TwiddleTwaddle

Yes. At least keep some in your home where you know where it is. You never know when grandma might forget that she's already taken her pain meds, or a kid drinks too much of the wrong cough syrup, or (and I mean this in the least judgemental way possible) a friend hides their habit from you. Or literally any of those things (or a million other possibilities) happens to your next door neighbor.

We aren't sacrificing our cat for a vacation. She'll be well taken care of while we're away, we just wanted to set up a simple method of checking on her when the urge strikes us without bothering the cat sitters to drop what they're doing and check on her at any hour of the day or night.

This actually sounds like it fits my priorities pretty solidly. I'll look into Reolink, thanks.

I was honestly leaning more and more toward an off the shelf solution like this. I kindof agree with you about it not being worth it to use a fiddly roll-your-own setup like this, especially with such short notice. Plug and play sounds really attractive.

How do you like the Amcrest cameras and remote monitoring solution? Do they have a good reputation for security I hope? I'm afraid I'm completely in the dark about these types of security camera companies.

Edit: just reread this and saw that you're running the Amcrest cameras through Frigate. Was that setup something that you think could be done in an afternoon? Or have you had to mess with things often? Simplicity and ease of setup are probably my highest priorities for this.

Does zoneminder handle secure remote connections on it's own somehow? Or will I need a separate solution to access my LAN while away?

Respectfully, I really dont want this thread to be about my cat so much as the question at hand.

I've never messed with home assistant. Is it very simple to set up for a live stream like this? I agree that that the NVR solutions seem like overkill for my needs.

I've done some reading on setting up wiregaurd in the past, but havent actually deployed it before either. For a short term solution, opening up a port for it seems like a good compromise.

It is actually a technology question. My cat's care is being taken care of separately from this solution. This is just a supplementary setup that we'd like to have to be able to see her sometimes while we're away.

I'm not expecting an ad-hoc camera system to care for our cat while we're away. We have friends who will be visiting and spending time with her every day while we're gone. This is just so that we can check on her occasionally while we're away. Her illness is long term and managed with medications, but that doesnt stop my partner and I from worrying.

Respectfully, I already have separate plans for keeping the cat taken care of. This is just so that my partner, who will miss her very much while we're away for a few days, can see her occasionally while we're away.

We have a care plan for the cat. This is just for our peace of mind.

We have a pet sitter that lives down the road and our neighbors are also aware of the issues in case of an emergency. This isnt really for the cat's wellbeing so much as a bandaid for how much we'll miss her.