What To Do With Your Pets While Travelling

By Jenny Ferguson
[Travel]
What kinds of pets prefer to stay at home while you’re away?  Jenny Ferguson has suggestions for housing your furry friends.
When you’ve booked your vacation and you’re getting ready to jet off to somewhere special, there are tons of things that need to get done before you can safely take your trip without worrying about the people and things you love at home.  You arrange for a neighbour to collect your mail, you call your bank to set up bills payments while you’re away and you inform your credit card company that you’ll be making purchases from another country.  But what do you do about your family pets?  You can’t just leave Fido or Fluffy at home alone.  So here are three great options for taking care of your pets when you travel.

Make Arrangements With Your Neighbours

With small animals like fish, reptiles or hamsters, asking your trusted neighbours to drop in once a day to feed and water your pets is a great alternative.  These kinds of animals are hard to move from place to place and are often not able to be accommodated in boarding kennels or at the vet’s office.  While your neighbours are in the house making sure your family pets are happy and healthy while you’re away they can take in the mail and make sure that your house appears to be occupied to dissuade potential break-ins too.

Cats often don’t like to leave their homes, so your neighbours can check in on your cats while you’re away, feed them and make sure they have enough water.  Tell your neighbours they can hang out and watch TV in your living room for an hour or two to keep the cats company.

Dogs are another story.  If you want to leave your dog with a neighbour, you’ll have to be sure before you go that they’re ready for a big challenge.  Having a neighbour dog-sit usually works best if your neighbour is familiar with your dog and doesn’t mind the hard work that will be involved.

Boarding And Kennels

If you don’t have any trusted neighbours and would rather leave your pets with professionals, then you’ll have to find a kennel or pet boarding company in your area.  Boarding your animals professionally can be very expensive, but it’s part of the price we pay to take care of our pets.  A kennel will provide your animals with somewhere to live while you’re out and about exploring the world or resting up on a beach.  The kennel staff will feed your loved one and let your canine friends out for some exercise.  Depending on the kennel, you can’t expect much more.  If you’ve got the cash, you can find a kennel that will treat your dog to a spa vacation while you’re away!

Ask your veterinarian for recommendations of good kennels or boarding services in your area.  Some vets even board animals at the vet’s office, which means that you can leave your furry friends with the people who know him or her best.
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