How Long Do You Travel Without Your Pets?

This summer, I'll be heading to New York for a week and then Israel for a couple weeks. At home I have a cat that I take care of. I'm going to miss him and I know that he'll miss me for a few days at a time. Granted, my family will be taking care of him by visiting the home once a day, but that's still not the same. He's not with 'Mommy'.

So when you travel, how long do you travel without your pets? When you come back, do your pets typically shun you or do they get extremely excited?

The longest I've ever traveled without my pets is probably about a week. It seemed like forever without them! I missed them SO much! When I got home they were very excited to see me. They are both very loyal, good dogs.

The longest time that I have been away from home is about a week, but I had some friends who came over and took care of the dogs while I was gone. I still worried about them, you just never know what might happen, and you not be there to take care of things.
My friends did an excellent job of taking care of the dogs, but I am sure that they missed me and wondered where I was at . They are always used to me being home, and not gone any longer than a trip to the grocery store, or something similar to that, and I am always home in the evening in any case. They were very glad to see me when I got back home again, that is for sure ! !

The longest we've ever traveled without our four dogs was four days. Although is was lovely to get away for that long, I felt all kinds of guilt about leaving them. When we returned, they were all super needy puppies. At the same time, though, you could tell that they all really bonded during that time (instead of their usual two and two partnering), so there were definite positives to finally boarding them.

A couple years ago my family took a vacation to Florida for a week. We left our dog to roam free like normal in the house. And I had my parents go over twice a day to check on him. Being a Great Dane, he was very gentle and affectionate towards everyone. While gone, this dog had a melt down. It was the first time we had ever left him. He stopped eating all together. My mom would call and say he was roaming outside lost like he was trying to find us. He would even lay by our car like he was waiting on us. After this incident, we have never left without him!

I do contract and short term jobs and assignments. Some require me to travel far and be away from home for weeks or even months. Luckily, there are other relatives who care for the pets. There was a time I had travelled to the coast and stayed there for am extended period of time. Our pet dog, a puppy was very close to me. When I returned home, I found that we had become strangers! Instead of affection, suspicion was written on his face!