Coming home from a cattery is a change of world, even for a cat who boarded happily. Smells have shifted, the house sounds different after days of other cats, and her own scent marks have faded while she was away. The behaviour of the first days is better read as resettling work, and most of it follows a recognisable shape.
The Normal Shape of the First Days
A common pattern begins within hours: she eats a big meal with real enthusiasm, drinks, investigates the house room by room, and then sleeps deeply, sometimes for longer stretches than usual. Over the following days she may be clingy, following you from room to room and demanding the contact she missed, or pointedly aloof, acting as if the whole trip was your idea and beneath her notice. Both are normal resettling styles, and some cats alternate between them in the same evening. You may also see renewed scent marking of the reassuring kind, rubbing cheeks along furniture and door frames to lay her scent back over the house. Appetite may wobble for a meal or two, litter use may be enthusiastic or slightly delayed, and play interest usually returns once sleep has caught up. A quiet house, her familiar food served at her usual times, and no visitors crowding her all speed the return to normal.
Watching Appetite Against Her Own Baseline
Judge the days after boarding against her own habits, not against another cat's. A cat who normally inhales breakfast and now picks at it is telling you more than a naturally dainty eater who eats lightly but steadily. Note whether she is drinking, using the tray, grooming and moving about as she usually does, because a single soft sign alongside otherwise normal behaviour is different from several changes together. Weighing her, if she tolerates it calmly, gives one steady fact among impressions: a stable weight supports the picture of a cat who merely needs time. Keep food and water in their usual places, resist offering a parade of tempting alternatives, and let routine do its quiet work. Household members who each see part of the day can compare notes in the evening, so a missed meal noticed by one person is not missed by everyone.
When the Wobble Stops Being a Wobble
Ask the cattery for its side of the story while it is fresh. A short report on how she ate, slept and behaved during the stay gives you a comparison point for the days at home: a cat who ate steadily there and refuses food at home is a different puzzle from a cat who barely ate throughout. Note who collected her and how she travelled home, too, since a long or noisy journey can explain an evening of hiding that has nothing to do with the stay itself.
Set one clear boundary in advance and hold it: if her appetite is still poor once a couple of days have passed, that is a vet call, not something to keep watching hopefully. The same applies sooner if poor appetite arrives with hiding that does not lift, repeated vomiting, diarrhoea, straining in the tray, or a cat who seems flat and uninterested in everything. Boarding can coincide with problems rather than cause them, and a vet would rather examine a cat who turns out to be fine than meet one a week later. Mention the recent boarding stay when you call, including its dates in your own records and how she ate there if the cattery reported it, because that timeline helps the vet judge what might be going on. KinsLe supports that watchful routine another way too: Care Teams gives each household checker a named duty, and timestamps show when that check was actually done.