🏠 Pet Sitter Instruction Sheet
Verbal instructions evaporate by day two. Fill this in once and your sitter gets the whole picture — feeding, litter, quirks, vet, meds exactly as prescribed, and what to do in an emergency — as a printed sheet for the fridge or a text for their phone.
The details
Trip & contacts
The cats (up to 3)
A day at a glance
Food, litter & water
Play, quirks & house rules for cats
Health & vet
This tool never suggests medication — it only writes down what your vet already prescribed, so the sitter gets it word-perfect.
House & emergencies
Prints as a signed permission for the sitter to authorise emergency treatment — many clinics ask for it before they'll treat.
Live preview
Sections appear on the sheet only when you've filled them in — no embarrassing blank paragraphs for the sitter to skim past.
Why use a written sheet?
Because day-two memory is not a care plan
Every sitter — family included — nods along to verbal instructions and retains about half. The details that fall out are exactly the ones that matter: which cat eats where, the door routine, the one medication. Paper (or a phone text) doesn't forget.
It prevents the three classic failures
Escaped indoor cats (door routine, in writing). Double-fed or missed meals (amounts, in writing). Treatment delayed because the clinic couldn't reach you (vet details + consent line, in writing). Almost every sitter horror story is a missing sentence, not a bad sitter.
It meets the sitter where they are
Fridge sheet for the house, copied text for the phone — the same information in the two places a sitter actually looks. Fill it once, reuse it every trip; it saves in your browser between visits.
Questions people ask
How much detail is too much?
The one-page test: if your sheet runs past a page or two, the sitter will skim — and skimming is how the medication line gets missed. Prioritise in this order: emergencies & vet → feeding → doors/escapes → litter/water → quirks. The story of how she came to own three cardboard castles goes in conversation, not the sheet.
Should I do a trial visit first?
If the sitter is new to your cats, yes — one paid visit while you're out for the evening tells you more than any reference. Shy cats especially: a stranger who has fed them once before is no longer a stranger on day one of a long trip.
My sitter is family. Do I really need the sheet?
Especially then. Family sitters are the most confident and the least briefed — they "know the cats", which is how doses get improvised and doors left open. The sheet isn't distrust; it's how grandma doesn't have to phone you on a beach about which bowl is whose.
Should I mention home cameras?
Yes, always — one honest line ("there are pet cameras in the living room, here's what they see") preserves trust and, frankly, sitter behaviour. Secret cameras are how good sitters become ex-sitters.
How much should I pay?
Professional drop-in visits typically run the price of a modest takeaway per visit; live-in sitting more. For friends and family, money can be awkward — a thoughtful gift plus a stocked fridge lands well. Whatever you agree, agree it before the trip, in the same conversation as the sheet.
Keep exploring
Calorie & Feeding Calculator — so the amounts on the sheet are right · Lost Cat Poster Maker — the plan nobody wants to use · Cat Home Safety Audit — sitter-proof the house first · All KittyButts tools
Everything you type is stored only in this browser's local storage — nothing is uploaded or shared. Medication fields exist purely to record your own vet's instructions accurately; if anything about medication is unclear, that's a question for your vet before you travel, not for a sitter to improvise.