Who took care of your pets while cruising?

[booze brothers]

I'm thankful so many of us are animal lovers. My guys are like my kids. 10 cats, 1 , dog, 2 swan. All rescues.

 

Local son takes care of the swans (they're not too friendly, lol)

 

Sons x gf stays at the house and takes care of everyone else.

[mad-dog74]

We have a doggie sitter that keeps Paco, our boston terrier and Jason, our chi-weenie. He owns a very reputable company in our area.... He is an insured and bonded pet sitter, walker, pooper scooper, taxi service, dayare, etc.

[TonyTAlabama]

I loves dogs but don't have one, because I'm hardly home on weekends. When I go on a cruise alone, I always ask fellow cruisers how are their pets back home? Sort of an ice breaker after asking where they are from.

 

I remember one couple saying they took their old dog to stay at a friend's house two miles away. The dog ran home. Now whey they go on a cruise, the dog stays home but someone will come in to take care of it.

 

So who looks after your pets? And do they give you an attitude when you return?

 

I don't mind see some pictures too.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

 

We just let them loose.

[VASOXFANN]

My babies stay at doggy day care while we are at work during the day, and the same place keeps them when we are out of town. It is a small, family-run place where they treat our dogs like their own, and the dogs love going there! I don't know what we'd do without them!

 

We have a neighbor look in on and feed our cat.

[VASOXFANN]

We just let them loose.

 

:eek::eek::eek:

[motherof]

We just let them loose.

Hopefully you are just trying to get a rise out of people. My mother had neighbors who turned their dog loose when they went on trips, and the dog killed quite a few neighborhood pets for his meals. My mother's dog was badly mauled. Animal Control finally captured him after repeated warnings.

[Host Faith]

Fortunately we have family and friends who love to watch our beagle, Dewey. They normally stay in our home while we're away, so his routine isn't affected all that much. Here's our boy:

 

[heatherandfred]

DH will be taking care of the grey and white monster who is aka Heather.

[mrsfecura]

I am a petsitter, I do it in addition to my regular "office job" and love it. My husband and I have 3 spoiled cats and I get my fill of loving up dogs by watching other peoples! When we go away - I have a fellow petsitter who watches my cats - she comes once a day. Well worth the money!

[DonnaK]

We have a trusted neighbor who comes twice a day to take care of our pets, take in the mail, and water the plants. We were on a cruise when hurricane Irene struck, and our neighbor also secured all our backyard furniture and took in anything that could fly away, etc.

[caseythegr]

With 2 Golden Retrievers and 3 cats, we use a Professional Pet Sitting service in Hudson NH. For a per visit fee, they come in feed and walk the dogs, feed the cats, scoop the litter boxes, bring in my mail and water my plants. We have had the same sitter for the past 4 vacations, she even brushes one of the cats. We also have a neighborhood teen come in the afternoon for a quick "out to pee" break for the dogs. It's nice knowing they are well cared for and sleeping on their own couch.:)

[Lessa123]

I have a grey tuxedo cat and a Beagle.

 

Miss Dixie kitty is neurotic (LOL) and hates people - other than my DH and myself. She stays home and my SIL comes in to feed, water and scoop. If she is with us, we have wonderful neighbors who will do it and we bring back gifts for their kids. We tried kenneling her on two different occasions. The first time, they kept her in a small cage the whole time :mad: Needless to say, Dixie was miserable. The second time we found a place that gave her a huge cage with all the amenities. She was still miserable and peed in her bedding. Staying home mostly alone works best for her. Still, she sees the suitcases and she is like velcro to us, lol! We get cattitude for the first 20 minutes we are home or so but then she is just needy and whiny for a few days and back to her sweet self.

 

We tried several different kennels for our Molly. We were less than impressed, one they left her in a cage for 23.5 hours per day. I went to get her and she was crying (sounded like SCREAMING) when she saw me. She was skin and bones. The next was fine, big cage with access to a fenced outdoor area but she never liked it and would go nuts when she knew I was there. Now, my best friend takes her for every trip. She gets spoiled and I feel comfortable knowing she is being well loved and looked after. She is now on medication for hypo-thyroidism and is on a strict diet. Well, the medication isn't an issue, they are very careful to give it to her, the problem is with another dog and 2 cats, she is always finding extra food and comes home a little chubbier.

 

[Flute Player]

We have sent ours to the kennel in the past. This year we are sending ours to a friend who has a St. Bernard. Should be intersting.

[silygirl77]

My mom stays with the dog in our house.

[Desert Cruizers]

Our friend who cleans our home, comes in and stays with our now 17 year old kitty and takes care of him and gives him his high blood pressure meds. Yes our kitty has high BP:). I worked for the same animal hospital and never treated a cat for this, now I am retired they have meds for animals now. He is much happier at home and I leave instructions with both she and the animal hospital in the event he becomes ill.

 

Gay

[barbyj]

I wish I had my dog to put in a kennel for my upcoming cruise. Sadly, today I had to have her, Ms. Sassy Sue, put to sleep. I had her love and affection for almost 10 years. I will miss her.

[Scribbles77]

I wish I had my dog to put in a kennel for my upcoming cruise. Sadly, today I had to have her, Ms. Sassy Sue, put to sleep. I had her love and affection for almost 10 years. I will miss her.

 

I'm so sorry for your loss :( i am sure she is waiting for you at the Rainbow Bridge xx

[Happy2cruise]

A friend, her daughter and grandaughter. They all live together so we know our little one is being given good care and lots of love.

[Janice M]

I wish I had my dog to put in a kennel for my upcoming cruise. Sadly, today I had to have her, Ms. Sassy Sue, put to sleep. I had her love and affection for almost 10 years. I will miss her.

 

I am sorry for your loss. I know the feeling. She will always be in your heart. When we had our beloved Golden he stayed with our son who also has a Golden and when he traveled his Golden stayed with us. Worked out great.

 

Jan

[Alter Ego]

I've probably done it all - when I had my dog, I would ask my brother and sister-in-law to watch him. Sometimes, I would bring him to a kennel.

 

Now I have two cats. I've brought them to a kitty hotel for a weekend, and may do again if it was an emergency. But, a girl from my vets does cat sitting and she comes in twice a day to give one of my cats his insulin. I live in a city and it is not cheap - $20 each visit ($40 a day). Is still less than the kitty hotel and I knew she knows my cats' health history.

[margeecruiser]

Hi. Our DD has 2 jack russels. Last cruise, the dog sitter she had booked called 10 days before our TA and she had to scramble to find an alternative. She ended up with the doggy day care at PetSmart, which seemed very nice. It cost $50 per day (for both dogs) and when she got home the dogs were skin and bones. The feeding instructions had been written wrong and the dogs only got half what was required. When we complained, they said there is only a check to make sure the dogs are eating and pooping and no one really pays attention to any weight loss. My problem is the fact that they did not question a very little amount of food for 2 fit,high-energy dogs.

 

This was a sad ending to a great cruise. She lives 3 hours in rush hour traffic from family and close friends. She has now cancelled this year's cruise.

 

Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

Margee

[Familygoboston]

Just wanted to share Toby's story:

 

We came home from our honeymoon cruise with a not so nice surprise...We had a friend checking in our our cat Toby every other day, well she had an emergency with her gallbladder and was not able to come by to see him for 3 days...of course we are new to the area and she did not know how to contact us and poor Toby ended up blocking and went into kidney failure...luckily we arrived home and found him and were able to take him to the vet. He is on life 8/9 now, but with some prescription cat food, lots of love, and an incredibly expensive vet bill, he is doing much better. We bought him a new cat tree and I told him we would never, EVER leave him home alone again. We can't board him because he is traumatized from his experience at the vet...So a house sitter is what we will be using for Toby and our two dogs this time around :)

 

Oh what a nightmare! I always leave the person with a note ( same as I do for the kids) with the vets # and the number of at least 2 local relatives who may not like to pet sit, but would in an emergency or at least arrange another placement in this case! I did have a pet sitter email me that he forgot to go over and feed my frogs for a week :eek: (normally they can go every 2-3 days, but I had never tried 7!) because of a death in the family, and he just forgot! Luckily, he emailed about 12 hours after my DH had returned home to our house and he had told me the frogs were fine earlier (even tho they are just frogs, I always ask about them!). So I didn't freak out completely! Now I take the frogs with me to Maine for the summer in their travelquariam, that way if DH is decides to extend his long weekend, I don't have to worry about them!:D

 

Fortunately we have family and friends who love to watch our beagle, Dewey. They normally stay in our home while we're away, so his routine isn't affected all that much. Here's our boy:

 

Oh my, your baby Dewey is so cute, and in your sig pic, you "new" baby is really cooking! So excited! The big day must be coming up soon!:D

U

[vickytraveller]

We have 3 siamese cats, they home and either my momor our friends come in to take care of them. Luckily they love cats )))

[temple1]

We are interviewing a new pet sitter for an upcoming quick trip. She is a technician with our vet so we feel comfortable with her plus she has a back up if she has a problem. The only problem is she doesn't stay over. We might use her for our longer trips and supplement with the kids next door.

 

That just leaves our May trip, August trip and our cruise in December and now our cruise in April 2014. :eek:

[charmay]

We adopted a grey hound 8 mns ago.

I couldn't leave him in a kennel.

I have hired a dog sitter to stay in my home for 15 nights.

She's a friends friend and a real animal lover.

Only £150 per week.

Online companies wanted about £350 pw.

I will miss him dearly.

Booked before we got him and considered cancelling.

But I am sure he will be fine ;)