Before I make an enemy for life being very impolite, is it considered okay to ask my elderly neighbor to check in and feed my cats for a couple of days next week?

Yes, of course this is OK. I call on my neighbours all the time, and anyone else who has thumbs :-)

Be sure to bring back a nice gift, or flowers and chocolates (for the neighbour).

I'm sure that it would be no problem. In case you need a cat sitter, I could watch fluffy for you. I have a cat already and I used to cat sit some forum member's cat frequently.

... and some forum member can vouch for LIB's sweet care of my fluffy too

Just as well you understand the subtleties of the English language there, Nicola

I am not sure Island Girl will be happy to learn that....

Thanks! There are 2 fluffy's here They will be okay on their own for 4 days as long as they get their meals

Not sure if the Dutch chocolate is better then the Swiss chocolate...but if she is willing and able I will bring her some Dutch cookies (stroopwafels) Thanks!

It's ok (and I am getting a sense of deja vu here), but IG also helped

Add some flowers to the biscuits.

Our neighbours look after our cats when we're away, and they seem to enjoy it. We get little email updates each day about what our cats got up to, who was friendly and who wasn't, where they were hiding, etc.

A bottle of wine and a souvenir of some sort from our trip keeps everyone happy.

Yeah, we took real good care of Nicola's fluffy.

Why do you girls turn my every post into a smut fest...*sigh*

What ever works for you honey! lol