It is quiet here, far too quiet. I am off on a work trip to Munich tomorrow and, bad human that I am, I took Ada and Babbage to the cattery this morning in a spectacular example of betrayal. :-(

Miaaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooow!


Anyway, in order to fill the gap left by 2 sweet little monsters and to keep me occupied until bedtime - does anyone have any good bengal cat videos to share ?

( At least I can play them loud today - normally the sound of a miaow from Youtube would have Ada storming around the place looking for the interloper ).

You are truly desperate for some bengal love, Cranberry! LOL. There are a zillion videos on YouTube of bengals. Make a playlist and play them over and over again. That should satisfy you. Ha ha!!! Now, if I had Raiden in the cattery, I would welcome the silence and bliss of not having someone interrupting me all the time, wanting a walk, wanting to play ..... maybe I could actually sleep at night!

Travel safe.

Well, I'm back and it is noisy again. It seems that Ada had an OK time at the cattery but Babbage came back noticeably thinner and decidedly anxious - he seems to have had a bit of a rough time.

One good thing was that on Tuesday I managed to paint the windows whilst the cats were away, so I now don't have to leave a 12th floor window open whilst waiting for paint to dry with cats in the house.

12 floors is just a little bit high up for kitties to climb out and tumble!!! It's a myth they always land on their feet! Happy you got home safely but sorry Babbage had a rough time of it! Raiden doesn't like to be housed in a beautiful 3-level kitty condo at the vets either!!! Especially if there are other cats in the cages next to him. Being there by himself would probably be okay.

I think that in future I will have Ada and Babbage in a separate cage to the other cats if possible.

Can anyone outside the UK tell me what set up is used in their country for catteries ??

In the UK each Cat/family of cats gets their own cage, so Ada and Babbage would be in their own cage with an indoor/outdoor run.

In Holland *all* cats are put into a large enclosure - so Ada and Babbage were joined by some cats that they had never met before. They all eat/sleep together.


Being used to the UK system, the Dutch way of doing things seems rather strange to me.

The last time I boarded a cat. I took her to a pet resort and spa, lol. She had her own kitty townhouse. It was a multi level vertical enclosure with plexiglass facing the central common area where each cat had playtime on their own and with staff each day. They also had a TV playing bird and fish videos for the cats to watch. Every cat had to have required vaccines or have a negative lukemea test. This place was about 45 minutes from where I lived, but places by my home consisted of small wire cages and no playtime.

Raiden's vet offers a "cat room" that has a few options -- just a simple cage for the cat or a larger cage with a 3-level condo. Basically -- a cat tree with a place for the kitty to sleep. They also offer a play room with a tall cat tree that literally looks like a real tree. One cat at a time can go in there and usually a vet tech will go in and engage the cat in play. They charge extra for the play time but it's good exercise -- not that Raiden enjoys the cat room at all.

I am going to have to be away for a few days soon and I really didnt like the idea of leaving them in a cattery. I was surprised and delighted to find out that you can hire professional pet sitters to come in and feed the cats, change the litter and even play with them all for a very reasonable £10-15 a day. Who knew such a thing existed?! How does that compare to the cost of housing 2 cats in a cattery? I honestly dont think Ill do it any other way now

Yea, I don't think it's all that common for cats to be boarded in catteries around here. I don't know of anyone who has done that. Then again, pedigreed cats are not very common, in general, so I guess that's not surprising. I think the most common thing is to have a friend/neighbor/family member come and look in on your cats every day. People sometimes use neighborhood teenagers for such a job. A step up from that are the professional cat sitters. I've used those for many years, and had mostly good experiences.

But there are some interesting businesses that have sprung up in the Portland area. There's one boarding house that shares a building with a "cat only" vet practice. They have decent sized cages where they board cats. They have vet technicians come in there, so they are good at giving medicine etc. Gaga has stayed there a few times, but certainly didnd't like it.

But I've since discovered a bunch of more "premium" sorts of cat boarding places. And she stayed in one of those this past weekend (just picked her up today). What it is is basically just a good-sized house which they have separated into rooms for cats. Gaga got an entire "guest bedroom" (like maybe a 9'x9' sized room or so) to herself, where they have cat beds, a cat tree, toys, a window sill etc. There seem to be 4 or 5 such places within reasonable driving distance to me.

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The little monsters 3

I've thought of getting a pet sitter, but have always worried about the cats getting bored/hurting themselves with no one around/escaping out of the door.

Interesting that the Dutch way doesn't seem to be common elsewhere.

I hired a pet sitter to take care of a stray that I was feeding. Put the cat supplies in a cooler on the back deck and she came by in the morning to fill the bowls. She also picked up the newspaper and newspaper, watered the outside plants and filled our bird feeders. Charged $12 a day, I believe. I don't use her for Raiden because he is an escape artist. If he hears you at the door, he is right there and will bolt! She would have to come through the front door which opens in and you can't stop a cat that is right there. Which is why we don't use our front door unless I have Raiden shut in the bedroom. I would not want her to feel guilty that he ran and she could not catch him. And she has other animals to take care. I see it all the time on the lost and found pages on Facebook that the animal got away from the pet sitter! Not taking that chance.

it seems to me it would be a great job to have! Going round peoples houses playing with all the cats. Take a few dogs for a walk! It could probably be reasonably lucrative as well if you were busy in a city centre. What a great way to spend your days!