Conference misery::feline

    Diana,

    Why not suggest that your friend have someone come into her home rather
    than boarding her cat?  The cost can be less expensive and it is
    normally less stressful to an animal to stay within it's own boundaries
    rather than go off to be boarded with unfamiliar animals that may have
    fleas, mites, upper respiratory problems, etc.  Maybe you could
    volunteer your services? :^)

    See note 28 for cat related services.  I believe there are some in the
    greater Maynard area listed there.  Cheryl

    Diana,
    
       I concur totally with Cheryl on letting the cat stay at home!
    I travel frequently, and have a "cat sitter" take care of my Tabs when
    I'm away.  Much preffered to boarding him.  
    
       But if you gotta board him, there's a place in Hudson called "Cat
    Naps" which I might suggest.  It's clean, well maintained, and the
    staff are very "cat concious".
    
      -Mike  

    Anotehr vote for letting the furball stay home.
    
    Whenever my hub and I go anywhere, we have someone (actually, a few
    someones) come over and "babysit" - make sure they have their food,
    their box cleaned, there canned treat every other day, pats, etc.
    
    K.C.

    
    	I'd also recommend  Apple Country Animal Hosp on 117 in Stow. 
    	It's owned by Dr Cindy Schaeffer and she is wonderful. 897-9271.
    
    	Sherry
    

    I would also opt for keeping the kitties at home and having someone
    come to the house.  I have used two different cat sitting services and
    have been satisfied with both.  I used Kajan a few years ago, but am
    not 100% sure if they're still in service or what their number is.  I
    recently used Sandy Cofran in Groton (I live in Westford) and she was
    very good.  Her number is 448-5663.  She charges $8/day.
    
    There is also a place in Groton (sorry, can't remember the name) that
    can board cats.  It's attached to a vet's home so he's there all the
    time.  I called him in January and he sounded nice, but stressed that
    having a cat sitter come to your home is much better for the cats.  For
    3 cats for 2 full weeks he would have charged $210 which included food. 
    I can't remember how he came up with that figure.. he has an odd
    formula of figuring the cost out.
    
    Mary

    3 cats, 2 weeks, = 6 cat-weeks at $210, or 1 cat week at $35, or
    1 cat day at $5.  $5 is more or less the daily boarding charge
    around here at vets', when a cat has to stay awhile after treatment.
    

    .5 Isn't the one in Groton, MA called "Sleepy Hollow"?  I remember
    boarding my cat (I only had one then) there when moving to Groton from
    Chelmsford.  The cats are kept in the front part of the house (not the
    hospital building of vet) and I believe it was the vet's husband who
    took care of the cats, giving them individual attention such as petting
    and letting them out in that room to roam about for short periods of
    time during the day.  They were not ALL turned out together of course
    but each had their turn.  This was great because they weren't kept in
    their cages all the time.
    

    I don't know if you's consider this close to Shrewsbury or not, but I
    would NOT recommend Southboro Kennels to anyone. If you want reasons,
    contact me through MAIL, and I'll explain. I know we're not supposed to
    bad mouth people in notes, so I'll refrain. Nancy Cross will certainly
    agree with me though. Right Nan? Be nice now! ;-)
    
    Yonee                                          

         I don't know about Dalton.  I think Shrewsbury Animal Hospital
    does some boarding though.  I've never boarded, but the vets are very
    good.  Try them at (508) 845-7921.
    
    					- Andrea

    
>    Also does a cat that regularly goes outside, generally adjust in a kennel 
>    if left for a few weeks? 

	It depends on the cat, I have two, one is fine, the other is terrible.

	I have one dopey cat, Cider, he sleeps most of the day, and wanders
	outside when he's not asleep, always coming in for food. (sometimes he
	goes through nextdoors catflap for their food!).
	He catches elastic bands, and plastic wrappings off ciggie packets, 
	and potato crisp packets. 
	He NEVER gets on well, I've tried putting both cats together, having
	them separate, putting in their scratch post/toys, leaving their 
	favorite foods..............nothing works for him.

	I have a nervous cat - yoda - he was abused as a kitten/stray and is
	afraid of his own shadow, he is often outside, he chases and "kills"
	leaves and brings them in for me. I often have to catch him and carry
	him in at mealtimes (and he doesn't like being held!).
	He has always been absolutely fine in a kennel - even when I forgot his
	scratching post one time.

	I thought if either of them would hate it, it would be Yoda, but he's
	the most anti-people of the two cats, so it may not be an indoor/outdoor
	adjustment, but an adjustment to the smaller amount of human contact.

	Cider loves people, is very laid back, likes indoor/outdoor.
	Yoda dislikes people, is very nervous, prefers outdoors to indoors.

	Cider never gets on well in kennels, whereas Yoda doesn't seem to mind.

	Heather - Who has never been able to work out a cats mind!!!!!!

We are going away for two weeks in early Oct and have been looking at 
boarding facilities for our two cats. They have never been boarded before 
but a recent spate of burglaries in our area has made us nervous about 
leaving them at home with daily cat sitter visits. 

We looked at one facility in Groton (Sleepy Hollow) which was good but the 
small cages seemed very confining for a two-week stay. We also looked at a 
facility in Methuen (Tee Emm's kennels) which advertised much bigger cages 
(5x5x6 feet) but they would not let us see the actual cat boarding areas 
other than via closed circuit TV..

Does anyone have (or heard of) any experiences with Tee Emm's in Methuen, 
good or bad, that they can share ?. We hate the idea of boarding them but 
we will never sleep if we leave them at home. We live in Dunstable MA (near 
Nashua NH) so if anyone can recommend any other boarding facilities in our 
area that will pamper two 5 year old's we would appreciate it.

If we cant find appropriate boarding we will also be looking for a sitter 
in our area to replace our current sitter who is sick so suggestions for 
cat sitters would be good too.

    Why did they say they wouldn't let you see the caging area?  Tee-Emms
    is supposed to be a pretty good place, but I have no personal
    experience there. Only what I've heard in the past (a few years ago).
    I would want to see the area myself, as I'm sure you would, just
    curious why the NO...
    

    re Tee Emms. They are excellent! The cages are 5'x7', with a tree, and
    every cage has a window!  You can make an appointment to inspect the
    facilities -- but when you drop off, or pickup your cats you view them
    from the waiting room.  They are so clean, and humans are always
    around (no coming in to feed them just once or twice a day).
    
    The rates are good too $7.50 per night/cat.  
    
    I use Sleepy Hollow too, because I don't have to drive as far.  The
    owner is great -- a real cat person.  His wife (I believe) is a vet and 
    has her practice in a barn on the property.  He keeps the cats in their 
    cages in his office and in an adjoining room.  I would prefer that the 
    cats have more room -- but that shortcoming is more than made up by his
    handling of the cats ... the very quiet atmosphere. He gave me detailed
    instructions as to what I was to bring - such as a sweatshirt for their
    bedding, toys ... all towards making the cats happy.
    
    His rates for 4 cats for 7 days was $12x.00.  He has some formula --
    the more cats the longer the stay the cheaper the daily rate.
    
    Hope my first hand experience helps.
    
    When I last used them (May-1993) the cats were very calm and happy when 
    I picked them up. The cages are about 3 times larger than the cages at 
    my vets office, with a shelf. 

Well, we made arrangements with a cat boarding facility in Maine (!) where 
we found the perfect place. Clean, lots of space in their floor to ceiling 
rooms, and the lady who owns the place makes the cats stay as enjoyable as 
it can be under the circumstances with play time (per-family) including the 
opportunity to spend some time outdoors if they want. They even have a 
resident groundhog in the yard. This is great since our cats are used to 
their outdoor enclosure especially Ed, our male cat, who would go nuts 
confined to one of those chicken coops. 

Tee Emm's would not let us into the cat building on the grounds that we 
might be carrying diseases. They would also not let us talk to the people 
who actually take care of the cats. We just got to talk to the owner who is 
a nice guy but he never shuts up, doesnt listen to your questions, and is 
basically in Dog mode most of the time. Personally I wouldnt leave our two 
anywhere until I had personally inspected where they will be staying and 
talked to whoever will be supervising them.

Sleepy Hollow's owner was a very nice person and I'm sure he would have 
taken great care of them. If we had been looking to board them for a day or 
two we would have booked them there. It was just the vision of our 
(overweight) cats crammed into those small boxes that put us off. Ed, who 
is big enough to lift the engine out of a chevvy with one paw, would have 
been miserable. His sister, who likes to s-p-r-e-a-d out, would also not 
have fitted on the single shelf without various appendages dangling over 
the edge.  Also the boxes had a grill door which would let toys roll out, 
and had very little floor space so toys would end up in the water dish most 
of the time.

Thanks alot for the help. They will be spending their vacation at the Cats 
Pajamas in Maine.

    Does anyone know of a cat sitter in the Boston, Mass, area?  I will be
    going on vacation in mid-August and would like to have someone come
    in twice each day to feed and play with my cat.
    
    Any suggestions or recommendations would be welcome!