Before I got Jingle, I always had tough street cats that had been converted for home use. My first cat as an adult was Claire. She was a scrapper. She was a calico and she barely slowed down long enough to have three litters of kittens. I kept one kitten from each of her first two litters. My sister-in-law kept one from the second litter. Overall, she had 9 kittens before I caught her one day, threw her in a cat carrier and took her to the vet to be fixed. The kittens that I kept were Cosmo and Bob.
I got Claire while I was in college from a friend that I worked with. When I got her, I lived in Nacogdoches and my parents lived in Bay City. When Cosmo and Bob were born, I still lived in Nacogdoches. So, for the first several years of each of their lives, the only traveling I did was when I went to my parents house for a weekend. Since I always lived with one or both of my brothers from the time I got Claire for several years after, my cats never really had to be left home alone except when we all went to Bay City for an occasional holiday. But even then, since we all had different work and school schedules my brothers and I would take different cars and leave and come home at different times. So the cats were never left home alone for long - usually a day at the most.
You could always leave dry food and water out for them and they would be fine. Eventually, my brothers both got married and moved out of our house and I moved into an apartment. When I moved into the apartment I decided that three cats was too many for a one bedroom apartment, so Bob had to go live with my brother Ronnie and his wife Christina who lived out in the country so that he could continue to be a country outdoor cat. I won't tell you that whole story now. But let's just say that the move didn't go too well for poor little Bob. Cosmo, Claire and I all became apartment dwellers at that point and they never went outside anymore unless it was to sun themselves on a balcony or porch.
Claire lived to be 17 and Cosmo lived to be 15 before I lost them. I took Claire to my parents house in Bay City once when I went for an extended stay before she had her first litter of kittens. She went out in the backyard the first night and it took hours to find her again. It was a big enough scare that I kept her in the house for the rest of the visit and never took her with me again. Over the years I always just left my cats at home with big bowls of food and water and a dripping faucet in case they ran short and had a friend come over every other day or so to check on them, refill bowls and make sure that everything was okay. My cat sitting expenses were non-existent.
Fast forward a number of years. I now have Jingle who is 13 and I purchased from a breeder. He is Burmese. I don't know what you know about Burmese cats but I'll just tell you that they are people cats. Most cats are very aloof and distant and if you don't know Jingle you might think that about him too. But he requires daily human contact. When there is no one around to make him nervous, he sits with me almost constantly. He doesn't usually let me out of his sight when I am at home but for brief periods. This is the cat who has forced me to follow him to his litter box on more than one occasion and wait for him while he does his business. He's a people cat. He demands attention.
Shiner is my 4 year old cat who I found in Shiner, Tx. as a kitten. I am certain that he was feral when we found him and he was about 8 weeks old at the time. So, we were probably his first human contacts. I brought him home on Labor Day and he and Jingle were buddies by the end of that week. Shiner has never spent a night outside of my house since. These days, the only time I am not with my cats is for an occasional grocery run or when I leave town. I tell you all of this not because I am switching from a travel blog to a cat blog. I tell you because being a lover of travel and a lover of pets can be very difficult.
When Jingle was a kitten, I tried hiring young single people from work to come and stay at my house with him while I went out of town. That didn't work well at all. Young single people have no respect for your home. I used to take him everywhere with me like he was a chihuahua or yorkie. It worked okay for me, but my parents weren't really thrilled with me when I showed up at their house with my very vocal and high maintenance cat. Cruise ships don't allow even the quietest, most well mannered cat on board so there was no way I'd be able to smuggle Jingle on a ship. I left Jingle home alone once for two nights. In the old days with Claire and Cosmo, that was just enough time for them to plan a party, invite some of the alley cats from the neighborhood over and don their kitty party hats for a big "Mom's Out of Town Kitty Bash". But Jingle nearly lost it while I was gone. When I got home he clung to me for hours and didn't stop crying for days. I decided I couldn't leave him alone anymore. By then, Mom and Dad had a cat of their own who could eat Jingle for a mid-morning snack and not even belch afterward. So taking him to their house was no longer an option.
So, I found a pet sitting service. I've been using Guardian Pet Sitters for about 10 years. For much of that time, I have had the same pet sitter who comes to take care of my boys when I am away. I can't say enough good things about Guardian. I feel like my pet sitter actually knows my cats and understands their personalities. Shiner never meets a stranger, but Jingle is reserved around people he doesn't know. She knows that. When a friend comes over to take care of my cats when I am only away overnight, I always get home and hear about how they never saw Jingle but Shiner greeted them at the door. I understand that Jingle is shy around people he doesn't see all the time and it makes me sad to know that he had no human contact while I was gone, but I can't expect a friend to wait around for him to get comfortable with them. When my pet sitter from Guardian comes to take care of them, Jingle comes out for her. He knows her and is comfortable with her. Shiner still meets her at the door. But Jingle spends time with her as well and even lets her carry him around the house.
My favorite thing about Guardian is that if I ever have an emergency out of town, I can call them as I'm leaving town and they will start the service immediately. They continue the service until I get home and call or text my pet sitter to let her know that I have arrived home and all is well. If I had been on the Carnival Triumph's cruise to hell, I would be perfectly comfortable knowing that my cats would be taken care of until the floating sewer returned to shore and I made my way home. I like having that peace of mind when I travel. One of my favorite things about using Guardian is coming home and reading the notes that my pet sitter leaves for me. She writes a daily log of her visits and comments on what she and the cats did during each visit. Sometimes I get notes from the cats. If one of them has coughed up a furball, I know from her notes what day it occurred on. Oh, and by the way, she cleans up after them, sweeps up cat litter that has been tracked through the house and picks up cat toys. So, usually when I get home, the house is slightly cleaner than it was before I left.
So, in case you are planning on a trip anywhere soon whether I'm booking it for you or not and you live in the Collin County area you might check out the Guardian Pet Sitters website. I highly recommend them. Happy travels!
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