sorry, dear, don't mean to make u sound bad.....i know u love your cats very much lar....i remember how u cried and cried when emot was catnapped.
i did leave blackie alone for 2 nights....i put lots of food and water, and added a few extra litter boxes for him when i had to make an emergency trip to penang last november when my grandma passed away suddenly.
i enquired at the pet shop here (how they care for blackie when he's in their charge, etc.), and was told that they are not responsible if he gets frightened and escaped! and my hubby spent nearly the whole day calling all the hotels in penang, but none would allow us to bring blackie....so we finally decided that the best thing was to leave blackie alone at home with plenty of food, water and litter boxes.
i didn't sleep those 2 nights in penang, worrying about how blackie might feel afraid......and true enough, we had to coax him out of hiding when we came home...
ever since then, he became very clingy....following us around, and if he doesn't know where we are, he'll meow loudly until we respond, then he'll come running to where we are.