Occasionally we get requests to visit a cat every other day. At Rufus and Delilah, we require a minimum of once daily pet sitting visits for cats for the safety of our client’s cats. Several years ago we did offer every other day pet sitting visits for cats. However, upon the advice of a veterinarian I highly regard and after hearing experiences from other pet sitters when offering every other day pet sitting for cats, we now require a minimum of once daily pet sitting visits for cats.
While once daily pet sitting visits for cats is a fairly common request when cat parents are away, we also have many cat clients who book two daily visits or have a sitter stay with them overnight.
6 Examples of how your cats safety may be compromised if once daily pet sitting visits are not requested
- If your cat likes to go into cabinets, closets, or rooms where doors can close, it is important to have someone checking on your cat once daily to make sure he or she didn’t get shut into a cabinet, closet or room he or she can’t get out of. We’ve seen this happen on our own watch with once daily visits.
- If your cat can turn on water faucets, it is important to make sure there isn’t an overflowing sink or tub that could cause a lot of damage to your home and compromise your cats safety. We have walked into several clients homes to find that their cats turned on water faucets.
- Cats have a tendency to hide illness until they are quite sick. If you don’t have a sitter coming daily we may not know until too late that something is wrong. You can read more on cats hiding illness in this article, Signs That Your Cat May Be Hiding Illness, from Banfield Pet Hospital.
- If something happens to your cat causing injury we may not know for nearly two days. We actually have a client with two cats who fortunately books twice daily visits. When the sitter arrived for a second daily visit she found the cats had been in a fight and one had dislocated its shoulder requiring immediate medical attention.
- If your cat accidentally turns over the water bowl, it may be up to two days before there is fresh water again.
- If your power goes out, your a/c or heat stop working, or a pipe breaks it could be up to two days before anyone knows there is a problem that needs to be fixed that may put your cat in danger.
Are you a cat parent? When you travel do you book once daily pet sitting visits for your cats or every other day visits? Would you be comfortable only having your cat checked on every other day?
If you haven’t used a pet sitter before or would like help finding one you may like our article on How Do I Find A Pet Sitter.
