What do you do with your pets while visiting WDW?

[forever a child]

As our trip date approaches, I get excited. The one thing that always makes our trip a little less exciting is leaving our pets. DD has a cat that is going on 13 years old this fall and our Aussie is 4 years old. I always HATE leaving them behind especially when it is going to be over 8 days aways. Our Aussie is deaf (she was born deaf) and very attached to my DD. Since my DD is home schooled both animals are seldom left alone for very long. I have never boarded any of my animals. We have someone coming in to pet sit periodically through out the day.

I was just wondering what you all do? Is there anything that can make their time away from us a little better or easier? I really am beginning to worry a little about it, especially for our dog. Thanks for sharing and any advice you might have!

[NewDVCowner]

I have a friend that stays at my house with my dogs, however this year that might not work out and am looking into kennels. I have an Aussie that's 16 and another sheppard that's 15, so they're older dogs and am concerned. If you end up putting them in a kennel I'd make sure to give them a towel, blanket or piece of clothing that smells like your daughter that will help confort them while you're away.

[ColeeC]

We have a big beautiful black lab named Sugar Moose who despises the kennel; usually she stays with my inlaws but this time, they're coming with us. So Moose will be having a vacation of her own...no doubt to her dismay. We also have three guinea pigs that go to my friend's home; since they're portable and easy, they've always got offers.

[DVC2004]

Once I boarded my cat and he was traumatized- never again. He has to eat on a specific schedule and the boarder told me no problem; then when I dropped him off they changed thier tune and said they could not do that. I was very upset and I suspect that they lied and told me they fed him on schedule and really didn't. He was upset and jittery for a while even after we got home. Since then, my mom comes and stays in our house while we travel and cares for them. It makes a huge difference.

[forever a child]

Once I boarded my cat and he was traumatized- never again. He has to eat on a specific schedule and the boarder told me no problem; then when I dropped him off they changed thier tune and said they could not do that. I was very upset and I suspect that they lied and told me they fed him on schedule and really didn't. He was upset and jittery for a while even after we got home. Since then, my mom comes and stays in our house while we travel and cares for them. It makes a huge difference.

My last dog, Kimba, was a white Shepherd. We used to take her to my parents every time we went out of town and for her it was a vacation too. She loved going there. They have a creek in the backyard that she would love to swim in. But she is no longer with us and we have relocated out of MI where my parents live. So we have to rely on friends or paying neighbors to take care of our pets. Up until last summer I always paid one of the neighborhood boys that our dog LOVED. But now they have relocated and so there isn't any more kids able to take care of them. I just like to make sure they are loved while we are gone

[DisneyPrincess21]

I was just wondering what you all do? Is there anything that can make their time away from us a little better or easier? I really am beginning to worry a little about it, especially for our dog. Thanks for sharing and any advice you might have!

We take both of our dogs (poodle 9yrs old & bichon 2 yrs old) with us and they stay at the disney kennel at epcot while we are at the parks, then at night they come back to our off property hotel to stay the night with us. I could never leave my babies home.

[Daisy'sMom]

When we go over, our dog goes to spend the day (or week if we are staying) at my sister's. We call it Kimcare. She also is in charge of our cat. If we are there more than one day, she comes over twice, visits her and feed her. She checks the liter and makes sure the timer is working with the lights. Can't leave our Daisy in the dark.

[RedSoxFan]

We have a 11 month old yellow lab, Bella. We boarded her for the first time in March for 4 days. We visited the kennel (a couple of them) and brought Bella in for a visit. She made out fine and had play time with other dogs (which was good for her). We boarded her for spring break in April when we went to Virginia and again, she did very well. The owners were impressed how calm she is for a lab. During her first boarding, I was a wreck the entire time worrying about her. But the second time, I was fine as I knew she did well the first time. I would consider someone coming to house sit for her when she gets older. But she needs to be in the crate when nobody is around for obvious reasons. Good luck.

[Alaska Disney Fan]

We have 2 dogs - Black Lab and Mini Dachsund and 1 cat. We have always kenneled our dogs on vacation, it does take some time to find the right kennel though. The one we take our dogs to, they are in the same kennel together, which is good for them. Our cat could really care less if we are around or not - he usually stays home by himself with 2 cat boxes, a 5 gallon auto water and a one gallon auto feeder, I think he likes having the house to himself!! the first trip or 2 the dogs were certainly glad to see us when we got back, but now they are used to the kennel and seem to know what's going on - they know we will be back

[DiannaJ]

I used to have the neighborhood friend come over and feed my dogs and my mom takes her cat to the Vet which she will do this time also. They take very good care of him there because he is so socialable and loves the vet...yes he loves the vet...There are pet sitters that come to your house you can ask your vet for the ones they recommend because I have found they don't advertise very much but they will come to your house and feed them.

[mouseketeer mom]

We've found boarding our 3 cats and bunny way too traumatic for them. Plus, it was a fortune.
Now we leave them home and my MIL comes each day to feed them and scoop litter box. The cats do act out while we're gone. Having accidents outside of the litter box.

[ChipDale2708]

I have two year & a half old 'kittens' who are extremely attached to me, especially one of them. Our neighbor comes in to feed them twice a day while we are away. Prior to these two, it never upset me to leave the others while we went away, but now I find it very hard leaving them even though I know they are in good care and are in their own home. They have been very well behaved while we have been gone.

[crltkcagle]

My neighbor watches our pets for us and gets our mail too~

[DonLefNY]

Ours are boarded at a pet resort. Yep, the name is Milton Manor Pet Resort. It's run by a vet. We have two small dogs and book them a medium suite. It's air conditioned for the summer and heated floors for the winter. They have a private run and get this, during the day they run Disney movies on a little closed circuit TV system in their rooms. We can sign them up for hiking, play time and swim time. There is also a web link so we can log in to see what they are up to. We've never used it but, they also have an old stretch limo you can book to pick the dogs up and drop them off to you too.

[forever a child]

Ours are boarded at a pet resort. Yep, the name is Milton Manor Pet Resort. It's run by a vet. We have two small dogs and book them a medium suite. It's air conditioned for the summer and heated floors for the winter. They have a private run and get this, during the day they run Disney movies on a little closed circuit TV system in their rooms. We can sign them up for hiking, play time and swim time. There is also a web link so we can log in to see what they are up to. We've never used it but, they also have an old stretch limo you can book to pick the dogs up and drop them off to you too.

I think I would like to be boarded there

[SurferStitch]

Our two little girls (Genevieve - Cairn Terrier, Babette- Lhasa Apso) stay at my parents in the country. They love having acres to run with no leashes for the time we're gone. They also get spoiled rotten, although this time they weren't too thrilled with the new puppy my parents got a few weeks ago.

Our other two ladies (our cats Cleopatra and Zoe) don't like to travel, so they stay home, and my mom comes down every other day to feed them, clean litter boxes and play with them a while. She also feeds my fish and waters plants as needed. The kitties are much happier this way, and don't have the stress of traveling in the car and staying in a new place.

[wilcat]

We are very fortunate to have my DH's sister living across the street. When we go away our corgi goes to her house during the day and at night they bring her over to sleep where she is comfortable. We do the same for her dog when they go away. This Memorial Day weekend we are all going to another brothers house out of town so we are taking the two dogs to a kennel run by a fellow church member. I feel apprehensive as we have never used a kennel before but my sister-in-law knows this person well and she says everything should be fine. As it is only for drop off Friday and pick up Tuesday I hope all will be ok with our little ones.

[MushuGrl]

Kat stays with his "grandma" now, but when grandma went with us a few years back, we boarded him at the vet. We were all super paranoid about something happening to him, and it gave my mother peace of mind knowing he was there with a medical staff available.

However, he went on a bath strike while we were gone, and his pretty white chest was a bit of off-white when we picked him up. I guess his plan was to stink them out?

I haven't read all the posts, but I noticed during my last trip to PetSmart that ours has a new "pet hotel". Has anyone check them out?

[Brownie54]

Camp Grandma!