Boarding a brand-new kitten for 10 days?
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Anonymous
| Long story short: we arranged to adopt a kitten that would be ready to go home with us in about a week. Just learned that we will be unable to have her here for just under two weeks after that due to circumstances beyond our control. I understand that boarding can be traumatic for animals, but we think we might pick her up and take her to boarding for 10 days. We’ve used the boarder before and our older cat tolerated it well, but was obviously glad to be home. The alternative is that she goes back up for adoption. Thoughts? |
Anonymous
| Don't you have a friend who could take her for 10 days? It would be far less stressful. |
Anonymous
Sadly, I don’t. At least not nearby enough to make it work. Driving half a day with a new kitten to drop her with my best friend isn’t an option right now. The person we’d normally ask is out of the country. Everyone else is allergic, has cat-hating dogs, or some other excuse like a no-pet building. If the take home date was not so close, I’d have more time to find a solution. |
Anonymous
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Boarding like being in a kennel for 10 days? I don't think that is ideal if you can avoid it. Kittens really do need socialization at this age
If it's boarding, like staying in someone's home, that seems all right. Is she in foster now? If so can the foster keep the kitten for those 10 days? |
Anonymous
Maybe check with your vet and see if any of the vet techs do in home boarding, and would be willing to do it while you are away. This way you start establishing a relationship with a new pet sitter, too. I'd hate to see you lose out on your kitten - there's got to be an ok solution here. |
Anonymous
| Hire an in-home sitter for 10 days. Please. Trust me - cats hate being boarded. |
Anonymous
That's a great idea. We use in home sitters for our four pets - three cats and a dog. |
Anonymous
At someone else’s home, I mean. Not in a kennel. |
Anonymous
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The problem isn’t that we won’t be home. The issue is with our home. There’s a major repair issue that has to happen and we just learned that people or pets cannot be here during.
I can ask the foster mom, but I think she has a vacation planned once she had an empty nest. We’d accept losing this kitten if boarding would be really bad for her. |
Anonymous
| My first step would be to ask the foster if she can hold on to the kitten for the 10 days. That sounds like the easiest solution for the kitten, but of course it depends on what the foster can do. My next step would be ask for an in-home sitter, but I don’t know how easy it will be to find someone you trust. This is a tough decision, and I am happy you are thinking about the impact on the kitten. Kittens are social and they need to have other kittens or cats around them...please don’t board a kitten. |
Anonymous
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+1
You may have to consider not adopting the kitten if none of these things work out. Boarding the kitten would be cruel and may set her up for personality problems. |
Anonymous
As I’ve said, we’re considering not adopting her if the boarding would be too bad. In-home pet sitting isn’t an option. Even we can’t be in our home. We’ll be in a motel for 10 days. It doesn’t allow pets, but that’s what our management is willing to pay for. I emailed the foster mom. We’ll see what she says. If we don’t pick up the kitten, she might have someone she’d have to leave it with anyway so she can go on vacation. |
Anonymous
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OP, I have a cat and remember how needy she was as a kitten. I got her a bed, and she never slept in it once. Her first night, she kept toddling out of her bed and coming into our room and crying until I picked her up, and then she would snuggle against me and purr herself to sleep. She was a scared baby away from her mother, and she would have been so stressed and scared alone in a boarding situation.
Please, please just give up the cat if you are going to need to board her as a new kitten. It is "kitten season" now, so you can get a new kitten easily when your home is repaired. Don't do this to a little baby, which is what she is. Get a new kitten who can bond with you as her new family in her first days away from her mother. |
Anonymous
| How old is the kitten exactly ? All socialization needs to take place before 12 weeks. That might be exactly the days you are gone. If this kitten is not a special kitten; ie replaceable I would wait. It won’t be a great pet without this. |
Anonymous
| Boarding would be awful for her. Just don’t. |