If you’re reading this, more than likely you’re a cat lover and quite possibly searching for a place to leave your cat while you travel. As cat lovers, we certainly understand the desire to want to visit with any cat that crosses your path. We are quite guilty of this ourselves when we visit shelter settings or visit friends who are owned by cats!
As we go about our lives, it’s very easy to think about our own needs when interacting with any animal we see, especially if it’s an unexpected encounter. After all, animals can’t talk so often in our own happiness of being around animals, we forget that they have needs as well. Those needs may very well be the opposite of what we are feeling at any given moment. Because it’s so natural for humans to want to love animals, most of the time we don’t even realize we are doing it.
While acceptable in a variety of other settings, at The Cat Chalet we have a very strict policy that prohibits anyone other than staff from interacting with our boarding guests. Every day is different at The Cat Chalet, just as every cat is different. On any given day at our resort, we will have many first time guests as well as many cats who have stayed with us a number of times. Each cat in our care is in a different stage of socializing with staff. While many first timers will settle in right away, there are some who need more time and when that happens, we use our years of feline expertise to help them transition from any insecurities to feeling safe and comfortable in our care. We have many ways of doing this, but one of the ways is to create a routine and eliminate any unnecessary noise or activity that could hinder our cats from moving on to the next step of socialization. Any person who comes to our resort is a stranger to every cat here. Imagine how confusing it would be to a cat to have multiple people coming up to them each day wanting attention. This type of activity is very disruptive to a cat who may have just arrived or who is learning a new routine with us and wants to feel safe.
When loading up multiple grocery carts with cat litter, not a shopping trip goes by that a stranger in line will want to know how many cats we have. We love the look on their faces when we respond “It depends on the day”. We really do consider all the cats entrusted to our care to be “ours” even though it’s only temporary. As a family owned business, even our youngest family members have learned the different stages of transition for each cat and we proceed only when cats show signs of being ready to move to the next step.
So, whether you are visiting us for a tour or checking your cat in/out, we encourage you to speak softly and not approach any cat at our resort. We thank you for understanding and respecting the privacy needs of our feline guests. Just remember, they are on vacation, too!
