I know for a fact that a lot of my readers have pets. And by visiting their blogs, I can tell that they really, really, love them! So if I ask any of you what you stress out over the most when away from home, I'll bet you all say that you worry about your pets. Obviously you can't leave your dogs home alone for more than several hours, but cats are pretty independent and can take care of themselves for a couple days before someone needs check them, freshen their food and water, and clean the litter box.
We like to take a lot of weekend trips as well as longer ones. I'm very lucky because I have wonderful neighbors to keep an eye on the house, and a good friend who lives close by and comes in to check on Punkie. Even with that, I'm still a nervous wreck.
I spent about $80 (each) and bought surveillance cameras for the rooms that she likes to hang out in. I'm able to view a live feed any time I wanted from my cellphone or a computer. They can even take snapshots every so many minutes (you set it up) and it can go to your email. I set one up just for this purpose so it doesn't clutter my main accounts.
I feel like I am able to enjoy my trips so much more because I could check on her anytime I wanted. Plus, I could monitor to make sure she was eating and drinking.
If you do get one, I'd suggest one that has night vision and that will connect to your wireless router. No computer needs to be hooked to it, and since it works with your wireless router, you can put it in any room in the house. Mine had a really long electrical cord so I could put it nice and high to see the whole room. Another nice thing about the one that I bought is that it reset itself if we had a power outage.