Cats Need Company, Too
July 2nd, 2008 by Guest BloggerThe following post comes to us from guest blogger, Cat Sitter in the City. As a New York cat sitter, she writes a semi-daily blog about her experiences working with felines.
When I tell people I am a cat sitter, they always have questions.
What exactly do you do? That’s one of the queries, and people tend to ask it with a quizzical look on their faces.
I explain that most people hire me to make daily one-hour visits during which I feed the cat, clean the cat’s litter box, then play and cuddle with the cat, depending on what the cat wants to do, of course.
Do you really stay the full hour? That’s the question I get the most.
And, yes, I do stay the full hour. I even do sleepovers with some cats.
People are incredulous when I tell them this, and that’s because many people—even some cat owners—assume that cats are solitary creatures that are fine being left alone for days on end with a bowl of water and dry food while they are off on summer vacation sipping margaritas by the pool.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, and I’m not just saying this because I get paid to hang out with other people’s cats. I won’t bore you by citing studies, but do some research, and you’ll find more and more animal experts are declaring that domesticated cats are social—not solitary—animals with a strong need for companionship. As a cat sitter, I have seen first-hand how much felines crave company—oftentimes even more than food.
Take Fonzie. He won’t eat until he has had some lap time. Meanwhile, Pooper Katzenberger wants me to hold her before she chows down.
Other cats, like Juba and Lulu, do beg for food the second I walk in the door, but after they’ve had their fill, they want to be pet and held, and sometimes they get desperate about it.
Even shy and seemingly anti-social cats want some form of closeness. Case in point: Peeper, who, sadly, passed away a few years ago, didn’t want me to pet him when I visited, and he kept his distance. But when I sat on the couch, he sat nearby on the coffee table, and I talked to him, and during our sleepovers, I woke up every night to find him right next to me with his head on the pillow. That said a lot to me.
So, if you are going away even just for a few days this summer, hire a cat sitter to give your cat the companionship he or she needs. And if you can’t afford a cat sitter, ask a friend (make sure it is a friend who loves animals) to visit your cat and stay over a few nights if you are going to be gone for a week or two.
Your cat will appreciate the company and will be less likely to claw up your couch out of distress and loneliness.
To read more from this blogger, visit the Cat Sitter in the City blog.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 am
I couldn’t agree more. I am always advising people to find a pet sitter to visit there home if they are leaving their cat for a few days. At first they think i’m crazy too but when i tell them that my cat also won’t eat unless someone is with her and that she will urinate everywhere unless someone comes and sits with her for a while a every day, they soon change their mind.