Came home yesterday from a great getaway in Maine. We were only gone 3 days, and two nights, but it was our first trip out since we got Indy and Sam, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Willow was always such an easy cat – she would only eat dry food – never jumped on the counters or tables. And since she was an only cat, there was no rowdy rough housing, no knocking things over, and generally no surprises to come home to when we went away. With these two I had all kinds of visions of what they might do in our absence. The planning for going away took a bit more time and calculation. I purchased two extra large cat boxes which could have easily been wash tubs for a couple of small kids. My “just in case” theory was that as long as they had a whole beach worth of clean litter, they wouldn’t be inclined to take their toilet habits elsewhere. I then tried to figure out how much food and water to leave out. These two are voracious and can blaze through tins of fancy feast and dry kibble like locusts, so I figured with just the dry food, they would need plenty. Two large bowls of kibble, and two troughs of water later, I figured they should be good. I closed all but two windows upstairs so they could get some air and lay on the windowsills.  Finally, I guessed they would be OK. The Drama! I didn’t spend nearly that much time packing my bags to go away! I don’t know what I was expecting them to do – light Matches?  Invite all the neighborhood cats in for happy hour? Rifle through my drawers?  Upon our return, I cautiously opened the door. They were waiting in the kitchen, looking bored, and more than a little miffed that we had shortchanged  them of their daily tins and bowls of cream. A few rugs were overturned. A few items were on the floor, but nothing broken. The two big cat boxes were evenly filled, but not overflowing . There was food and water left over, so they clearly didn’t starve. Still suspicious, I went upstairs. Nothing.  I was pretty impressed. Indy came around shortly, purring, and clamoring  for attention. Sam retreated to the basement, still put out by our absence, but he too is coming around. Looks like we can start planning our next getaway.