Rather unusually, the kitties have been home alone for the last two weekends. This is not our typical schedule by any means, but we are confident enough in them to leave them alone for 36-48 hours at a time. It’s not our favorite thing to do, but it’s better than stressing them out and bringing them to the vets office for boarding (and way cheaper). Louis especially hates being boarded. He says that the techs don’t care for his regal status, but I think he’s just dramatic. Plus, we’re lucky enough to have friends and relatives around town who will come check on the fur babies for us throughout the weekend!
So, instead of putting the kitties through all that, we set up the apartment with plenty of food and fresh water for a couple days’ time. I like to put the water bowls on top of cookie sheets or the like so that, if the kitties (*cough* Olivia *cough*) knock them over, they can still drink the water. And when I say I put enough food out for a couple days’ time, I really mean like a week because I’m a worrier. I’d rather put them on a diet after we get back (news that I am loath to tell Louis now that I’m home for a while!).
Part of the issue with prepping the apartment for the kitties’ Home Alone adventures is figuring out the girls’ conflict zones. Emory and Olivia still have spats, but we have been able to reduce the number of them and their veracity by blocking off certain areas of the apartment where Olivia tended to get cornered. The main culprit is the bedroom closet, which has a wire shelving unit with spaces just large enough for a little kitty paw to get stuck. So, we regularly close the closets now, which seems to help. In preparation for the weekend away, though, we decided to close off the office entirely. There are a lot of spots in the office where a kitty can get cornered, so we felt more comfortable just limiting their access to it.
A major step in preparing the apartment was finding and charging up all of our old Apple devices. I am a big fan of the app, Manything, which makes phones and iPads into security cameras. I’ve been using it for a long time — probably around 4 years now. The free app is pretty good, or you can splurge for a better memory plan. We did the latter, since we knew we’d be using it a bunch this month, and since its easy to cancel and re-start later on. The app notifies you if there’s movement and then it records the triggering motion. The real-time updates for the kitties were pretty fun to watch!
We set up three cameras: one in the kitchen, one in the living room, and one in the bedroom. With the app, we were able to capture some ridiculous moments. Check some of them out here!
Do you have a favorite app like this for watching your fur babies while you’re away? Have you gotten a PetCube? We’re thinking about getting one but haven’t taken that step yet.
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