Who takes care of your pets when you go away?

We have two cats and two chihuahuas. When we've gone on vacation, we leave the cats at home and take the dogs with us. For the cats, we have several food and water stations. Thankfully they prefer dry food. We also get several disposable litter pans, in addition to the two that we have. They seem happy to be left, and they've never run out of food or water. All the extra litter pans can simply be thrown out. Traveling with the two dogs is fun, both love to ride in the car. We usually plan trips around visiting friends and family, but we've also stayed in hotels with them. All Holiday Inns accept pets, and more and more hotels/motels are doing the same.

I have someone come to the house to take care of them. Usually it is a family member that they know and that will spend some time with them. When my brother does it he takes the dogs out for rides and buys both the dogs and cats treats. The last time he even stayed overnight with them so they wouldn't be lonely. I don't think they even missed me.

I never go away! I have 30 cats and don't care to go some where where I'd have to worry about them, like on a vacation or a weekend retreat. I like staying home! If in the future I'd have to be in the hospital for a long stay or something, then I'd have to worry about my cats but for now, I am not worried!

When we are planning to go away, we take our dog to our local vet and have them board him while we are gone. I know they will take good care of him.

I have two cats. When my husband and I got married, we had one cat and left her at my husband's Aunts house. We went camping once for four days, and had our landord come up to feed and give water to them. We soon realized that they can take care of themselves very well, so when we go away, we will now leave them alone. I set up big bowls of water all over and food, usually they are so mad that we went away, that they hardly eat much. We always leave the TV on for them and a light, if it is in the summer, we will leave the AC on too. We will call periodically so they can hear our voices over the answering machine, I don't think they really care, but we do it anyway.

We just have two cats and they seem to practically hibernate when we leave. If we go away for a week then my Mom pops in 2 or 3 times to make sure everything is OK and that's about it.

WE used to take them with us forwe traveled alot for work . SInce we been here one of stays home or like last time we had someone living with us and she took care of them. Really sounds like a fun job just not the biting part lol.

Pet sitting has become quite a lucrative job. Fortunately, when we go away my son is home and he takes care of the dog (and the house).

hi catlady...i have 2 pet dogs...actually when i go on an errands its my mom who take good care of the two but ill be away for 3 to 4 hours the most..i haven't gone for so long or for days away from home yet..although we got plans about going on vacation this summer we debated the idea of where we should put the two in custodywe have two options..one is our neighbor and the other is my brother..haven't decided yet which is better...

One time, when I had The Doctor and he needed pills, I hired a pet sitter. the former roomie was out of town, I was having to go out of town as well and while I might've asked a friend to feed the dog and cats (we had 5 or 6 at the time) I wasn't going to ask them to pill The Doctor. Oh, I might've for a night or 2, but I was gone more like a week, and that also meant litter boxes needed tending and mail She even offered to water plants - like I have any plants that need it. I was very happy with her job. Having said that, we thought we were going to need a sitter last May because now we have 3 dogs in the house and 2 can't be allowed to be together (more a problem with training of the owner of the 3rd dog and getting them back together than anything else) but since she won't do the work to get them together again.... However, at the last minute, she decided to stay home. Now, after Hobo became diabetic, I thought I would need a sitter, but on one weekend, he stayed at the vet for testing and the other times I had a friend who also has a diabetic cat, and she came over and gave him shots. I've done the same for her as well. If I needed to, I would again hire a sitter. For example, I thought I was going to need a sitter because the roomie and I were going out of town for a week and the former roomie couldn't do the work to keep up the dogs and cats. But we happened to have a friend who needed a place to stay while she looked for a permant place at exactly that time, so we lucked out again. Now, when I used to go out of town for a weekend and only had 5-6 cats, I would fill up their bowls with food and water, give them clean boxes. then I would find a friend who could stop by and feed the dog, or even if I couldn't we'd give her a really good feed on Friday and then feed her as soon as we got back on Sunday. She lived to be 16 as a mostly outside dog, so she did pretty good.

That's a lovely job--pet sitter. I wish you lived in my area; I sure could use your services. I usually ask the shelter, which has boarding facilities, to take care of my pooches, when I am away. My Mom can handle the cats, but the dogs are a bit too much for her. Cheers and happy Mylotting

I think pet sitting is an awesome job. I would love that kind of job. Anyway we have to frogs, one Chihuahua dog, and a miniature gerbil. We have never been anywhere (like vacation or anywhere for more than a couple of hours)so we haven't had to have anyone take care of our pets. And our dog is so attached to us I don't think it would be good to leave her.

If we have to leave our dog for a long period of time we will use a boarding kennels he hates being in the house alone so for us it is the safest place to take him because he will be a lot happier and cant trash my house!

I went on vacation a couple of years ago and was gone 14 days. I had two of my dogs boarded at a local kennel, where I was able to supply their food and instructions. As well as their dog beds and toys. My littlest chihuahua Abby stayed with my Mom and she also cared for my cats while I was gone. Before I had dogs when it was just cats, if I was only gone a few days I could put out enough food and water for them and they would be fine. But that doesn't work with dogs. I've often thought of being a pet sitter, but I don't know this town very well. Maybe in my next place I can think about it there. I love animals, and would enjoy doing something like that I think.

We have a neighbor that feeds our dog even if we are home. She loves animals so she will take treats to our outside dog. Sometimes my husband will go out to feed our dog and the neighbor has already done it. So we usually ask her to watch our dog if we go out of town. Now we have another little puppy so we'll probably ask her to watch her too or we could take her with us because she is small. The big dog outside is just too hard to get in the car with all of our things plus a child so we usually don't take her. If I don't get the neighbor to do it then my husband's grandmother will come and do it for us. I also have an aunt and uncle that dog sit too so I could ask them if I needed to. My neighbor and husband's grandmother usually do it for free for us so that's really nice.

When I went away for the Christmas Holiday I hired a pet sitter to cat sit my babies. I am new to the area so I don't have any friends or family to look in on them and I hate the idea of a kennel--it would stress poor Ashley out, and just thinking about the diseases they could catch give me chills. Plus it was more expensive than the pet sitter. The lady that sitted for me did a wonderful job. I have thought about doing that, but I am unsure how to get started and can you really make a living doing it? It seems to be very in demand in my area--I called like six sitters before I found one.

I've only been away on day trips a couple times since Harmony adopted me, so it hasn't been a problem. But if I did take a couple days away, I suppose Harmony's previous person would make sure she was fed.

We have family friends who take care of our pets when we go out of town.

I know it must be hard work especially, as you say, when you are unwell; a bit like motherhood, but what a great job! I adore animals especially cats and I have four: one dog, two cats and a bird. When we go away we rely on a good boarding kennel, it costs a small fortune but this way I can leave them and feel they are all taken care of properly. My parents take the dog and the bird sometimes so we only have to board the cats. Last time we travelled to the other side of the country we were away for 2 weeks and the boarding cost us as much as an extra plane fare which annoyed my husband but I don't care my animals are worth every penny!

My pets hate the kennel but I don't feel comfortable leaving them at home by themselves if I am going away for a longer period of time than an weekend. My dogs always go to the kennel. If I'm making a weekend trip, I leave my cats at home with plenty of food and water. Pet sitter? I'm not that comfrotable with it. I had a friend that hired one and when he came home from vacation he learned that the sitter never showed up and his poor cat hadn't eaten in days.