You can hire someone to help plan a holiday. You can hire someone to look after the cat. And apparently you can hire someone who claims to ask the cat, telepathically, how it feels about the entire arrangement. The concierge economy has reached a new department.
The Washington Post covered pet psychics and travel on May 12. The premise is irresistible to a cat-themed blog: somewhere, a human is requesting a second opinion from an animal that already considers the suitcase a personal insult.
What is actually being offered?
Animal communicator Maribeth Decker describes a service called Postcards From Your Pet. She says she communicates remotely with animals while their people are away, reassures them about the return date and sends periodic email reports to the owners.
Those are the provider’s claims. The page offers customer testimonials, which are accounts of perceived benefits rather than controlled evidence of telepathy. It also states that the service does not replace reliable physical care or veterinary attention.
That last part is refreshingly concrete. Whatever someone believes about sending a comforting thought across a continent, somebody still has to refill the water bowl. The spiritual infrastructure has not solved litter trays.
Pet travel is a real market; mind-reading is a separate claim
Amadeus and Globetrender’s travel forecast includes a “Pawprint Economy” theme, describing pet-friendly transport and hospitality as an area of commercial interest. Their report, released in December 2025, points to services being designed around animals and their owners.
That helps explain the surrounding market. It does not establish that travel readings are a large new industry, that they began in 2026, or that demand proves they work. A hotel offering a dog bed and a person claiming remote access to a cat’s thoughts are selling quite different things.
The emotional question behind both is easy to recognise: am I doing right by this creature that depends on me? Love can make a straightforward holiday feel like a difficult negotiation. Unfortunately, the other party mostly communicates through posture, habits and occasionally sitting on the paperwork.
Reassurance and information are different products
A reassuring story can feel valuable. That feeling alone cannot show that its details came from the animal. To establish that, a test would need to distinguish accurate information from prior knowledge, broad guesses, feedback from the owner and interpretations made afterwards.
For a practical care decision, “the cat told me” leaves an awkward gap: how can you check the message? An owner seeing that their pet ate normally and interacted comfortably with a sitter has observations to work with. An interpretation delivered as a psychic conversation does not provide the same kind of evidence.
We would spend the holiday budget on dependable care before a mystical consultation. This is not because worrying about a pet is foolish. It is because the worry concerns a real animal with needs that someone can actually observe.
The temptation to buy permission is the best comic material in the story. Imagine asking whether the cat approves of Lisbon and receiving a formal demand that you remain in the living room forever. How many of us would immediately seek a second opinion? The cat has retained a surprisingly aggressive legal team.
What would the cat choose?
Our imaginary feline travel brochure contains one destination: the usual sofa, in its usual position, with the usual meals arriving at the usual time. Five stars. Excellent local scratching facilities. Management occasionally needs reminding about breakfast.
Actual cats differ, of course. Cats Protection’s holiday guidance recommends familiar surroundings and reliable care for many cats, particularly those unsettled by change. A suitable sitter or carefully chosen cattery can be a better option than taking a reluctant animal along.
It recommends sitter visits at least twice daily, with more care where age or health requires it, plus clear instructions and emergency contacts. The choice should reflect the individual cat’s needs and the available care. “All cats hate travel” is too broad; “all dogs love it” is not a sound planning rule either.
Watching behaviour is more useful than assigning human holiday ambitions. As with purring or knocking objects off tables, context matters. One familiar action does not translate neatly into a complete sentence.
A better kind of holiday update
Ask the sitter for an ordinary report: eating, drinking, litter use, behaviour and anything that has changed. Arrange professional advice for health concerns rather than trying to settle them through a reading. A reassuring message is most useful when it comes from somebody who has actually checked on the animal.
And if you want a postcard from the cat, the sitter can send a photograph. It may show your pet asleep in the suitcase you failed to put away. We cannot certify the precise wording of that message, but the editorial tone seems fairly clear.
