My boyfriend and I were just talking about this the other day, because we have to leave town for about a week soon-ish. We decided to start looking for a "pet-sitter" in the end. I don't know if you have those where you live, but here there's a small firm that puts pet owners in contact with certified pet-sitters (though I have no idea how one becomes "certified" in that ) so pet owners can travel.

I know it can be scary to give the house keys to a complete stranger, but for us at least we have the firm guaranteeing that the person they send is 100% "clean and honest". If that falls through, we'll probably asked one of my friends to come round every day to give our cats food and water and throw out the litter, and also give Little Fluff her weekly bath (I don't envy them for that -.-).