What information should we leave for a cat sitter/cattery?

Question

I keep a single sheet document on each cat that gets printed out whenever they are left in someone else's care (a cat sitter, a family member, taken to be boarded, etc). What information should be provided on this sheet that may be relevant in case of an emergency?

I've attached an example of my current form, with the personal information redacted.

Answer 1

Everyone is going to be a little different, but with respect to your current form (which I quite like), I would consider:

• Remove the "Rescued From" information, unless it's relevant to the care in which case the relevancy should be indicated.
• Add a "willing to spend" line by the vets to indicate how much cost you would be willing to bear in an medical situation. Our vets had this on their boarding form and I think it's wise, even if you intend no limit.
• Add an "in the event of death" line for to do the event that your pet dies. Not a pleasant thing to think about, I know, but consider how the person caring would react if something does happen.
• Add a feeding schedule along with any instructions (for ours we need to add water to the wet cat food to deal with a megacolon issue).
• Add a treat schedule or some basic instructions on how much treats can be given.
• Add a medication schedule and instructions. For example, our boy gets 3 ml of lactulose daily orally before evening feeding. Even if you don't have any medication to give, saying so is a good thing.
• Add an alternative contact (if necessary). When we boarded ours at the vets, we had my mother as a contact for any decision making. Now, that depends on how much decision making you want to leave up to the sitter. As an aside, if you do have a sitter, notifying the vets that this is the case and whether or not they can make certain decisions isn't a bad idea.
• Add a general "notes" section for basic behavioral information and what not.

That's all that I've managed to come up with.