Leaving a pet behind for a thru hike?

Hey John,

I thru hiked in 2012. I regret not arranging to have my wife meet me at a town along the trail (she met me at the end, but I think I would have really appreciated a mid-route moral "pick-me-up". If you plan it ahead you might be able to find affordable air-fare to fly your cat and cat-sitter out somewhere along the route … Tahoe or Timberline lodge jump to mind! Break up the long absence.

By the way, I see you are in Philadelphia. Me too. If you need anything or have any questions feel free to PM.

If you trust your friend, then your cat won't have a crappy life for 5 months. He should adjust pretty well as long as he's getting the love and attention from your friend that you give him.

Very cool of you to ask, IMO.

Edit: I should probably add that I've never done a long hike, so I'm speaking more from animal knowledge than personal experience.

Is your cat an indoor cat or an outdoor cat?

If outdoor, is the cat going to the friend or is the friend housesitting as well.

Relocating outside cats can have issues.

When I call home during thru hikes my spouse puts the phone by my chihuahua's head and I talk to him. Seems to work just fine. I'm not sure if animals have much sense of time as we do, but when I leave, I talk to my three dogs (two are outdoor guard dogs) and tell them I will be gone for a bit on a walk, but that I will return and it's going to be fine. After years of doing this they all seem to be very accepting of my absences. I think I miss them more than they miss me, but knowing that they are safe, sound and well cared for helps me, but I still miss them. It makes coming home even more special, knowing my little family is there and buffers the shock of being off trail.

My husband and I had a similar issue with our cat some years ago. We had planned a prolonged roadtrip (6 months in a VW van– and our cat was NOT a travel-friendly critter). We were fortunate to have my husband's sister agree to take on a feline house-guest while we were gone. She was fine… not quite the spoiled center of attention she was with us, but well cared for an reasonably content. It's nice to see how you care for your cat– but, it sounds like you have reasonable arrangements lined up, and this may be your best (only?) chance, so go for it– no guilt!

It's so cool that you brought this up – i'm in the same boat. It looks like 2016 might be my year (fingers crossed…) but I also have CharlieDog and a cat (who likes no one but me…) to deal with. I have been talking to some people about watching chuck, and I assume my parents will watch Lilly (the cat…she does OK at their house. Not great, but OK). It's actually a bigger stress to me than the job factor!

I can't imagine going hiking and not taking my dog with me, but i think you have a lot more restrictions over the US.

Personally if somewhere was silly enough to restrict me bringing my dog then i wouldn't want to walk there, or if it was a really special area i'd take the dog and pay the fines if caught.

A cat will be fine. my dog on the other hand apparently becomes a little depressed while I am gone. My cat just goes into recluse mode, sleeping a lot and hiding – I told petsitters not to expect to see her at all.

I backpack with my dog when possible and fully support the national and state park prohibition of dogs on trails. While I love my dog, I have had many experiences with other people's prized pooches that confirm that some dogs are better off at home because their owners are clueless about controlling them or being responsible enough to keep their dog healthy out there. Yosemite rangers will eject people from the park for taking dogs on trails – seen it happen multiple times. And that is as it should be, the wildlife there doesn't need any more abuse than the people already give them.

I have been "long-term temporary supervising human" twice, and it was great for the animals!

One friend's dog was horribly depressed for the entire 2-day pre-test weekend, and I was really worried about the 5 months of "real" time — but when "mom" left on the real trip, the dog was ready to play (!) and loved every minute of our time together. [Big confusion when I brought her back to "mom" at the end of 5 months, but that's understandable.]

I also cared for a particularly unsocialized cat for 7 months. Yeah, she basically hid for the first 3 or 4 days, but then we became BFFs, and she was better socialized when "mom" returned! [The plants were all dead, but I'm not a horticulturalist!]

So, even if it takes a while, find a friend who's willing to do this bit of "trail magic" for you and your cat. It'll be a great experience for everyone involved.

I'm not sure if it helps but I left pets behind during my 2012 PCT thru. It was probably tougher on me than the cat or the dog. I was lucky enough to have a parent who felt sorry enough for me to watch them while I was gone, and I knew they were well taken care of. I missed them during the hike, and it was always surprising what a treat it was just to pet an animal at a trailhead or a trail angels.

Probably the worst part was the day after I finished I was in Canada in limbo land and I got a call that my mom thought my cat probably wouldn't make it even a few more days and I should come home right now if I wanted to see her. She had also been a rescue from euthanasia row and at 17+ it wasn't exactly surprising but I had a really hard time mentally. It made the end of the trail more sudden, any thoughts of hanging out with hiker trash and decompressing a bit were tinged by more guilt than I could handle so I hopped on amtrak and headed home. My mom had been worried about her for awhile but waited until I finished to tell me. She lasted about a month after I got home but I did feel bad I had left her. I definitely heard stories of people's whose pets died while they were on the trail. Its a weird thing, you get very disconnected from your life back at home and it seems hard to contemplate leaving a trail for a pet but for sure there is some guilt there.

Just my thoughts, I loved my thru hike and am headed out again this summer. But knowing they are well looked after and honestly disconnecting a bit from my home life seemed the best for me.

Thanks for the thoughts and encouragement, all.

I wasn't really sure what to expect when posting this thread, just mostly articulating the big concern that's on my mind. The replies have definitely been helpful in giving me a little bit of reassurance on what to expect. The job/life stuff has actually been pretty easy (I should be able to come back to my job in some form, and I'd be leaving my apartment anyway come this June), so this has been the main concern. I'll be finding out if the cat situation will be working in a couple of days, and then it's going to be hitting the home stretch pretty intensely. I always have 2016 as a backup (I have a firm offer for then from another very close friend who was Yogi's catsitter for many a year.)

I actually did long-term cat care for one of my brother-in-law's friends a few years ago and it was a miserable experience, but I later learned that one of the two cats I was looking after was absolutely infamous among his grad student cohort (you don't normally hear people talk about cats using words like "horrible," "awful," or "demon"). Apparently that didn't stop me from picking up Yogi two weeks later when he popped up in a Craigslist shelter posting, but I've learned from the experience and am going to be very honest about what to expect when sending him along.

Maya in particular- thank you for sharing your thoughts. I'm sorry to hear about your cat, especially since I think that your situation is more or less the worst fear of anybody leaving a pet for a long time.