How to Pick the Right Boarding Facility For Your Cat
We all love taking our cats on holiday with us. However, from time to time we have to make the difficult decision to leave them behind. Sometimes it is too difficult to take them along, or where we are going is not cat friendly.
When in this situation, one of the options is to leave our cat at a boarding facility.
Maisey’s mum, Tania, decided to use a cat boarding facility rather than a pet sitter as “it’s good for her to have another outside experience to stimulate her very social nature. She’s not the kind of cat that you could leave on her own for days and only have a visitor come in to feed her and clean her dirt box.”
Maisey – a little cat with a big taste for adventure
Maisey is a catexplorer who lives in Melbourne, Australia.
“Maisey is a very friendly, outgoing and confident cat and as a young cat she was getting a bit cranky being inside our apartment all day. We decided it would be nice to see if she enjoyed being outside for mental stimulation and to do this safely meant she needed to have a harness and leash”
“She really taught herself how to walk on a lead and we just follow her wherever she wants to go. She knows all her regular outing locations. When we approach them in the car, she jumps down out of the car when we open the door for her and trots along beside us like a little dog. We often joke she walks better on a leash than a lot of dogs do!”
Maisey “loves cruising in the car riding next to “Mum" in the passenger seat, having coffee at the South Melbourne Market and visiting her friends at the market Pet Grocer, strolling the marina boulevard at Yarra’s Edge and visiting “Dad" at work (pet friendly workplace!).”
Given that Maisey is such a friendly cat who loves exploring the world, her family was very careful in picking a boarding facility for her. They “wanted to use a facility that was focused on cats only and provided a safe, stress free environment with people who really love caring for cats (crazy cat people!).”
And this is where Cat Napping came in.
Cat Napping – a Luxury Home Away from Home for Cats
Cat Napping Suburban Retreats is a cat boarding facility created by Ebony, a self-confessed crazy cat lady.
As a travel agent who travelled regularly, she was frustrated with the boarding options on the market.
Ebony told us “I wanted to create an environment where the cats had a lot of room, interaction with their carers, and the customer service was exceptional.”
Each cat who stays at Cat Napping can choose from 4 types of retreats – ranging from the Snooze Shack (a luxurious indoor catio), all the way to the super luxurious Residences (a room which even has a single bed).
Tania picked Cat Napping as they “love that their retreat houses give the cats their own large personal space and that we can take toys from home for Maisey to enjoy on her holiday.
Maisey has stayed in both the Deluxe Villas and the Urban Terraces. They have a 2 storey area to sleep in the dark, can play on the ground and watch everything happening around them.”
As Maisey is a social cat, Tania appreciates that “she also gets to stroll around the facilities while her house is open being cleaned each day so she gets to socialise too! “
“The best thing for us is that they email us photos of her and an update on how she’s doing while we’re away so we can see how happy and relaxed she is. We never have to worry if she’s ok when she stays at Cat Napping because we know how much she enjoys it there.”
What to Look For in a Boarding Facility For Your Cat
Cat Napping sounds amazing, but what if you need a boarding facility outside of Melbourne, Australia?
Here are a few suggestions to help choose the right cattery:
Visit the facility, particularly in the morning while they are cleaning. If you can smell cat urine, it probably isn’t very clean…
Don’t be shy to ask lots of questions! Ebony suggests asking:
What do you feed the cats?
How often do you change their litter?
What do you do if my cat gets sick?
Catexplorers are used to exploring around so we also suggest that you check if the facility will let your cat explore safely. For example, Maisey is able to walk around Cat Napping while her retreat is being cleaned every day.
Check if each retreat/room/cage has multilevel shelves, and scratching posts or any other options to help your cat burn off excess energy.
Make sure that you can bring your cat’s favourite toys and bed as this will help them feel more at home.
It is always hard to be away from your cats. Ask if the facility will give you updates while you are away. If they say that the updates will be via social media, check their social media channels to ensure they are active.
Perhaps with these tips your kitty will enjoy their own holiday so much that they will be like Maisey who has had “daily sing alongs with the Bengal next door to her and enjoys sitting on the Reception counter helping with check in’s.”
Maisey can be found on Instagram (@little_maisey).
Catexplorer would like to thank Maisey’s mum, Tania and Ebony from Cat Napping Suburban Retreats for providing their insight on cat boarding facilities for catexplorers.
What do you look for when choosing a cattery for your cat?