Due to the fact that we cats are very independent animals, it’s not unusual for people to consider leaving their cat alone at home for a day or two more than once when they have to make short trips.
If your cat is used to living with company, it likely will not be happy about your going off and leaving it alone by itself for so long. What’s more, it could suffer anxiety due to the separation, since it won’t know when you’re going to be coming back or why you left in the first place.
That’s why we recommend that you always try to leave your cat in the care of someone you trust, whom your cat knows and feels at ease with, so as to make the situation as simple as possible. Another option will always be the pet residences, which, although we may find them to be a stressful environment for us, if you get us used to going there from the time we are small, we’ll wind up seeing it as a normal situation.
But if neither of these alternatives is possible for you and you finally decide to leave your cat home alone, then it’s important that you pay close attention and go through the following steps:
Be careful about doors, windows and all other nooks and crannies, since you well know that we cats like to explore and find hideouts. So, if you’re going to leave us home alone, it’s very important that you check the doors, windows and any possible hideout to make certain they’re closed. That way, you’ll prevent us from running away, getting lost or even getting ourselves trapped.
Another absolutely essential aspect is our food. Leaving our dish piled to overflowing with food is not a good way of keeping us properly fed while you’re away, given that we’re not used to deciding on our own eating routine for ourselves.
The best thing to do is to leave several dishes in different parts of the house and do the same with the drinking dispenser. Instead of leaving only one full to the brim, it’s best to have several spread around the house.
Another good alternative would be to buy an automatic water and food dispenser, which you can program. Your cat would have access to running water at all times and would eat at whatever time you’ve already set for your cat. The only “drawback” involved in these systems is that they often have motors which are very noisy and scare us, so we recommend that you buy one that has a silent motor and that you get us used to using this system for several days prior to leaving us by ourselves.
And don’t forget our litterbox. Although with the right products, such as Sepicat Lightweight Clumping or Silica Cat Litter, our litterbox will stay clean and odour-free for days, I recommend that you leave several litterboxes placed throughout the house while you are away, so that in case one becomes saturated, we can go to another clean one to do our business comfortably.
But the best recommendation will always be for you to get someone you trust, a relative or a friend your cat already knows, to come over to your house every day to check up on your cat to make sure it’s fine and doesn’t need anything. And if that person stays for a while to play with us, all the better!