Boarding a cat for the first time, and what actually happens

The first time you board a cat, the worry is rarely about the facility. You have already looked at it, or you would not be going. The worry is that she will think she has been abandoned, and that there is no way to explain to her that you are coming back on the fourteenth.

That is a real thing to feel, and it is worth saying plainly that a cat does experience a boarding stay as a disruption. What she does not experience is the story around it. She does not know it is a vacation, she does not know how long two weeks is, and she is not keeping score. What she reacts to is much more immediate and much more physical: an unfamiliar room, unfamiliar smells, and whether anything in the building is frightening her.

The first hour is the loudest and it does not last

Almost every cat arrives tense. She has been in a carrier, in a car, and carried through a door that smells of other animals. Expect her to go straight to the highest or most enclosed thing in the room and stay there. A cat tree with a covered box on it is the usual choice, which is why every suite here has one.

Owners often read that as misery and leave feeling awful. It is worth knowing that hiding is not distress, it is strategy. A cat in a new space assesses it from cover first. The behavior to watch is not whether she hides on arrival but whether she is still refusing to come out on day three.

In practice most cats start moving around the room the same evening, and are eating and using the tree by the next morning. Cats who have boarded before often skip the hiding entirely and go straight to the window.

Food is the thing most likely to go wrong

The single most common avoidable problem in a boarding stay is a diet change. An owner runs out of the usual food, or decides it is easier to let the facility provide something, and the cat gets a new protein on the same day she gets a new address. The result tends to show up on day two or three as a loose stool, which then reads to everyone involved as stress or illness.

Bring her own food. Send it in the original bag or a sealed labeled container so there is no ambiguity about what she is getting and how much. If that genuinely is not practical, she can eat the premium dry food we feed our own pets, but the ideal is that the only variable that changes is the room.

• Her regular food, measured or clearly labeled with the amount
• Any medication, mentioned at booking rather than at the door
• Something soft from home that already smells of her
• A carrier for the trip in and out, every time

The blanket trick is not sentimental

Bringing an item from home that she is familiar with is the advice we give more than any other, and it is not a nice touch for the owner's benefit. Cats navigate by scent to a degree people consistently underestimate. A blanket, a bed or a shirt that carries the household smell gives her something in the room that is already hers, and it noticeably shortens the settling in period.

It does not need washing first. In fact it should not be washed first, because the smell is the entire point.

What to ask before you book

Whether or not you board with us, there are a few questions worth asking any facility. Do dogs board in the same building. If they do, ask what separates them, and be aware that a wall handles sight and some sound but does nothing about smell. Ask whether litter boxes and bowls are shared between guests or stay with the room, and how often they are disinfected. Ask what happens if a cat stops eating.

Ask about the emergency arrangement too, because it is the question people skip and then need. Here, the first sign of illness means your emergency contact is called, and in a real emergency we try your own veterinarian before ours. It is worth arranging potential fees with your vet before you travel rather than while you are away.

Booking a short stay first is the cheapest reassurance there is

If a long trip is coming later in the year and she has never boarded, a single day of day care first tells you almost everything, while the stakes are low and you are twenty minutes away. You find out how she handles the carrier, the car and the room, and she arrives at the long stay already knowing where she is.

It is also worth walking in and looking at a room before you commit. Ask to see the one she would be in. Any facility that is comfortable with what it is doing will show you.