FROM THE FAMILY BINDER KIT
Pet Sitter Instructions: What to Leave for the Sitter Before You Travel for the Holidays
Everything a pet sitter or house sitter needs, on two or three printed pages: feeding, walks, medicines, the vet, what never to give, and the house.
Start tonight, free: the Emergency Contacts page in our free Home Binder Starter already has a Veterinarian row and two Neighbor rows. Get the starter ›
Only need the emergency pages? A Pet Care page for each pet is in the Grab-and-Go Emergency Binder, 26 pages, $7.99
Holiday travel is when a pet most often stays with someone new: a sitter, a neighbor, a teenager down the street, your sister. Texts get buried, and the note on the fridge leaves out the one thing that matters, like the dog who can't have grapes or the cat who bolts when the doorbell rings.
Good pet sitter instructions answer three questions without a phone call: what to do every day, what never to do, and who to call if something goes wrong. Below is the Pet Care page from our Family Binder Kit, part by part, with what to write in each, and then a short list for the house.
Grab first · one page per pet
The Pet Care page, part by part
One page per pet. Fill it in a week before you leave, so there is time to find the microchip number.
Pet's name
And any nickname they answer to. The page has a box that says Tape a photo here. Use a recent photo, so a neighbor could pick your pet out if it slips out the door.
Kind and breed
With Birthday or age and Color and markings, so a shelter can match your pet to a lost-pet report.
Microchip #
With the Microchip company. If the pet gets out, the sitter calls the company with this number.
Regular vet
Name and phone. Call the clinic before you leave and tell them who is caring for your pet. Some clinics ask for a signed note that lets the sitter approve treatment.
Emergency vet
The nearest 24-hour animal hospital. Your regular vet is likely closed on the holiday itself.
Food and how much
The food, the exact amount and which scoop. "A cup" means different things to different people.
Feeding times
Real times, like 7 am and 6 pm. Pets keep a schedule better than sitters do.
Walks or litter
How many walks, how long, which route, where the bags are. For a cat: which box, and how often to scoop.
Never give
The foods and treats this pet must not have. Holiday kitchens are full of them, so write it even if it seems obvious. Your vet can tell you which ones matter for your animal.
Medicines
Four columns: Medicine, Dose, When and How to give it. The last one is the column people forget: hidden in cheese, mixed into wet food, held in the cheek.
Habits, fears and things to know
Fireworks, thunder, the doorbell, other dogs, the gap under the fence, the cat who darts out when the door opens.
Where supplies are kept
Food, treats, leash, bags, litter, medicines, the carrier.
If I can't care for this pet
A First choice and a Backup, with phone numbers. On a trip, this is who the sitter calls if they cannot reach you.
Home
For the house: keys and codes
A pet sitter is also a house sitter for a few days. The kit's Keys & Codes page has one rule printed at the top: Never write a code on this page. It lists Who has a key, the Spare keys, and Codes: who knows them, so the page can sit on the counter safely.
Who has a key
The sitter, and anyone else who might let themselves in while you're away. Tell the sitter who those people are.
Alarm system and Garage door keypad
Write who knows the code. Give the sitter the code itself in person or by text.
Where the shutoffs are
From Household at a Glance in the free starter: Water main, Gas shutoff, Breaker panel. A burst pipe in a cold snap is a house sitter's worst evening.
FREE · 10 PRINTABLE PAGES
Get the free Home Binder Starter
Ten pages to start the binder tonight: Emergency Contacts, Household at a Glance, the Medical One-Pager, a document inventory, a bills tracker, a password log and more. Sent to your inbox.
Before you leave: a one-hour walk-through
- Fill in the pages a week ahead. Then you have time to call the vet, find the microchip number and buy enough food.
- Walk the sitter through the house. Food, leash, litter, thermostat, the water shutoff. Show, don't tell.
- Give the medicine once, together. Five minutes of watching saves a lot of texting.
- Leave the pages in one place. A folder on the counter, or the binder open to the Grab First tab, where the Pet Care page lives.
- Text a photo of each page to the sitter. A backup on their phone, in case the folder walks off.
If the sitter is staying in the house
- Mail, packages and trash day. Which day the trash goes out, and where packages should go.
- The thermostat. The range you want, and what not to touch.
- Lights and timers. Which ones are on timers, and which to leave on at night.
- Who to call for the house. The Utilities table on Household at a Glance has the providers and phone numbers for Electric, Gas or heating oil, Water and sewer and the rest.
For longer than a holiday
The Family Binder Kit has a second page for pets, A Plan for My Pets, for the bigger question of who would take them for good. It starts: Who will take my pets, and what they need to feel at home. Its Grab-and-Go Bag page has a pet list too, from Ready.gov guidance.
Most families never need that page. The ones who do are glad it was written by the person who knew the dog best.
