Hi all,
My s/o and I live in western Canada and we will be going to Europe for most of summer next year to visit family.
Some background info: We have a 12 year old indoor cat, George, in perfect health that we've left alone for 2-3 days (weekends) once in a while with no issues ever, and when leaving him for anything over that amount of time (typically 1-2 weeks), we'd have our friends/neighbours (living in the same house but separate, private floors) come downstairs to our place to take care and spend time with the cat daily. As we adopted the cat as an adult a few years ago, we are unsure whether he's ever travelled before, but he's not friendly with leashes or carriers, so I assume he's been a homebody his whole life. He sleeps most of the day and doesn't seem bothered by anytime we leave him under the watch of others (or by himself on the occasional weekend), and as he is extremely friendly, he responds well to our friends and any new visitors.
As we're going for quite a long time, we originally thought of taking George with us as we'd make a "home base" in one city and planned to find a pet-friendly apartment (at the discretion of the homeowner) for almost the entirety of our trip there. We would travel out of the "home base" 2-3 times during the summer for a week or so. On any occasion we'd travel out of town, we were going to hire a local pet sitter from sites like rover.
Despite these rough ideas, I am worried that travelling internationally will be extremely stressful for him (he is a drama queen when being transported 20 minutes to the vet) and that stress would continue for him being put into a new apartment, in a new country, temporarily. As he's an indoor cat, I'm also terrified of him jumping out of a window or running out the door at the rental apartment and going rogue in a foreign city. We would also have family and friends visit us at this rental apartment, so I'm worried that a visitor may inadvertently leave a window/balcony/etc open and he'd escape. Also worried about any language barriers we may have with hiring local pet sitters when we do go out of town the few times. The only benefit I can see with bringing George with us is that he'll have us around just like at home, and we'll be able to take care of him, just in a different environment.
Our other option is to leave him here in our home in Canada. We are able to afford a professional cat sitter to come for daily visits for these several months so money is not an issue. We will probably hire a pet sitter this October when going away for a week or two, and perhaps re-hire the same individual when doing this long trip if all goes well and if they are available during this time, so the cat is familiar with the sitter. For the summer trip, we were also thinking of having the sitter stay overnight a couple times a week. On top of that, we would ask our friends living upstairs in the house and other friends and family to come for visits a few times a week to ensure that George's needs are taken care of by the pet-sitter and for him to have more social time. We would probably get an interactive pet camera as well. The biggest upside to leaving him here is that he'd be in his familiar environment and with the comfort of his own home. The biggest worry for me is that he will feel abandoned if we leave him for that long, even with daily care for these few months.
The other options were putting him in a cat "hotel" which seems a bit pointless to me if he can get cared for at our home, or leaving him at a friend or family member's home, but he's strictly an indoor cat and I'm worried he'd escape somehow and/or feel abandoned being placed into a new environment with different people.
TLDR: Going abroad from Canada to Europe for 2-4 months next year, making one city there our "home base" for the majority of the time where we'd rent a pet-friendly apartment and bring our older homebody indoor cat with us, occasionally hiring local pet sitters if leaving town the few times we plan. Worried about cat stressing with travel, new (temporary) environment, scared of him running away in foreign country, and language barriers with local pet sitters. Second option is to leave him at home here in Canada and hire a professional sitter to take care of him daily, also having friends and family he's met before check up on him every few days, plus buy a kitty cam. Worried that cat will feel abandoned but he would be in the comfort of his own home.
So I'd love to get some opinions on this: would you bring your older homebody cat abroad for 2-4 months? Or leave him in the comfort of his home under the daily care of a professional pet-sitter and friends/family?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/o10r22/going_abroad_for_24_months_next_year_what_are_the/
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