Leaving for vacation, leave cat alone or move it to other house?

Question

I am leaving for a 3 weeks vacation. Our cat is a bit of a unique chap, he loves to have people around but prefers to keep some distance.

He lives in our tiny house. The neighbours will be in charge of looking after him.

My partner is suggesting to bring him to the other house while we're away. I wonder, will he prefer to stay alone in his well-known environment, getting visit only twice a day for food and toilet cleaning, or would it be better to let him stay over at the neighbours, so he'll not be alone but would have to deal living outside of his comfort zone?

Thanks!

Answer 1

My suggestion is to leave him at your home, why? because he knows more about his day-to-day place than new place, though he's our good neighbor. Would be very dangerous for the cat if left in places that he has not known, will be very worried if he confused the direction where he went.

That's my experience .

Answer 2

In my experience, most cats do not adjust well to being moved. Taking your cat out of the environment he knows -- and with his people not around, either! -- is likely to be stressful. And if there are pets or children at the other house, that might well make it worse.

I've left my people-focused cats for a week or so with just daily or twice-daily visits and not had problems, but perhaps your cat is more needy. Would the neighbors be willing to spend more time at your house? If they were going to watch TV or read or surf at home in the evenings, perhaps they'd be willing to do some of that at your house every now and then?

All that said, there are cats who adjust well to being moved. Think back to when you got your cat; how did that go? Have you tried shorter visits elsewhere? I had a cat once with some special medical issues that needed some extra attention, so I tried taking him to a friend's house for a short trip (a few days) to see how that went. She gave him his own room and he did fine, so we continued that for longer vacations (but not much more than a week at a time). Similarly, one of her cats required extra attention and I was able to bring him to my house for a week. Both of these cats were very calm and mellow to begin with, and we treated it like adoption in terms of giving the cat a limited, safe environment to start with. (Over time both cats got the run of more of the house.) But don't do this for the first time for a three-week vacation; if things don't go well, you aren't in a position to adjust. (Well, unless your neighbor can bring the cat back to your house while you're gone, and do the regular visits, and you're both ok with that.)