do or would you leave your kitty home alone?

i leave him for a couple days at a time if i'm going up north, the only time i was gone longer, like over a week, i had someone come by and check on him.
but. now that we've moved, i have nobody to come by and see him. i'm leaving late tonight and coming back boxing day. i'm not worried about him getting into things and destroying the place, i'm just worried cause he doesn't seem to eat much when we're away. i'll leave 2 giant bowls of dry food and 2 giant bowls of water plus leave the tap dripping for him.
the water will almost be empty when i get back and the food will barely be touched.

over a weekend this is no big deal, but a week? is that ok? i can't bring him with me, it's a 5-6 hour drive and he hates being in the car, and the cat at my mom's is very old and hates other cats, she'd freak out if i brought him there.

so far i figure i'll leave lots of water and dry food, and leave him some canned food as well, cause he may be more likely to eat that since he very rarely gets any. but that won't last more than a day.

what can i do to keep him amused and from getting lonely? hide treats around the house? leave a tv on?

ideas?

Hiding treats doesnt sound like a bad idea... as long as you dont have an ant problem. TV sounds like a good idea too.

Maybe leave a bunch of toys laying around the house if you have some. Our cats seems to have the opposite problem. When we were gone for 3.5 weeks (we had people come over to check on them), our cat must have gained 5lbs or so by the time we came back.. She was HUGE! Also, whenever she gets yelled at after getting into trouble, she heads straight for her food. Sometimes we even have to hide it. I think she weighs 14 lbs now, with a big huge belly.. If she keeps it up, she's gonna get some sort of cat diet food... hehe

It partly depends on the cat. A week seems a bit long. You probably don't have much money, but maybe you could go to the vets and ask if they have a technician or someone else trustworthy you could pay just to pay a visit or two during the week. They could change the litter box and make sure the cat wasn't in any trouble or anything.

As far as loneliness, I leave the TV on while I am at work. You could also put a timer on some of your lights or radios.

i dunno, i may be worrying for nothing, but i just feel really bad leaving him for that long. even if someone came in to check, they'd just check his food and leave, it's him being lonely that i'm worried about, but when strangers come in the house he usually just hides

Definitely leave a radio on and consider trying to get someone to pop in. I've always thought that I have a cat proof home and have still found my cats in situations where the result could easily have been an emergency trip to the vet's.

Can you leave more than 2 bowls? The reason that I ask is that at our place, between food bits getting in the water, paws going in or toys and play knocking bowls over, it's not uncommon for me to come home at the end of the day and find 2 out of 3 or 4 bowls almost empty at the end of the day.

he's usually pretty good, but yeah once when we left for a couple of days i came back to a horrible mess, he knocked one food dish into one of the water dishes, there was water and soggy food everywhere.
i'm leaving 2 bowls of each, he doesn't eat much when i'm away and even if one bowl gets knocked, the other usually ends up being enough, but i'm also going to plug the bathroom sink and fill it with a bit of water. 80% of the time he'd rather drink from the sink than his dish. i usually just leave the tap dripping but now that we pay for our water service the guys probably won't go for that idea.

Music is very relaxing for animals. I put it on for my birds even if I'm gone an hour. What about catnip? I've had cats that really went nuts over it.

i stashed a little kittyweed (catnip) in his cubby and on his scratching post. with hopes that it'll make him hyper so i know he'll be running around at least a little bit and not just lying by the window moping.

Do you have a friend who might like to watch your cat in their own home while you're away? Do you have any elderly folks you know who need something to do?

like i said i just moved to that city and know no-one. in any case i'm heading home tomorrow, i should be home around 5 or 6pm.

How'd he make out?

We left our five when we went out of town to visit my parents from the afternoon of Dec 24 to this afternoon. We're a little overprotective, I guess, and Jay (my spouse)'s father and brother love cats anyway, so we had them pop in the first evening and then again yesterday. Tar squeaked at me for a full 2-3 minutes when we arrived (his way of greeting me when he's happy) and now three of them are stretched out on Jay as he naps on the sofa. Bliss! :)

he's fine thanks for asking :)
keeps following us around meowing for attention all last night and all day today, rubbing against our legs all the time etc. he's a little attention deprived but otherwise fine. he did run out of water at some point so i gave him some canned food when we got home to make sure he got some fluids in case he was dehydrated, but he seemed fine, he probably ran out that day. and he found all but one of the treats i hid :)

Do you have any ideas for what you might do differently next time you go away?

If you're like me, you probably missed him as much as he missed you. :)

If you're like me... well, let's not go there. I just don't like cats very much to begin with. I missed my dog, tho, while on vacation.

yeah i missed him and was pretty worried about him the whole time i was away.
i dunno, next time i probably won't leave him alone for that amount of time. i'm usually only gone for 3 to 4 days max and he's fine. i always leave some water in the sink, 2 bowls of food and of water, and a radio playing. i also open all the curtains in the house to make sure he gets enough daylight and street light at night cause the house gets very dark, plus he can look outside.
i prefer leaving him alone here than i did when we lived in apartment buildings. at least this way when he looks outside he sees people and cars and squirrels, as opposed to treetops and clouds and maybe an occassional bird if he's lucky.

the squirrels around here are plentiful and pretty tame, they come right up onto the window ledge and drive him crazy, so i'm sure he was well amused while i was gone ;)

*chuckles* Perhaps he was entertained, or perhaps he smashed himself up against the glass in an effort to get out and 'play' with the squirrels.

nah, he's dumb but not quite that dumb ;)
there's a line of snot/drool across the window though where he paces back and forth on the back of the couch with his nose to the glass

*busts up laughing when she tries to picture it*

Glad your cat made it through fine. Oh the worrying, I know well about that. I worry about the birds when I'm gone, too. If I'm in the other room and quiet for too long Lenny calls to me-he goes "tweet tweet?" Then I'll make a birdy sounding noise to him. Then if I can't hear him singing from the other room I'll tweet to him and he will tweet back to let me know he is fine.

Have you taught him Morse Code in tweets yet, Birdlady? ;-)

Originally posted by Birdlady
If I'm in the other room and quiet for too long Lenny calls to me-he goes "tweet tweet?" Then I'll make a birdy sounding noise to him. Then if I can't hear him singing from the other room I'll tweet to him and he will tweet back to let me know he is fine.

that's really sweet :) my cat meows and meows when he's in a room by himself til someone calls him and he'll come running in meowing like "ohhhh there you are". the guys laugh at him and say it's cause he's so dumb he gets lost but i think he just doesn't like to be alone too long.

The longest i have left my dog home alone when we went on vacation was 5 days. It was my old dog Bigshot. He isnt around anymore. Well he wouldnt eat anything. My neighbors had to get him canned food. And he broke through our screen door. He never acted like that before he missed us alot. Im glad to here your cat was okay :) I wouldnt leave mine alone for more then a couple days.

This may sound a bit kooky...but my husband and his best friend recorded a bunch of songs together over the years, with my husband singing. His best friend burned a bunch of songs onto a c.d. and we play it on repeat whenever we're gone during the day. We figure the cats are soothed not only by the music, but also my husband's voice.

Most cats do pretty well when left alone, if the cat is healthy (not sick, not underweight) he should be alright even if he doesn't eat/drink much for just a week. If there are other cats in the house that helps too to keep them from being bored.

When leaving any animal alone for a long period of time, the major enemy is boredom. Make sure there's toys, music, stashed treats, etc. to keep them interested. If you're going to leave your cat alone for a long time you might consider getting him some new toys to hide around the house before you leave, or hiding little piles of catnip around. Anything to keep him occupied.

One thing to worry about with cats is litter boxes, if there's no one to clean them for a week there's going to be a problem. You'll probably want to put out a couple of extra boxes and make sure they have plenty of clean litter before you go.