Advice for my new kitten please!

[Ofelia Lorene]

Hello everybody,

My boyfriend and I adopted our beautiful kitten on 28th December when he was around 12 weeks old from friends of ours whose cat fell pregnant with a litter of four. They have since rehomed another of the kittens, but still have two of the litter, plus mum and her sister.

We are going away for three weeks in March, and our friends have said they're happy to have our kitten stay with them while we're gone. While we would be really happy that he would have company and would be around a lovely family, we are a little bit worried that:

1) His siblings, mum and auntie won't remember him/he won't remember them, and they will fight
2) That as he will have only been with us for two and a half months by then, and he might get confused going back to somewhere he knows for three weeks and then back with us
3) He will be really lonely when he comes back to us - we would obviously rather him have a lovely time while we are gone even if that means it might take some adjusting once he's home, but we are concerned that he might really get used to being around other cats again

The alternative is that he stays with my parents, who don't have any other cats and whose house he's never been to, though they absolutely adore him. They work during the day but quite short hours, so he will have company most of the afternoon and all evening as well as for a couple of hours in the morning.

I know either way three weeks is quite some time so it will take some adjusting when he comes back home, but we just want to do whatever's best for him so would appreciate any advice from people who might have experienced something similar.

Thanks!

[Lilith]

Hi there and welcome

Both alternatives sound good but there might be a bit of hissing and 'who are you?' from previous relatives/siblings - there again perhaps not; you never can tell with cats.

But on the whole I'd choose your parents' home where he won't have any bother of re-settling with other cats (though he might miss out on some fun playing - but then miss that when he returns to a one-to-one home) despite having a few hours per day alone. This is just my personal view; other members might think differently.

Congrats on getting him by the way and also congrats on the holiday arrangement offers - he's very well provided for, lucky kitten

[Janey]

Hi and welcome. As Lilith says, you have two good offers for boarding your kitten. One thing I would add (although I’m sure you would do this anyway) is please make sure your little one doesn’t go out at his lodgers otherwise he would most likely go missing and try and find his way back home. (PS, hope your friends cat has been neutered now too ).
Let us know how things went won’t you

[alanc]

Just to reassure you if you do opt for boarding kitty with his mum and siblings, I boarded Badger and Tilly, my Maine Coon kittens, with their breeder after I had had them about 3 months. They stayed with their mums and dads, uncles and aunts (about 8 cats in all) and were perfectly happy. Didn't seem to make any difference to them when they returned home (after about 5 days).