Leave one page on the counter with feeding amounts, medication, your vet's number, your number, and an emergency contact who is local. Put the food, the scoop, the leash, and the medication in one visible place rather than four cupboards. Email your vet authorizing treatment and naming a spending limit. That is roughly five minutes of work and it prevents almost every call a sitter has to make to someone on vacation.
We have done a lot of these visits now, and the pattern is consistent. The problems are almost never the pets. They are the scoop that lives in a bin in the garage, the medication somebody meant to mention, and the vet who will not treat because nobody authorized it.
None of that is a failure of care. It is that you know where everything is, so it does not occur to you to say.
Leave These on the Counter
Not in a drawer, not in a text message, not in an email thread. On the counter, where somebody standing in your kitchen will see it.
The one-page sheet
- Each pet's name and what they look like
- Feeding amount and times, in cups not "a scoop"
- Medication: what, how much, when, how
- Your phone number and where you are
- A local emergency contact with a key
The physical stuff
- Food, with the scoop actually in the bag
- Treats, and which ones are allowed
- A spare leash and harness
- Medication, out and labeled
- Paper towels and cleaning supplies
Access
- Lockbox code or spare key location
- Alarm code and how to disarm it
- Which door to use
- Gate latch quirks, if any
- Wifi password if there are cameras
The scoop thing is real. It is the single most common item a sitter cannot find, and "one scoop" means nothing without the scoop it refers to. Write the amount in cups and leave the measure in the bag. Thirty seconds now, no text message from a stranger while you are at dinner.
The Emergency Information
This is the part where being thorough genuinely matters, because it is the part that is impossible to sort out remotely at eleven at night.
- Your vet's name, number, and address. Written down, not "it's the one on the highway."
- The nearest 24-hour emergency clinic. Different from your regular vet and worth looking up in advance. Our local vet and pet business roundup covers the Bonney Lake area options.
- Written authorization to treat. Email your clinic before you leave, name your sitter, and authorize care. Many practices will not treat without it, and that is a delay you cannot fix from a plane.
- A spending limit. Give a number you are comfortable with. It removes an agonizing decision from someone who does not have the standing to make it.
- A local backup human. Someone with a key who can get there if something happens the sitter cannot handle alone.
- Microchip numbers and current photos. If a pet gets out, a current photo on a phone is worth more than a description.
- Known conditions and reactions. Allergies, medication sensitivities, seizure history, anything a vet would want to know in the first minute.
By Pet Type
Dogs
- Where the leash and harness live, plus a spare
- Recall reliability, honestly assessed, and whether off-leash is ever appropriate
- Reactivity toward other dogs, people, bikes, or the mail carrier
- Whether the yard is genuinely secure or optimistically described as secure
- Crate habits: does the crate help or is it a fight
- Which commands they actually respond to
- Anything they are known to eat that they should not
Cats
- Where every litter box is, including the one in the basement you forgot about
- Where the litter and scoop are kept
- Where the cat hides, so a sitter can confirm they saw them rather than guessing
- Indoor only, and which doors are the escape risk
- Whether they will eat with a stranger present or need to be left alone
The hiding spot detail matters more than people expect. Confirming eyes on a shy cat is a real part of the visit, and a sitter who does not know about the closet shelf will spend ten minutes worried before finding them.
Everyone else
- Fish: how much food, and a clear "no more than this" warning
- Birds: cover schedule, temperature, foods that are dangerous
- Reptiles: heat lamp and humidity settings, and what to do if a bulb fails
- Small mammals: water bottle checks, which are easy to overlook
The House Itself
Half of what makes a check-in useful has nothing to do with the animals.
Tell your sitter
- Which lights to leave on, and whether any are on timers
- Thermostat setting and whether to adjust it
- Where the water shutoff is
- Whether to bring in mail and packages
- Which plants need water and how much
- Any deliveries or contractors expected
- Where cameras are, if you have them
Do before you go
- Test the lockbox or door code yourself
- Take out the trash
- Fill water bowls and top up the food bin
- Clear anything a bored pet could get into
- Check the yard gate actually latches
- Tell a neighbor somebody will be coming by
That last one prevents an awkward conversation. Neighbors who do not know a sitter is expected sometimes make phone calls, and occasionally to the police.
What You Get Back
Preparation is one direction. The other direction matters too, and it is worth asking any sitter what you actually receive while you are gone.
On our vacation check-ins, every visit sends an arrival text and a departure photo showing your door secured, plus a written report on how your animals were. Those reports collect in your Dooty Dashboard, so a week of visits reads as one history rather than fourteen disconnected notifications.
Mail, packages, and plant watering are free while we are already there, and fish and birds ride along at no extra charge. Litter gets scooped on every visit, same as our regular litter box service, and a walk upgrade is available for dogs who need to run it out rather than just get let out.
Five Minutes, Honestly
Everything above sounds like a lot written down. In practice it is one page, one shelf, and one email to your vet.
The households that do it never hear from us mid-trip, which is the entire point. The best possible version of this service is that you go away, and the only thing you notice is a photo of your own front door arriving twice a day.
If you are still weighing this against a kennel, we laid the numbers out in boarding versus in-home check-ins, including the cases where boarding is the better call.