Do You Leave Your Cat Alone for the Weekend? Baby Cat’s Preferences & How They’ve Changed

Hi, I’m Nicole! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my distinguished Burmese, Mr. Baby Cat.

When Baby Cat was in his prime, he was quite a self-sufficient cat. After all, he found his way to us completely on his own. Having a cat never posed a problem to our social or travel calendars.

Of course, he loved when we were home and could snuggle him to oblivion, but he used to really enjoy his alone time. As he got older, for a little while there, he seemed to enjoy the alone time even more (especially the days that the dogs were at daycare), but recently, he seems to prefer the hustle and bustle around him, even though he doesn’t ask for snuggles quite as often as he used to. It’s like he’s engaging in a version of “parallel play,” as human toddlers do, but there isn’t much play, mostly just snoozing amongst the chaos.

Although I’ve had a pet in my home for most of my life, and have been an animal lover for as long as I can remember, there is still so much I am learning each day about caring for pets (especially now that I work for a pet company). It’s hard not to feel guilty for certain practices that were encouraged by “pet experts” in the past, ranging from a few decades ago to even only a few months (like housing a guinea pig in a small cage, on their own). Now, with the internet, and more research going into small animal healthcare, there are new insights daily – a lot of which seem like common sense now that I’m an adult, but I must admit that it’s hard to know who is right and who is wrong. One thing I do know is that most pet parents love their pets and are just trying to do what’s best for them, even if the practices differ from what one expert would suggest over the other.

The 5 Freedoms of Animal Welfare

Professor John Webster of the now Farm Animal Welfare Council drafted what would become the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare. Professor David Mellor expanded the concept in 1994 with the Five Domains. They include the following:

• Freedom from hunger or thirst
• Freedom from discomfort
• Freedom from pain, injury, or disease
• Freedom to express normal behavior
• Freedom from fear and distress

One could argue that number four, freedom to express normal behavior, is a bit subjective because who is to say what normal is anyway? And when any animal is kept as a pet, they aren’t free to express behaviors you would see in the wild. Many pets, especially cats and dogs, have been domesticated over hundreds of years, so their normal is completely different from what their wildcat and wolf ancestors consider to be normal.

I bring these up because I recently learned that leaving your cat alone, even just overnight, is not recommended (though there are safe ways to do it for cats that do not exhibit signs of anxiety).

We used to leave Baby Cat alone for the weekend when we’d go somewhere that didn’t allow cats, and he was more than OK with it. We had an auto-feeder and left water glasses all around the house for him (at this point in time, he would only drink from a glass. This only changed when we got our dog Rosa, and she got her own water bowl. Baby Cat didn’t like that, so he started exclusively drinking from her water bowl). When we’d arrive home, we’d get a ‘hello, I’d like some wet food and a treat for being such a good boy’ and then business as usual.

This changed as he aged, but had he still been showing signs of enjoyment, not just survival when we did this, we probably would still be leaving him alone overnight from time to time.

Do You Leave Your Cat Alone When You Go Away?

Automatic cat feeders were created and are sold for a reason: because many people leave their cats without a human carer when it’s a short trip away. One of the perks of having a cat is their desire to spend time alone. This was highlighted in a study done during the COVID-19 pandemic where pet owners were spending more time at home and cats were not thrilled about it. Generally speaking, they love their space.

But some don’t. And, the same cat who used to love his alone time can change his preferences, as Baby Cat has.

When we stopped being able to leave Baby Cat for a night or two just over a year ago, it changed the way we do everything. Weekend trips became impossible unless they were to cat-friendly locations (which unsurprisingly are few). Last Christmas we even took Baby with us, though we had house/petsitters for the dogs, because he became so uncomfortable with being without us that the 7-hour road trip was far less stressful than being left behind and having to make new friends.

If you’ve been following our journey, you’ll know we did two road trips pretty quickly a few months ago, and they definitely took a toll on the little man. So now, we are feeling a little bit stuck, because leaving him with strangers is stressful for him, but coming with us to new locations is too.

So while we used to leave him alone, we definitely do not anymore. We feel that by leaving him alone now, we’re opening him up to discomfort, fear, and distress. We barely leave him alone for more than 8 hours at a time now.

What are your thoughts about leaving a cat alone overnight or over a weekend? Do you think it’s possible to care for your cat under the five freedoms of animal welfare and leave them alone for more than 12 hours?

And are there any of you dealing with a geriatric cat that you can’t leave alone for long anymore? I’d love to hear your thoughts and any tips you may have.