Vacation Hopeful

I put in a vacation request to take Thursday and Friday off next week. I don't yet know if it will be approved though, since all three of my bosses are on vacation this week, and to be fair, I've given terribly late notice. I'd love to go camping, to breathe crisp mountain air, to clamber over rocks until my muscles scream, to listen to the sound of the wind in the trees as I drift off to sleep. I have spent less time outdoors this summer than I would have liked. I may bring it up in my performance review this fall, how my field skills are being under-utilized. Or I might chicken out, and whine here instead.

Assuming I get the time off, though, whatever shall I do with the kittens? Self-sufficiency is one of the great advantages of cats. Typically you can leave them a few heaping bowls of dry food, a few big bowls of water, and just take off for a few days, maybe asking your sister to pop in and deliver some pets. These kittens are a different story though. Rhea is still getting two separate liquid medications every day, one of which needs to be dispensed twice daily.

I'm sending out feelers about leaving them with my parents, since I so dutifully take care of their dog for them several times a year whenever they leave town, most recently just last month for nearly two whole weeks. I worry about that though. Would the kittens be locked in the basement? My Dad puts on a show about not liking cats, although they have two cats of their own. Their cats came to them, though; Dad did not seek them out. The parental cat units mostly stay outdoors, due to some behavioral issues like indiscriminate urination. Ick.

Plus, Dad & SM did a lot of work on the house over the last few years. I suspect they would be fearful of the cats damaging their shiny new house stuff. The same is true of my sister: new house stuff. Not that the kittens are particularly destructive. They use the box without fail, and don't scratch things. Reemsy is a little nutter, though, tearing around like a firecracker. Both kittens will climb the lampshades when they get super excited. So I have to acknowledge that they could potentially break something by accidentally knocking it over.

Any ideas? I have no idea what it costs to board kittens. I suppose I could look into that. They were a huge hit at the vet's office. Maybe someone there would want to squeeze them for a few days.

ETA: Good news back from Dad. He said they would barricade the kittens in the laundry room when they aren't home, and keep them out with them when they are home. That seems like a reasonable solution. The laundry room is small, but it is upstairs and has windows. Now I just have to hope for good news from the bosses.