A sitter who has never met your cat needs the same answers at every visit: what to feed, where the boxes are, who to call. This free pet sitter instructions template puts all of it on two printed pages, with room for two cats and a log the sitter fills in as they go.
Two pages, about 250 KB. The download starts straight away: no email address asked, and you may print as many copies as you like.
What the pet sitter instructions template covers
- Page 1: dates, your contacts and a backup, the door code, your vet, a 24-hour emergency vet, both US pet poison lines as the FDA lists them, and a blank for a local line outside the US.
- Also on page 1: a table for up to two cats with what is normal for each (meals eaten, urine clumps a day and their size, hiding spots), so a sitter can tell when something changes, plus a floor-plan grid to sketch where the boxes, bowls and carrier are.
- Page 2: a checklist for each visit, when to call the vet right away, and a 10-row visit log with columns for food, water, urine clumps and stool.
The sheet leaves food and medicine blank on purpose. Copy them from the food label and your vet’s instructions, word for word, so the sitter never has to guess an amount.
How to use it
Fill it in a few days before you leave, while you can still ask your vet a question. Walk the sitter through it in person if you can, and show them the boxes, the carrier and the drawer where the wand toys live. Then tape it inside a kitchen cabinet door, where it stays out of sight from the window but is the first thing anyone opens.
The visit checklist assumes at least two visits a day. That is Cats Protection’s advice for a sitter, and the charity asks for extra visits when the cat is young, old or unwell. Ask the sitter to fill in the log each time, because “ate” and “used the box” are the two lines a vet will ask about first.
Two lines on the visit checklist have sources of their own. Play for 10 to 15 minutes if the cat wants it, which is the length of a short session in AAHA, VCA and San Francisco SPCA advice, then the wand toy goes back in a closed drawer. And the windows and balcony door are shut before the sitter leaves, because falls from open windows and balconies are common enough to have a veterinary name, high-rise syndrome (Vnuk and others, 2004).
Pricing the trip as well? The weekend-away cost calculator compares sitter visits with boarding and with gear plus a friend’s visits.
Sources
- Cats Protection, Going on holiday. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- US Food and Drug Administration, Lovely lilies and curious cats (the two poison lines). Read Oct 16, 2026.
- Cornell Feline Health Center, Feline lower urinary tract disease. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- VCA Animal Hospitals, Linear foreign body in cats. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- AAHA, How often should you play with your cat? Read Oct 16, 2026.
- San Francisco SPCA, Playing with your cat. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- VCA Animal Hospitals, Cat behavior and training: play and play toys. Read Oct 16, 2026.
- Vnuk and others, Feline high-rise syndrome: 119 cases, Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 2004. Read Oct 16, 2026.
Related: the weekend-away checklist, care guides on time alone and sitters, the cleaning tracker and Start here.