dd stressed about leaving pets

[sl_underwood]

For those of you with pets, do your kids worry about them while you are on vacation. My 9 yo dd is so worried about leaving our cats and she has writen more than half a dozen pages of info for our petsitter. Her cat has some issues and she is so worried that she wont eat or something bad will happen while we are gone. In fact, she just mentioned that maybe she could stay home with her while we go. I am not sure how to convince her that our pet sitter will care for our cats and that they will be okay. I also wonder if this is a normal behavior for kids? What do you all think? Any advice will be appreciated.
Lora

 

[AshAlytwins]

We have 4 (19,17,9,5 years old) cats , a dog, 3 fish and a hermit crab and we went through this many times before going away. Allow her to make as many notes as she wants because this will ease her mind. Have the pet sitter come over before you go and let your daughter walk through the pets routine with her, that will ease her mind. We now worry everytime we go away, which animal will die while we are gone.

 

[spiceycat]

Spicey is 19 year old will 20 this may. He goes with me.... but it is definitely more for me than him.

there are 2 other cats (star and alexandar) that stay at home. they don't travel well.

very, very few cats travel well. Thank goodness that Spicey does. He is my stress inhabitor....when I am feeling too stress I go and take him for a walk.

now if your cats are not use to traveling - completely different situation....

Spicey has been going with me to WDW (and a few other places) since he was 3 months old. He travels wonderful!!!

Disney has some nice kennels, plus their are several in the surrounding areas.

I prefer FW because Spicey likes to walk at night. the other kennels close around 5 pm.

however if your pets are not used to traveling - then a pet sitter is definitely the better way. Make sure your pet sitter is both a cat and dog person. the first pet sitter I hired was a dog person - very, very wrong for my cats. One ran away because of her.

if the pet sitter doesn't have cats of her own - please find another.....

 

[laceemouse]

Yes, I think it is normal. We stress every time we have to leave our menagerie behind! However, we travel enough that the kids have expeience with coming back and seeing that everything was okay. Once, we did have a ferret die while we were gone, but, friends were taking care of her so we know she got the best care possible and we knew she was sick before we left. I know it is hard, but we can not let having pets stop us from taking trips. I think meeting with the pet sitter beforehand is a great idea. He/she can be reassuring to your dd.

 

[DisneyElf]

I would also recommend having the petsitter come over before your leave. We found our current sitter at a local petstore. She was buying treats for "her" babies that she watched. She even insisted in coming over to the house 3 times before we left for vacation to make sure all the animals got to know her and accepted her walking into "their" house when the owners were out.

Now - she comes over just once before we go on a trip ... our spoiled dog - lays down next to her - puts his head on her knee - then realizes we are going away again - and starts barking at us.

 

[sl_underwood]

We would never take them with us because none of them do well on car rides, even the 5 minute trip to the vet bothers them. We first thought we would leave them in our vets kennel but the vet suggested we leave them at home and have a sitter come by. Our vet didnt think our cats would do well kenneled for a week. So we have met the sitter the vet reccommended twice, spoke to all their references, etc. Several of our friends have used them as well. Our two bigger cats both warmed up to the petsitter but our little one (my daughters cat) didnt want them to touch her. This cat we adopted from the SPCA after she was picked up at the home of a cat collector. She was feral when we took her home as our foster kitty and she and my younger dd developed a bond and we adopted her. She has come a long way. She used to freak out if the dryer buzzed or the phone rang, and now she usually stresses mostly when its time to visit the vet. I just dont want my daughter to stress out this much. I have been letting her make all her lists. She actually typed them all up and taped them to the fridge. Our petstiiter has been over twice and will come by the day before we leave to spend some time with the kitties and pick up our house keys. This will give Jess one more time to go over everything. Thanks so much for responding! I am glad to hear that others do this as well. I would hate for her to not enjoy her vacation because she was so worried about her kitty.
Lora

 

[DisneyElf]

One of our cats was feral (or would have been) - she was rescued out of an abandon car at 4 wks. She is now a daddy's girl (she bonded with my nephew), though with him out of the house more now - she actually has come up to us for petting

I am sure the sitter knows enough not to chase her and try to force contact, but I would suggest that she gives the cat her favorite treat - and assuming she eats it - point that out to your daughter (so she will relax and realize that her baby will still eat without her being there).

 

[spiceycat]

she can also call the pet sitter from WDW - to heard from the sitter that her baby is eating and is fine....

most pet sitter have cell phones.. if she doesn't then arrange a time when you will call her at your home.