Send a Small Set That Can Be Counted, Not a Bag of Extras
Belongings go missing at boarding through volume and vagueness, not theft. A carrier stuffed with six toys, two blankets, and a jumper gives staff an uncountable pile that gets laundered, rotated, and mixed with the facility's own stock. One blanket, two or three favourite washable toys, and nothing you cannot bear to lose makes a set anyone can check in seconds. Choose items that carry her home scent but are replaceable if the worst happens, and leave the irreplaceable childhood blanket at home in favour of a slept-on spare that does the same comfort work.
Photograph and List the Set Before You Leave Home
Take a clear phone photograph of the exact items laid out together, and write a short inventory: one grey fleece blanket, one knitted fish, one ball with a bell, and so on, described by colour and type. Attach that list to the paperwork you hand over and keep the photograph on your phone. This thirty-second job converts a later dispute about what was sent into a glance at a picture, and it reminds you as much as the cattery, because owners also forget whether the fish went or stayed.
Agree the Storage Method at Check-In, Out Loud
At drop-off, while the carrier is still in reception, confirm where her belongings will live during the stay: ideally in her own unit with her, which is also best for her comfort, or in a labelled bag bearing her name if the facility rotates bedding for washing. Ask what happens when the blanket is laundered mid-stay and how they keep sets together in the wash, because that is the moment belongings most often wander. A facility with a clear answer, named bags, one set per unit, wash returned to the same unit, has solved this problem before and will solve it for you.
Note the name of the person who checked her in on your paperwork. At collection, questions land faster when you can say who agreed the arrangement rather than describing a conversation with someone at a desk.
Check the Set at Collection, Before You Leave the Building
The single most effective step is the least glamorous: open the carrier bag at reception and count the set against your photograph before you drive away. Toys roll under unit furniture, blankets stay in laundry rooms, and a check made on the premises ends with a staff member retrieving the missing fish in two minutes. The same check made by phone three days later competes with a full laundry cycle and a dozen other departures, and often ends with a well-meant apology instead of the toy.
If something is genuinely lost, ask them to note it and call you if it surfaces in the next wash, and decide whether it matters enough to collect later or write off as the known risk you planned for by sending replaceable things.
Put the Inventory Where Both Ends of the Stay Can See It
Belongings get lost at handovers: between you and reception, between shifts, between the unit and the laundry. A written inventory that travels with her booking, rather than living only in your memory or a conversation at the desk, survives every one of those handovers. Staff packing her up on departure day should be reading the same short list you agreed at arrival, and anything they cannot find gets flagged while she is still on the premises.
Including the blanket and toy inventory in the handover you share through KinsLe's Care Pass puts that list in front of the cattery team alongside her routine, so her comfort items are checked out to her unit at check-in and checked back in with her at collection as part of the same document.