Dateline Boston — We’re going away for the second time ever since we’ve had our cats. The last time we went away, our male cat had to be taken to the ER upon our return. It was discovered that his urinary tract was inflamed due to stress. From our being away for two days.

This time, we’re prepared. We’ve asked a local teenager to come by twice a day to feed our precious babies, and sit with them for 30 minutes or so. He’s come over twice to meet them and hang around, so they get to know his scent. The last time he came, I asked him to bring an old, unwashed tee shirt that I could leave on the floor so the cats would remember his scent; you know, like you do with dogs when a new baby is born. Well, it worked! The cats love that tee shirt like there’s no tomorrow. They sit on it, cuddle with it, and have sniffed it repeatedly. By the time Teen comes over to feed them, he’ll seem like an old friend.

Manual Dexterity?

The next thing I have to do before we go away is write the care manual for our cats; I can make it 10 pages, but I’m going to have to whittle it down to one. We won’t confuse our cat sitter with the complicated two-food system we use, because one is on a special diet, and the other is the definition of finicky. When we’re away (again for only two days), they’ll both eat the same food. Or not.

There are special instructions for the evening visit; Teen will be asked to close the sliding doors in the living room, then go into the kitchen for the bedtime routine. Husband insists that we tell him to give the cats 10 pieces of dry food and two treats each, then back out of the room, closing the door behind him, saying, “Good night, kittens!” That’s what we do, anyway. The doors are closed so that the cats have access to only the living room and kitchen for the night. That way, they don’t disturb us when we’re sleeping. Last time we went away, we omitted this step with our caregivers, and we’re not sure if that freaked them out.

We also got a bottle of pheromones that you plug in, like an air freshener. It’s supposed to be calming when a cat is stressed; our vet told us about it. One worker at a pet store wasn’t a fan, and described the product this way: “Imagine you can smell your mom, but you can never find her.” Great. We’re going to try our luck anyway.

Two cat litter boxes? Check. Pagoda water fountain, which might need to be filled up? Check. Food? Check. Treats? Check. Tee shirt that actually contains a teen? Double check.

I think we’re ready. We’ll come back in the afternoon like we did last time, just in case we need to go to the ER. And if we do, we’ll get a roommate to live with us so we can go away again.

Ms. Vaillancourt may be contacted at snobbyblog@gmail.com