You’re taking a vacation that won’t include your pet? You’re going out of town for work, or on an unexpected trip to visit a relative who’s had a medical emergency? You could be in the hospital yourself, a result of a sudden illness or accident, or at the bedside of a friend or family member. Not all time away from home is time off, and sometimes the care of your pets can’t be your first priority.
What happens to your pets?
Emergency situations are not the best time to figure out an answer to that question. To be prepared for those emergencies—and also for the fun times when you really are on vacation—it’s wise to sort out pet care that will be there for you, and for your pets, when you can’t be at home.
What sort of care will you choose?
- Family member or friend who visits or stays at your home
- Pet-sitter who visits or stays at your home
- Family member or friend who cares for the pets at their home
- Pet-sitter who cares for the pets at their home
- Veterinary clinic that boards your pets
- Boarding kennel that boards your pets
How to choose what care would best suit your pet?
I’ve listed the choices above in what I think is the order of preference for most pets. Most pets are better off in their own homes if proper care can be provided for them there. However, if your pet has extreme separation anxiety and doesn’t deal well with being alone—ever—you may not be able to find someone to stay at your home, with your pet, 24/7. For that pet, a change of scenery may help. Visiting a family member or friend in their home might be better than being alone most of the day in a more familiar setting.
Plan ahead and experiment while you have the time . . . before the dream vacation or the unexpected emergency.
- Leave the pet with a friend or relative in your home for an hour and see how that goes. If it goes well, try it for several hours.
Finding someone you trust to stay in your home isn’t easy, but that perfect person will be an added source of security. So will leaving your pet (if it is a dog) at home, where its barks and attention to passersby will let any “interested parties” know there is a canine in residence as well as a human. The person who cares for your pets in your home can also take in your mail, pick up your newspaper, water your plants, set your sprinkler system, or shovel your walk—all great security measures.
- Try taking the pet for a short visit with a friend or relative who’s willing to have the pet at their house. Stick around yourself, initially, then try leaving for a few minutes, then longer, as the pet learns to tolerate your absence.
Finding someone who is willing and able to care for your pet in their home isn’t easy either, and finding someone you trust to do that may take some searching. One good situation can be between neighbors. Your pets know each other, socialize with each other, are comfortable with each other. How about “trading” pet-sitting? Your pets go to your neighbor’s house, their pets come to your house. The pets have the added bonus of familiar humans and familiar animal friends, making their transition from one home to the other fairly easy for both pets and humans.
In the past, veterinary clinics were the go-to place for pet boarding. You could expect your veterinarian and the staff at the clinic where you take your pets for health services to be in the perfect position to provide knowledgeable care for those animals. But many veterinary clinics have stopped providing boarding or overnight care, for several reasons—one of the most important being space. The clinic space is simply too valuable to take up with kennels and exercise areas, when what’s needed are more exam rooms and more surgical suites. Your veterinary clinic may be able to give you referrals for boarding, however, so it’s a good place to visit in your search for pet care.
Boarding kennels can be very good places for pets if they are run with the best care of your pet as their top goal. Boarding kennels can be very bad places for pets if they are run first and foremost for profit, with the best care of the pet as a secondary or minor concern. You should be able to tell the difference between the good kennels and the bad kennels with a visit, but it’s not usually that easy. You also need references from veterinarians (and for veterinarians, if the boarding kennel has veterinarians “on call”), from the Better Business Bureau, from a variety of “review” sites online, and from as many people you can find who have boarded their pets at that kennel over the years.
Businesses or individuals offering care for your pets should be willing to do all they can to help assure you that your pet’s care experience will be a good one. Most important, I think, is their cooperation in helping to familiarize the pet with any new situation into which he or she is going, even if it’s happening in the pet’s own home. Make sure your pet has all the time needed to “get to know” a potential caregiver. Friends or relatives should be willing to go on walks with you and your dog, to come to your house at pet dinnertime to feed your cat, to learn how to take your bird out of its cage, to find out all the funny places your ferrets can be hiding their treasures. Your pets and their caregiver need to develop familiarity and trust, and that doesn’t happen with in a single visit.
For pets being cared for away from their own homes, visits to the “other” place well ahead of the dates they will be staying there can be critical. With dogs, I encourage first a very short visit—maybe fifteen minutes—just to meet the people who will be doing the caregiving. The short visit helps assure your pet that, yes, you go away . . . but, yay, you come right back. The next visit can be longer (maybe an hour) and the caregiver can, while getting to know your pet, let the animal see where it will be kept. Again, from the animal’s point of view, your return after that hour is assurance that, yes, you do come back!
Overnight stays should be next, preferably with you available to return early if your pet has serious difficulties with the care situation. You need to make sure the humans in charge understand that you do want to be called if there are questions or concerns. This is your chance to see how your pet does under their care—it’s an audition for their services. When the visit is over, your pet will be overjoyed to see you (although certainly some pets may not express that joy in exactly the way you might want; I’m thinking of grumpy cats especially).
Assess your pet’s reaction to the overnight stay.
The pet will be happy to be home, of course, but generally, how does the pet seem directly following the overnight stay? Is the pet exhausted? It’s not unusual to lose some sleep in a new environment, especially if it is noisy (other pets) or unwelcoming—but is your pet just tired or is your pet stressed out? Does your pet eat normally after the visit? Do your pet’s eliminations after the visit look relatively normal? Has your pet shed a lot during the visit, or on the ride home? Does your pet seem unusually nervous or physically touchy? Consider all the feedback you can observe and act accordingly.
Do you have a “bad feeling” about your pet’s experience? Go with your gut. Something about the way your pet behaves after an overnight visit makes you wonder if you should take the pet there again? Trust your instincts. Keep looking, now, while you have the time. You should have many choices. Your job is to choose the best possible situation for your pet. It may take some work to find it.
How should you prepare for pet care?
- Pets should be up-to-date on health care and necessary vaccinations.
- If appropriate, pets should be microchipped and their chips registered.
- Pets should be licensed, with tags on their collars, including a rabies tag.
- Pets should be in good physical condition—combed, brushed, bathed, nails trimmed, ears cleaned. Instructions on any regular maintenance they might need, like ear or eye cleaning, should be put in writing.
- Caregivers should be given full written instructions on feeding—amounts and times of day—and you should supply the pet’s regular food and treats.
- You should also provide any medications the pets are taking, with full written instructions on how and when to administer them. Be sure to include any special tricks you have for making pill-giving or meds application easy.
- You may be encouraged to bring your pet’s bowls and bedding, or bowls and bedding will be provided by the caregiver. Ask before you deliver the pet.
- Leave with the caregiver a current photo of your pet and the pet’s basic information (breed or mix, color, coat length, eye color, age, weight, any identifying characteristics) in case the pet goes missing while under care.
- And, of course, leave emergency contact information for yourself and your veterinarian. Add a secondary contact, like a close friend or family member, if you will be out of reach at any time.
