Pick the carer before the hospital picks the date
If your stay is planned, the time to solve this is now, not from a ward bed. The best carer for a cat is usually someone she already knows and tolerates, who lives close enough to come daily without heroics, and who will actually notice if she is off her food. Ask directly and ask early, and have a second name in reserve, because life happens to carers too. If no one in your circle fits, a professional cat sitter who visits homes is the next choice — meet them in advance, watch them with your cat, and check they are insured and happy to send you photo updates. Settling this while you are calm turns the stay itself into a simple activation of a plan rather than a scramble.
Home visits suit most cats best
Unlike dogs, most cats experience a move — even to a kind cattery — as a loss of territory and routine at exactly the moment their person has also vanished. Care in her own home keeps every smell, sleeping place and habit intact, and for a stay of days to a few weeks, daily visits or a house-sitter staying over cover feeding, litter, play and company perfectly well. Boarding earns its place for very long stays, for cats needing medication or monitoring a visitor cannot manage, or where no trustworthy visitor exists. If she does board, choose somewhere you have visited in advance and book early, since the decision may need to be made at short notice.
The handover pack: everything in one place
Assume your carer knows nothing, however well they know your cat, and leave one pack on the kitchen counter. Stock up before you go: her food with amounts per meal written down, litter, any medicines she takes with their instructions copied exactly as your vet has given them, and the times of day her routine runs on. Add your vet's number and address, the emergency out-of-hours clinic, and a signed note authorising the carer to consent to emergency treatment in your absence, with how they can reach you or your next of kin about cost decisions. Leave a spare key sorted in advance, show them where the water shut-off and fuse box are, and note her hiding places so a shy cat is searched for in the right cupboards. A worn item of your clothing by her bed is a small thing that settles cats more than people expect.
If the stay stretches or starts suddenly
Stays extend, and emergencies skip the planning stage entirely, so build slack into the arrangement now. Leave more food than the expected stay needs. Give a trusted neighbour or family member a spare key and the carer's name, and keep a card in your wallet or phone that says you have a cat at home, who is feeding her, and their number — in an emergency admission, that card speaks for you. Ask the carer to send a short update and photo each visit; it reassures you, and it creates a record of how she is eating and behaving across the days.
All of this — the routine, the vet details, the permissions, the hiding places — is a great deal to hold in a counter-top folder that can be lost or left unread. KinsLe's Care Pass was built for precisely this handover: it gives your chosen person temporary, clear access to your cat's care routine and key details while you are away, so the person stepping in finds everything in one place the moment they walk through your door.