They sure can. That could be if they're left at home or in the boarding facility. We try to do things to help facilitate that by de-stressing or fear-free procedures. If your cat likes to be cuddled and allows us to do it, we can go in there and pick them up, spend some time with them, and give them some stress-relieving petting.

I think cats, by nature, are loners at a boarding facility specifically, but of course, you would want to make sure that they're well taken care of. You want to know if they have access to water, have been fed or medicated, and have a clean litter box. Most of them can go the day hours without needing attention. Think about when you leave them to go to work. I don't know that there's an exact timeline depending on your specific cat, but several hours, because they sleep 25 of the 24 hours anyway, and overnight they're usually just fine.

The general check-in process is when you tell us about your cat so that we can best care for your cat with regards to feeding habits, any medical concerns, and temperament. Do they like to be petted? Do they like to be kinda left alone and watched? Then your cat would be checked in and introduced to its home away from home, its staycation, as Kyle said. Then we would take care of your pet and give you updates while your pet's boarding with us.

We offer imaging x-rays, an ultrasound of the abdomen, and an echocardiogram of the heart. If we feel like we don't have all the answers, we could refer to a specialist. We could also try a test dose of medication. If we feel like we know what may be going on but can't exactly diagnose that without a doubt, we can test with medications to see if your pet responds to that. And sometimes you have to do that because the client can't afford the MRI or the CT scan, something like that. There might be times when we take follow-up images. That could be done if we might not see the problem today, like if your pet is vomiting, if they have something that's hurt, or if their breathing is not good. If you are very in tune with your pet and you've called this early, there may not be many changes that show up in the imaging. Then we may say, we're going to follow up with you in a week or two weeks or whatever that time period may be, and we'll repeat those images. That's a really good tool because, again, we may have what was today and compare that to what is later to see those changes that could be more obvious or different.

The effectiveness would depend on the quality of the image we get. Some of that could be the technology used. We use very advanced technology here, with newer ultrasound and our digital diagnostic x-rays and images. Digital versus the film, which can be very outdated. It also depends on the pet's position and willingness to cooperate during that procedure to get the best image. We want to do all our procedures with as little stress as possible. If we are stressing a pet out, we might say, okay, we're going to stop for today, and then come back on some calming medication, if that's an option for the pet, or maybe do it in a couple of sessions versus trying to get everything done in one session.