No matter what title I have in life, I will forever be an Administrative Professional. I love to streamline, organize, file, alphabetize and of course…make spreadsheets. It’s just who I am. 🙂
When we are away from home for more than one night, someone has to stop by and take care of our two cats. After a couple times of frantically scribbling out directions for their care on the way out the door, I got smart. I created a basic template on my computer, listing everything you need to know to care for the cats (it’s not much, they are very independent). We used to pet sit for friends of ours a few years ago, and I thought about the things I needed to know when caring for their pets. Here are the things I included on the list:
- Names and descriptions of the cats (people always get my cat’s names mixed up!) 🙂
- Location of their supplies (food, food bowls, litter box cleaning items and treats)
- Directions for refilling their water cooler
- Directions on how much food and how many treats to give them
- Location of the outdoor trash can for their dirty litter
- What to do if they have to clean up a mess
- What to do with their house key at the end of the week
You could also include the phone number for your vet or another family member in case of an emergency. If your pet sitter is staying in your home during the trip, you could also include these things:
- Directions for using the TV/cable/dish
- Information on what food you’ve left for them
- Name/number to call if there’s a home repair emergency (we house sat for someone one summer and the AC died…)
- Alarm codes
Each time we leave for a trip, I simply print out a new sheet and leave it on the fridge!
This concept would also work well if you leave your children with a babysitter. I imagine there would be a few more details on that list, but the basic idea is the same. 🙂
Forever the Admin Professional,
Come Home For Comfort 
Great idea! I think traveling was less stressful for me when I knew the cats were well taken care of. I would also leave the vacuum out just in case the cats made a mess with the litter and would leave some fun wands/laser pointers out with the note so the kitty sitter would play with the cats. Lastly, I’d give a copy of the kitty to do list to the kittysitter when I’d drop off our house key and leave a second one on the fridge.
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I cat sit for a friend of mine when she goes out of town. I do the morning shift and another friend does the evening shift( and the litter box as I do not deal with those). Susan always leaves us detailed instructions. I love it when people are organized and get frustrated when I am unsure of my duties.
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