Taking Your Cat to a Friend’s House: What You Need To Know

Whether you’re going to your friend’s house to hang out and want to bring your cat with you or you’re hoping that your friend will watch your cat while you’re gone, there may be reasons you want to bring your cat to a friend’s house.

As a general rule, your cat would likely rather stay home. Cats like their own environments and can find change to be stressful. However, if your cat is naturally adventurous, acclimated to travel, or needs to be out of the house for whatever reason, you can take your cat to a friend’s house.

If you do plan on taking your cat to a friend’s house, there are a few things you can do to make the visit as stress-free as possible. Read on to learn more.

Can I Take My Cat to a Friend’s House

Cats are known for being habitual creatures who tend to resist change. They like routines, familiarity, and knowing they’re safe. While this usually means that cats don’t like to leave their house, sometimes it’s necessary.

You can take your cat to your friend’s house for a visit or to stay for an extended period of time. However, your cat would likely prefer to stay at home if at all possible.

Traveling can be stressful for cats and casually visiting other homes isn’t going to be as much fun for your cat as it may be for you. Cats that are older, ill, or especially anxious shouldn’t be visiting your friend’s house.

However, if your cat is healthy and you do need to bring them with you to your friend’s house, be sure to prepare your cat as much as possible to ensure they have a good experience. If you’re driving to your friend’s house, acclimate your cat to their carrier and the car first.

Once you’re at your friend’s house, have your cat’s carrier available to them as a safe space to retreat to. Additionally, bring comfort items from home like your cat’s favorite toys, familiar blankets, and even treats. Use these comfort items to create a home-away-from-home for your cat at your friend’s house.

Before you arrive, ask your friend to prepare as best as possible. Make sure all doors and windows are closed and try to limit the amount of space that your cat can explore/hide in the unfamiliar environment.

Cats Visiting Other Homes

While we like to visit other homes to hang out with friends or family and visit their pets, our cats don’t necessarily feel the same way. Cats are traditionally territorial and habitual, which means they’re most comfortable in their own home.

In general, your cat would likely rather not visit other homes. However, this isn’t always the case. If you have an outdoor cat, you may find that they like to visit your neighbor’s homes. If your indoor cat is naturally adventurous or likes to travel, they may enjoy visiting other homes.

Whether or not your cat enjoys visiting other homes, it may be a necessity sometimes.

There have been multiple occasions where my cats have had to visit my parent’s house— both for extended visits over Christmas and to be dropped off while I’ve had to travel. Fortunately, I was able to stay with my cats the whole time during our first visit to my parent’s house. After that, taking the cats to visit them or drop them off there has been much easier.

Based on my experience, veterinary observations, and recent research, here’s what I’ve learned about cats visiting other homes:

Cats do remember other houses. Cats have an excellent long-term memory that can be recalled based on external stimuli. That means if your cat has visited a house before, they’ll likely remember it. This is especially true if they interacted with a person, animal, or had an overall good experience.

According to a 2020 study in Applied Animal Behavior Science, the vast majority of cats remember past events including single-occurrence events that happened years ago. The memories were often recalled when current external stimuli overlapped with the memory, the same way that memories are retrieved for humans.

Your cat would likely rather stay at home, but if they do visit another house, it’s important to make sure they have a good experience. They likely won’t forget it.

Taking Your Cat to Another House With a Cat

Taking your cat to your friend’s house can be a little stressful, but it’s an extra delicate situation if your friend has animals of their own– especially cats. So can you take your cat to visit another cat?

As a whole, cats don’t enjoy meeting other cats. It’s easy for cats to feel unsafe and threatened, and their territorial instinct may take over causing them to panic or target the other cat. Unless the cats have met before, your cat likely won’t enjoy visiting another cat.

If you do have to take your cat to a house that has another cat living there, try to keep the two separated at first. Have your friend put their cat in a familiar room when your cat arrives and use the door as a barrier between the two. If there’s no hissing, you can begin to introduce the two cats with caution.

If the cats are hissing, give them time to warm up to one another with the barrier still in place. After some time, you may even try putting food bowls for each cat on either side of the door and slowly decrease the distance between the two.

Your cats may not get along during their first meeting, and they may never get along. If that’s the case, just be sure to keep them separated if they have to be in the same house. However, the least stressful option for both cats would be to leave yours at their own home.

Can a Cat Stay at a Friend’s House?

If you’re taking a trip for an extended period of time, you may be wondering if your cat can stay at a friend’s house while you’re gone.

If at all possible, leave your cat at home while on overnight trips or vacations of any length. Instead of leaving your cat at a friend’s house, ask your friend to stay at your house or drop in to check on your cat periodically. Your cat can stay at your friend’s house, but it’s the more stressful option for your cat.

Leaving your cat with a friend while on vacation is possible, and sometimes it’s the only choice. While my cats have never stayed at my friend’s house, they have stayed at my parents’ house for a week in the past while I was on vacation.

Now, I leave my cats at home while I’m on vacation and ask friends to drop in or use Rover to hire a pet sitter. I recommend doing this instead. Your cat is already familiar with their own home and knows that they’re safe. Even if you aren’t there for a week, your cat would likely rather be home alone for a lot of the time as opposed to staying at your friend’s house.

Being at your friend’s house will likely be stressful for your cat, especially if you aren’t there with them. If your cat does need to stay at your friend’s house while you’re away, try to make the experience as stress-free as possible for them. You can do this in the following ways:

Invite your friend over to hang out a few times to help your cat get comfortable with them
Acclimate your cat to their carrier and the car if you’ll be driving to your friend’s house
Bring your cat to your friend’s house beforehand; stay with them and give them treats to let them know it’s a safe space
Create a home-away-from-home for your cat at your friend’s house with your cat’s carrier, litter box, food and water bowls, and other comfort items

Taking Cats Away for the Weekend

Whether you’re going to spend a long weekend at a friend’s house or you’re going on a mini-vacation, you may be thinking about taking your cat away for the weekend. Here’s what you need to know:

Your cat would be more comfortable staying at home for the weekend. If you do need to take your cat away for the weekend, prepare for the trip in advance to make it as stress-free as possible for your cat.

Before traveling anywhere with your cat, make sure they have a carrier that they’re comfortable in and give them plenty of time to get used to it.

If you’ll be driving a long distance, you may want to get a cat carrier with a travel litter box included. If you’re flying for the weekend, make sure your cat carrier is airline-approved.

Once your cat is used to their carrier in the house, slowly start acclimating them to the car and to taking short trips. For your actual weekend getaway, be sure to plan ahead for breaks. A healthy cat will need a break from their carrier every 2-4 hours if possible, and an older cat or an ill cat will need more frequent breaks.

Once you’ve arrived at your destination, create a safe space for your cat with their carrier, litter box, food and water bowls, and comfort items from home.

If you’re looking for something fun to do with your cat this weekend, check out this list of 14 fun places to take your cat.

Taking Care of a Friend’s Cat

Whether you’re watching your friend’s cat while they’re away or you’re looking for advice to help your friend take care of your cat, comfort and safety are top priorities.

A cat in an unfamiliar environment is going to be uncomfortable. They will likely hide for some time until they feel safe. Do not rush a cat out of hiding or force them into a more uncomfortable situation. Give them time and space to learn that they’re in a safe environment.

Keep the cat’s essentials in a place that’s easily accessible for them. They should always have access to the following things:

The cat carrier they arrived in
Their litter box
Food and water bowls (here are six of the best travel bowls for cats)
Comfort items from home including favorite toys and familiar scents

Particularly anxious cats may also benefit from a cat calming aid.

“I really like Feliway,” says Natasha Diehl, DVM. “It’s an amazing product that I’ve seen used in diffusers. It’s a pheromone-based product that can help decrease your cat’s stress levels.”

You can get Feliway diffusers on Amazon. Set one up in the room that the cat will spend of their time in to help reduce anxiety about being in an unfamiliar place.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, it’s fine to take your cat to your friend’s house if it’s the only logical option. You may be having your house treated and need to get your cat out for a few hours or days, or you may be going on a trip when no one can take care of your cat in their own home.

However, your cat would likely rather stay home if at all possible. Your cat likely won’t enjoy going to your friend’s house for a visit the same way you do, and it could be especially stressful for your cat if your friend has pets of their own.

If you do take your cat to a friend’s house, try to make the trip as stress-free as possible by preparing your cat for travel and helping them feel safe in the unfamiliar home.

You’ll want to get your cat’s carrier early and give them time to get used to it. Bring it with you to your friend’s house along with anything else your cat will need or want, such as their litter box or favorite toys.