Cat-sitting and why it might be the better option

Have you booked a holiday and don’t have anyone to look after your sweet feline friends? Are you struggling to decide whether you should book a week at the cattery or have you recently had a leaflet pushed through your door from a local cat sitter?

 

Cat-sitter or a cattery?

Deciding what’s best for your kitty can be a difficult decision – we want the best for our pets but sometimes

 the cheaper option looks like the better answer. Cats are complicated animals and each one has its own unique and quirky personality, for example, my own kitty Billie will chirp all day at you if it means she’ll get a belly rub, whilst another of my four felines 

Reggie will unexpectedly attack you if you stroke him from the wrong angle.

Let’s discuss some of the pros and cons to help you decide whether you should pick a cat-sitter or a cattery for your cats.

 

Why catteries can cause stress

A common trait for all cats is that they don’t like car rides. Do you remember picking up your cat to take them home for the first time and they growled the entire journey? Yeah, they hate it. Even if the drive to the cattery is ten minutes away, a car is incredibly likely to cause stress and anxiety to your cat. This can be from the overwhelming amount of new scents, the loud and unfamiliar sounds or the sudden bumps you might encounter on the roads. I mean, I think a lot of us get nervous when we have to sit through severe turbulence on an aeroplane. Unfortunately, there is no other way to get your cat from point A to B without having to put them in a cat carrier (that alone might cost you many scratches and hisses) and travel in a moving vehicle.

 

However, with cat-sitting, this problem doesn’t exist.

Cat-sitting allows your cat to remain in the comfort and familiarity of their own home. They can be fed their own food, play with their own toys and sleep in their own beds (or that big double bed in mum’s room!). It is important for your cat to feel safe somewhere where they aren’t constricted to a small square room, and where better than their own home.

Why trust is so important in cat-sitting

A big thing that we as a cat-sitting business have come to understand is how much trust it takes for someone to hand over their house keys to us. This business is entirely based on trust and we are entirely aware of the responsibilities we hold with that. It can be frightening to believe in a stranger who will enter your home and look after your cats just the way you would yourself. We recognise this fear and make every effort in communicating exactly what we are doing in your homes.

 

‘Time to Pet’ is an incredible app that we and customers use so that we have a direct way of keeping in touch and sending daily updates including messages, photos and videos – we also recommend our customers to have cameras around their homes so that they can personally keep an eye on their cats. Of course, when it comes to a cattery this fear doesn’t exist which whilst we do acknowledge, our 100% 5-star rating shows that we are a trustworthy business.

Let’s talk pricing

Cat-sitting will most likely always be more expensive than a cattery (it’s true, I won’t lie to you). The average cattery in the UK can cost anywhere between £5 and £11 per day, whereas, for a cat-sitter, you’re looking at paying £15 or more. Whilst this can play a huge factor in which you choose from, at My Three Cats we find it the most important to keep your cats comfortable and stress-free.

 

Our main goal is to provide your cats with the same experience they have when you are home with them.

 

They have the same food in the same area of the house they always do. If you’ve got a catflap, they are still able to venture off as they please. It’s something that unfortunately a cattery can never achieve. We know that a lot of cats don’t get on with other animals and a cattery will always have other cats.

 

Your decision

I’m not going to sit here and tell you which option to choose because of course everyone has a different style of living and has to put different factors into each area. However, I can assure you that if you do choose one of our cat-sitters, they will do everything they can to give your cats the most pleasant and relaxed experience.