Home Alone

I know Kattaddorra has already blogged about this subject very capably, but this week I heard some really sad things about cats who’s owners had taken every precaution to leave them safely cared for and still lost them. This made me think all over again about how often people ask the question “Is it Ok to leave my cat alone for x number of days?” And it’s sometimes up to a week that they are thinking of leaving them! How can they be so dense? It is pure selfishness and totally blinkered thinking because of course they want someone to say “Yes it’s fine, leave your cat, go and enjoy yourself”

Here’s Bobby’s story by his mum Tina
“Please say a prayer for my little cat. We arrived home from our holiday, and I immediately rang the cattery - couldn't wait to get my cat home again. Was told he had been taken to the vets that morning while we were travelling home, he was very poorly after an Asthma attack. Rang the vets and was told to go straight away as it didn't look good. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. By the time we got to the vets he was desperate and hanging on to his poor little life. He was in an oxygen tent, suffering, in pain and his breathing was desperate. He was dying. If we hadn't have arrived when we did, they said they would have had to put him to sleep without us. We were just in time to say goodbye. My baby has gone.”

Poor Bobby, poor Tina, and this was a well loved cat who had been left in a cattery, just imagine then if he’d been home alone, with bowls of stale water, food gone off, litter tray dirty and then had an asthma attack. He would have died, in pain and fear alone. This is what could happen, do they care?

Here’s another cat Angus who would have died alone
“We went to Cornwall in March to visit family. On the Thursday before we came back my friend called at 8pm to tell me that my boy Angus had been rushed to the vets in the afternoon and unfortunately he had passed away. It is bad enough when it happens when you are there for them but when you are not there, it is worse. I felt really bad for my friend having to go through all that for me, but I know he was well looked after during his last few hours.”

Luckily the friends were there to care for Angus, but who would have rushed him to the vet if he’d been locked in and left by himself, no one and he would have lain dead until his mum came and found him.


This one shows that even asking a friend to care for your cat doesn’t guarantee he/she will be safe
“That happened to me a few years ago I had a friend look in and feed my cat only to come home for her to say she hadn’t seen my cat for 2 days but didn’t phone me, so I went round all the neighbours houses to see if she was accidentally locked in a shed my adjoining neighbour told me to go to someone’s house, she told me the cat walked into her garage crawled under her cupboard to sleep said it looked ill, she phoned the RSPCA as she didn’t know whose cat it was so they took her away and put her to sleep I went all over Oxfordshire to find my cat to bring her home to bury. After being given the run around eventually found her & met the RSPCA man at a service station on a hot day like today, came home to be sickened they’d only left a pigeon, mouse etc in with her, and maggots I was not happy ...eventually buried her”
Frankly I would have killed the friend; I notice she said “I had a friend”, sometimes those who would leave their cats say "he has a cat flap", but who would be there to notice if he left by way of the cat flap and never returned.... This poast doesn'r say much for the efficiency of the RSPCA either, but that is old news, sadly they are pretty useless, except for asking for donations.

And finally Prudence
“The same thing happened to us 5 yrs ago my beloved Prudence had a stroke and was in the vets when we returned from holiday. She was 18yrs and extremely intelligent she had hung on for us I am sure. I have never heard anything like the sound she made when we arrived and feel sure to this day that she was trying to talk to me. She had to be put to sleep and it broke my heart I will miss her forever.”

Imagine Prudence locked in, alone, in the dark, scared, dirty probably and finally.... dead.

I wish I could understand what makes people tick, what makes them think that cats can be neglected for up to a week at a time just so they can go away and enjoy themselves?

These three cat mums are obviously very upset, I wonder what they would say to someone considering abandoning their cat at home – alone.