Cat Chat Feline Forum

I've been talking to people about this and everyone, cat lovers included so far seem to brush it off. I asked my vet and she wasn't overly concerned either. I work from home and have no way of contracting the virus, I've told all my friends I'm putting myself on lockdown because I can't afford to get this, despite only being 36 I do have some blood pressure issues and a chronic cough, nothing serious on either front but it's still something.
My mom is being forced by her bosses to go to work despite being at risk, that's Macedonia for you even though she can easily do all her job from home, in fact I just set it up for her so she can and it works great, so yeah there's that, if her bosses refuse to let her work form home she is going to quit next week. She has to commute to work by bus or on foot if the weather is good.

My country only has some 70+ cases so far, but it's spreading rapidly due to people purposely refusing to follow protocol, hiding symptoms or outright not giving a damn and spreading it around in the process.

If one of us gets the thing, chances are the other will too, if this happens we'd have no one to leave the cats to for about a month until we recover if we're taken to the hospital....assuming we both recover.

- So far my cousin, his gf and his mom who all live together have offered to take them in or come check on them in a situation like this, but what if they all end up getting sick.

- None of my friends even remotely care about offering to do this

- My ex is sadly psychologically completely broken, severe untreated borderline....she adores animals and if she was well she'd do this...but if she was well we would've been married by now so that happened at the end of 2018

- I asked my vet and she wasn't overly concerned, said isolate and don't stress over it

We bought 10Kg of backup food
we bought a bunch of litter, will buy more as soon as we find any

These cats never overeat so if we have a steady supply of water people are telling me they should be able to self sustain for a month, there's a ton of litter, we'll split it up in a bunch of litter spots.
I don't like the idea one bit, but I can't think of any other soltuation
If we test positive nobody would want anything to do with us nor would we be able to send the cats somewhere.

I wouldn't put down more litter trays, just the usual ones. You could end up with a lot of boxes half used and have to change them all and that would use it up quicker than usual.

If there's people to look after them, sure we will stick to the litter boxes they use now.
But if they have to be left alone for a month the best solution would be a ton of litterboxes, food and a cat and water bowls and a cat fountain
We're looking for a sturdy, good cat fountain now but finding one doesn't seem easy locally.

I suppose we're thinking about these things now because of the situation but really it's something any person who is very ill or frail could think about, what if they were incapacitated, hospitalised or worse? I started thinking about it after my brother died in a car accident and when I was living alone and often taking long journeys for work returning late at night after a long day. I did make plans, that I would always tell someone who has a key to my house and would always post something on social media when I got home. Then if the person saw nothing from me when they get up in the morning, they should do something, starting with feeding the cats. I also left a large amount of dry food down with a timer.

That doesn't help for a month though.

I was hopeful thinking that the cats would sustain themselves in a month
there's no way they'd eat over 10Kg of cat food, they generally eat less when no one is home, at least mine do.

The reason I'm thinking about this is because people might not even want to enter the apartment/condo knowing there were Corona infected residents there, so far other than my cousin who said he'd take them in nobody else offered to help. At first people would be like "hey don't worry, the cats are going to be fine if worse comes to worse I'll come around throw them some food" and they say this with such a casual tone in their voice, then when we ask if they're serious, if we can count on us they just say nah they were just saying it to make us feel better.

Nobody wants to put themselves at risk, even if the virus wouldn't be an issue after a few days

Yes I do understand the issue. If there are no other options I think it would certainly be better than trying to rely on people who would let you down. I'm not sure food is the biggest challenge here though.

Water - counting evaporation over a month forget the water fountain I would get several large plastic bowls, I mean large like 30+ cms and fill them deep like 20cms deep, leave them in shaded places, and maybe even leave a tap dripping in the bath as well.

Litter - as many trays as possible or I'm just looking at my small bathroom wondering if I could get a large tough plastic sheet down over the whole floor, with a wooden bar across the door, and fill the whole lot 20 cms with cat litter, and whether that could last a month. Clumping litter so that the pee would be manageable.

Don't ask me how to clean that up when you get home afterwards though!

I remember seeing a video of a man in Wuhan who was doing the rounds on a bike feeding animals left alone, whose absent owners had contacted him via social media - I think he was doing it as a business

perhaps you could try setting up a small network in your area of people who would help each other out - only pet lovers will understand the anxiety you have, and the need for a plan

and then you wouldn't have to set up food or water for more than a few days, as the virus won't survive for more than that