Going out of town doesn’t need to interfere with the medical attention of Ms Kitty but it still should be consistent to the prescribed routine instead of the other way around to adjust the medical attention to the travel schedule. Professional pet sitters and especially us at EMM are pay really close attention to the daily routine to distract a pet as little as anyhow possible.
Cats Can Get In Trouble, TOO!
It is amazing (not a good amazing) what cats can get into in a home. We had it all, from shutting themselves in a room or closet with no food and water and no litter box to loving plastic trash bags and getting caught in it. Getting into fights because one was in a bad mood and decides to scratch the other one’s eye out. Jumping up on a counter or hutch in the living room and pulling something down and getting hurt in the heat of the moment. Getting stuck in the window blinds or curtains and not being able to free themselves.
Cats are also very quiet and silent when not feeling well or with an oncoming illness and bam, one day it’s just so bad that it needs immediate veterinary attention or worse.
Food For Thought For Next Time When Going Out Of Town
and yet the answer why we require to see cats at least once a day, every 24 hours and better even more often and this is not for the reason to make more money but for the physical AND emotional well-being of your velvet pawed friend ?
