If there are coyotes in the area, cats and a small dog are in danger of being coyote snacks if they wind up outside, so I'm not terribly sympathetic to the LW's 'just put them outside'.

And I'm definitely not sympathetic to 'repeatedly asked her to get rid of them'.

Boarding the pets, otoh, could make sense, but so could having the LW and daughter stay in a hotel -- it would depend on which one would be more expensive, and it's not necessarily the hotel.