House smells can build up or become stale in the absence of people, so it depends on how much the actions of the cat sitter and cat affected the air when they were away.
Their house probably smells a little like what it does after their trip away, but not exactly.
Anecdotally, I remember coming home to a smell when we’d get back from holidays as a kid and it wasn’t the same smell as when I’d get home from school, even if I arrived to no-one else there.
Pets have odors, but it isn’t nearly as overwhelming if you are around it all the time. Sometimes houses have faint smells like a musty basement that are enough to ignore when around them all the time. Even residual smells from cooking can impact how a house smells!
Absence makes things the brain normally filters out noticeable again. Also going elsewhere with different smells can make home smells more noticeable. Heck, when I get back from trips sometimes the house smells wonderful because it smells like home!
Also most of the issue is that people are lazy as fuck and a lot of cat owners just aren’t cleaning their house as much as they should, but most importantly, scooping the litter box.
Every single night before bed I scoop my cats litter box, add fresh litter, and sweep around it. Every other weekend I mop around it, and try to vacuum up cat hair off surfaces she sits on.
There are people that change their bed sheets every week or two, and people who give you a blank stare when you ask them when they last changed their sheets, like they didn’t realize that was a thing you should do. The latter is like half of humanity, and some of them own cats and let them shit in the same box for weeks without emptying it.
When I was a kid and we got back after a week vacation the house definitely smelled weird. As an adult visiting my parents when they’re home it doesn’t have that smell. But if my parents are away and I visit the house, the smell is back. Weird, but I get it that the air can get stale, especially since it’s an old wooden house
House smells can build up or become stale in the absence of people, so it depends on how much the actions of the cat sitter and cat affected the air when they were away.
Their house probably smells a little like what it does after their trip away, but not exactly.
Anecdotally, I remember coming home to a smell when we’d get back from holidays as a kid and it wasn’t the same smell as when I’d get home from school, even if I arrived to no-one else there.
Pets have odors, but it isn’t nearly as overwhelming if you are around it all the time. Sometimes houses have faint smells like a musty basement that are enough to ignore when around them all the time. Even residual smells from cooking can impact how a house smells!
Absence makes things the brain normally filters out noticeable again. Also going elsewhere with different smells can make home smells more noticeable. Heck, when I get back from trips sometimes the house smells wonderful because it smells like home!
Also most of the issue is that people are lazy as fuck and a lot of cat owners just aren’t cleaning their house as much as they should, but most importantly, scooping the litter box.
Every single night before bed I scoop my cats litter box, add fresh litter, and sweep around it. Every other weekend I mop around it, and try to vacuum up cat hair off surfaces she sits on.
There are people that change their bed sheets every week or two, and people who give you a blank stare when you ask them when they last changed their sheets, like they didn’t realize that was a thing you should do. The latter is like half of humanity, and some of them own cats and let them shit in the same box for weeks without emptying it.
I have never known a cat that was willing to shit in a neglected litter box. They just start going elsewhere.
My cats would always go in the litter box no matter how horrifying I let it get. It was actually pretty impressive.
It’s known as olfactory fatigue.
When I was a kid and we got back after a week vacation the house definitely smelled weird. As an adult visiting my parents when they’re home it doesn’t have that smell. But if my parents are away and I visit the house, the smell is back. Weird, but I get it that the air can get stale, especially since it’s an old wooden house