Replacements go wrong at the shelf edge, where six similar bags face a sitter who was told to buy the usual litter. Cats notice substitutions that look trivial to a shopper: a scented litter where the tray has always held an unscented one, a different flavour in a familiar-looking food range, a fragranced cleaner around bowls. A written list that names each product the way a buyer needs to find it removes the guesswork before it reaches her tray.
Write Type and Variant for Every Item
Build the list product by product, and for each one record its type and its variant, plus where it is bought. Food entries name the format and the flavour she currently eats, such as a salmon dry food as her staple and the chicken wet food she has at night, described in general terms rather than by any commercial name, because what the sitter needs is the kind and flavour to match, guided by the photograph described below. The litter entry gives the litter type, for example an unscented clumping litter, plus how deep she likes her tray filled, since a tray filled too shallow or too deep can put a cat off using it. Cleaning entries cover what is used around her trays, bowls and feeding area, including anything you avoid near her things, such as strongly fragranced sprays, so a helpful sitter does not introduce a smell she dislikes at the exact place she eats.
Where each product is bought belongs on the list because ranges differ between shops, and a sitter sent to the wrong store may substitute under time pressure. Add the shelf detail you would want yourself: the shop name, and whether the item lives with pet supplies or household cleaning, in plain words.
Photographs and Same-Day Updates
Photograph the packaging of every product on the list, front and variant panel, and keep the photographs with the list itself. In the aisle, a sitter can hold a phone against a shelf of near-identical bags and match the pack in seconds, which no written description, however careful, quite achieves. Change the list that same day whenever a product changes, while the old pack is still in the house to be removed from the photographs, because lists updated from memory at the next trip quietly resurrect products you stopped buying months ago.
Substitutions, Refusals and Stock Problems
Give the sitter a decision rule before it is needed, because shelves empty and a sitter standing in an aisle needs guidance, not a dilemma. The rule that protects her routine is simple: phone you first where that is possible; if a substitute is unavoidable, match the type and variant as closely as the range allows for food, keep the litter type the same even if the pack size differs, and never swap in a scented or fragranced version of anything that touches her tray, bowls or feeding area. Ask the sitter to keep the substitute's packaging and receipt, and note the swap on the list when you return, so the record shows what she actually ate and used rather than what was planned.
Keep a short refused and failed section at the end of the list. Note the food flavour she would not eat, the litter she avoided or tracked badly, and any cleaner whose smell lingered around her bowls, each with a brief reason. That negative record stops a sitter, or you on a tired evening, rebuying a known failure on special offer, and it tells a new sitter which substitutions are risky if her exact product is out of stock: a different flavour in her food is a gamble, a different litter type is a bigger one. If the sitter is a paid professional, get the provider's agreed terms for replacement buying confirmed in writing in advance, covering who pays, any spending limit and whether receipts are needed, so goodwill is never tested by a bill. Pet Passport, stored through KinsLe as a single care packet, holds the photographed packaging and product notes a replacement shopper needs at the shelf.