Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of this, my friend is going out of town for 18 days. She asked me to check in their cat. I live 5 min away so I'm happy to help.....she asked me to stop by once a week....

I can't believe it. I told her I have time to visit a little more often, and is that ok? She said yes of course.

How often do you think I should go hang out with kitty?

(I'm a sahm of 2, with a dog and cat if my own, who get a little neglected themselves by virtue of the kids taking most of my time).

I would visit every day. It is terribly lonely to be shut in a house without interaction for a week.

+1 = best if you can swing a daily visit. if not, do the best you can. you are nice to help out.

When possible, my only cat goes to my parents' when we're out of town for a long weekend. However, sometimes my parents aren't available, so he stays home alone. I have a pet sitter or neighbor look in on him twice a day (because he takes thyroid meds twice a day - if he didn't, it would be once a day).

Is it ideal? No, I'd rather he was at my parents. But it doesn't always work out. However, it is 100x less stressful for him than going and being boarded somewhere! So what would you suggest? Taking him for the 20-hour round-trip car ride in a 4 day window back to visit in laws? Because cats loooove car rides.

Anonymous wrote:My older cat HATES my younger cat, who we got as a kitten last year to keep the older cat from feeling "lonely." The older cat has attacked the younger cat multiple times, and when no one is home, we separate them so that the older one won't hurt the younger one.

The older cat would have been happier alone, but too late now.

+1. We thought the caring thing to do was to get a "buddy" for our older cat. He hates her, and still ignores her 7 years later.

Many cats do not want to live with other cats.

And many dogs don't want to live with other dogs either.

Declawing is like amputation. Just provide the cat with a scatch mat and some training.

We fostered cats for a rescue--one of our fosters had been declared by the owner at the age of 6 before being turned into the rescue. The declawing caused her to be extremely anxious and fearful, so much that it is the reason the family turned her into the rescue. As her foster, I took her to the bet, at the vets she would tremble and soil herself because she was nervous. Because of her anxiety issues she was a difficult cat to adopt out. We wound up adopting her and after some time she has slowly begun to trust again... It took a long time.

It's cruel and painful, and if the cat ever accidentally gets outside he or she will have no form of defense. Don't Do it!!

Yeah declawing sucks. Saying you need to have two cats is. Sweeping over generalization.