Ask First, Then Write It Down
The record only works if the person named in it has agreed. Talk to your chosen carer before recording anything: explain what caring for your cat involves day to day, her age, temperament and any ongoing needs, and ask honestly whether they would take her — permanently, not just for a holiday. A reluctant yes given under pressure in a kitchen conversation deserves a follow-up talk, and a genuine no is valuable information that sends you to your second choice while there is time.
Once agreed, write the decision down formally in your cat's records: the carer's full name, address and phone numbers, the date you agreed it, and a sentence in your own words stating this is who you want to care for her. Undated, unsigned intentions found in a notebook carry little weight in a family discussion; a clear, dated record settles arguments before they start.
Always Name a Backup
Lives change between the writing and the need. Your chosen carer may move abroad, develop an allergy, take in other animals or face their own crisis in the same season as yours. Record a backup carer — asked and agreed the same way — and note the order plainly: first choice, then backup. Tell both people about each other, so the backup is not surprised by a phone call and the primary knows a safety net exists.
Consider also a short-term holder: someone local who can feed and keep her safe for the first days while the long-term carer arranges travel or space. Emergencies have a first week as well as a future, and the neighbour with a key who knows her routine may be the most important name in the first forty-eight hours.
Tell the People Who Will Be Asked
A record nobody can find protects nobody. Tell your close family where the instruction is kept, lodge a copy with the carer and the backup, and let your vet practice note it in her file if they are willing — the practice is often the first place a family rings. If you have made a will or similar formal arrangements with a solicitor, mention your wishes for your cat there too and take their advice on how such wishes are best recorded; this article is general information, not legal advice, and the formal side deserves proper guidance.
Keep the record with her care documents rather than in a separate 'important papers' place nobody associates with the cat. The person packing her carrier should meet the instruction in the same folder as her vaccination copies and routine notes.
Give the Chosen Carer a Head Start
Do not leave the named person to start from zero. Share her routine, vet details, hiding places and quirks with them now, while you can answer questions — many owners invite the future carer to feed her occasionally or stay over, so the cat already knows them. Note in the record where her full profile and history live, and what practical arrangements you have made or intend for her ongoing costs, so the carer inherits clarity rather than a financial surprise.
Update the record when anything changes: a carer moves, a backup's circumstances shift, your cat develops a condition a future owner must know about. Review the names once a year — people who were the right choice earlier may be wrong now, through nobody's fault.
Make the Handover Itself Kind
Write a short letter to sit with the record, addressed to whoever takes her: the routines that comfort her, the handling she dislikes, the foods and games she loves, the words you call her by. In the worst week of her life, those details are how a new home smells of the old one. Note what goes with her — carrier, favourite bedding, the toys that matter — so her belongings travel with her rather than being separated in a house clearance.
And if the recorded wish ever has to be used, KinsLe Transferrable Profiles allow her complete profile — history, records and routines — to transfer to that chosen new owner intact, so she arrives known rather than unknown.