What if you are away for an extended period?

[SVSLC]

What do you do or can you do if you are away from home for an extended period of time? Examples would be vacations , business, or anything which could take you away from home for an extended period.

If I am clear on the Savannah traits, they will bond to a person or a family. So if there is an absence of the person or family, will the cat stop eating or other issues which could pose a danger to the cat? With a domestic cat, you can have someone come in, some people board their pets or leave them with friends or family.... so what do you with a Savannah? In my case I live alone.

 

[admin]

What do you do or can you do if you are away from home for an extended period of time? Examples would be vacations , business, or anything which could take you away from home for an extended period.

If I am clear on the Savannah traits, they will bond to a person or a family. So if there is an absence of the person or family, will the cat stop eating or other issues which could pose a danger to the cat? With a domestic cat, you can have someone come in, some people board their pets or leave them with friends or family.... so what do you with a Savannah? In my case I live alone.

I have friends that come in and feed them...my savannahs are all F4 SBT and later and it is no issue...I do plan on hiring a pet sitter for my trip to NC in a few weeks, so we shall see what happens...

 

[SVSLC]

Thank you Paige for the reply. What if your cat is a higher generation , does this make a difference in both bonding and failure to respond to others if you are not present?

 

[admin]

Thank you Paige for the reply. What if your cat is a higher generation , does this make a difference in both bonding and failure to respond to others if you are not present?

I don't think so, but I don't know...I'm sure some of the others can chime in here...

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I think that some F1s can be very very bonded to their human and be either angry or depressed when their owner leaves town. This might depend on certain factors though: the individual F1, the amount of socializing with other humans the F1 gets (how often you have friends or family around)...how old the F1 is (a younger cat is more adaptable than an older cat).

This can be true with all generations and all cats though. If all a cat sees is the one person day in and day out, with no visitors to the house, then of course it is going to be a bit of a shock when that person leaves for a length of time.

We have F1 to F6 in our home, we tend to have regular visits by friends and occasional stays by family. Our housesitter tends to be a friend who our cats have met many times before and he is comfortable with our cats and dog...so things tend to go just fine when we leave the house for a vacation or other trip.

 

[WitchyWoman]

Before I got my first F2, I read all of the personality quirks that could manifest and came up with a plan. Two that were of most concern to me were vet visits and vacations. We had already planned a vacation to Europe and were leaving for that 6 wks after the kitten's arrival. I interviewed for a cat sitter before the kitten arrived and she came 3x a week to play with him and to feed him before we left on vacation. I did that with the next 2 kittens as well. Unfortunately, that cat sitter is retired (she said the SVs wore her out) and I started all over again with a neighbor who is also a friend and animal lover. It worked out just great to have the cats comfortable with someone else and I felt much better and less guilty leaving them. FWIW, one of the F2s loves everyone, the other is cautious but unafraid of strangers, and my F6 has a rule that he doesn't trust any other living thing unless he meets it 100 times without incident.

 

[NikkiA]

We have an F3 boy, an F4 boy, and an F5 boy. When we go away, we have a friend stay with the boys who has knowns them since they came home, likes to be with them, and who they like.
We brought D home in November 2011, Jarvis in May 2012, and Mickey in September 2012, and we went away for ten days in December 2012. Our friend stayed with them the whole time, and they were fine. Did they miss us? They certainly whined a lot to him for attention. He stayed again for a week in March when we were ok. The boys were fine, but I can't speak for how they would do if they (a) did not know and like him already or (b) if we left them alone. Our boys are great at draining their fountain and making a mess of their dry food, so we don't dare leave them alone.

 

[Trish Allearz]

My crew is taken care of by my family if I'm out of town- they have no issues with it. Now, they might be a bit brattier when I come home and on occasion, there has been a present on my bed that no one wants to claim (hence closing the bedrooms when we travel now), but all in all, they are fine.

 

[Sunny]

I'm always torn how to handle being away. With my two adult males, they were fine with just 3 meals a day and having a friend visit AM and after work.

Now with the SV kitten appetite, she needs 5 meals a day at least and this is only possible for maybe overnight stays or 2 days max. I don't have anyone but a professional service I can rely on to make 5-6 visits a day for 6 days without just paying them to stay over, even though I have a renter they are not reliable.

 

[Jacq]

My cats don't eat while I'm gone. Or eat very little.