Between bookings, a cat's care rarely transforms; it edits. A new food replaces the old one, a medication routine shifts its timing, the evening feed moves earlier. The sitter's risk is not ignorance of your cat in general, since they know her from last time, but the quiet survival of one outdated detail inside an otherwise familiar routine.
Send One Update, Not a Trail of Messages
Gather every change and send it as one consolidated written update before the booking, in a single message or document the sitter can save, rather than scattered across texts sent on different days as each change occurred to you. Scattered messages bury amendments in chat history, and the one mentioning her new food may sit below a photograph of somebody's holiday by the time the booking starts. One update, sent close enough to the booking to be read fresh but early enough to allow questions, gives the changes a single home the sitter can check on the first evening without archaeology.
List Only What Changed
The discipline that makes the update work is exclusion: list only what changed since the last booking. Name her new food and how it is served if the presentation changed, describe any alteration to her medication routine in general terms only, such as its timing relative to meals, and note routine changes like a moved feeding time, a newly locked cat flap or a different room for the litter tray. Details that stayed the same do not belong in the document at all. A sitter scanning three true changes absorbs all three; a sitter handed the full care sheet again skims it as familiar and can miss the one line that differs.
Ask for a Read-Back Before the Booking
Request that the sitter confirm back, in their own words, what they have understood from the update: which food, what routine timing, which doors and times now apply. A read-back is not distrust; it is how hospitals and pilots catch the gap between what was sent and what was received, and it catches real errors, such as a sitter who has understood the new food but kept the old feeding time to go with it. Correct any mismatch in writing while days remain, and thank the sitter for the exercise, because the ones who read back carefully are demonstrating exactly the conscientiousness you are paying for.
Replace the Master Sheet, Do Not Layer It
Once the update is agreed, fold the changes into your master care sheet and date the new version, deleting or clearly retiring the old file so no outdated copy survives to be followed by mistake. Layered documents, a sheet plus amendments plus a correcting text, are how a conscientious sitter ends up feeding last season's food from a printout they trusted. Send the sitter the refreshed master sheet alongside confirmation that it now matches the update, and keep your own copies in the same single place, so the next booking starts from one source of truth rather than a small archive of contradictions.
If Dates or Rates Change, Confirm Them in Writing
A changed booking often carries changed logistics as well, and any difference in dates, overnight arrangements or the sitter's rates for this booking should be confirmed in writing between you, as agreed terms, at the same time as the care update. Keeping commercial clarity in the same tidy exchange prevents the one misunderstanding that can sour an otherwise flawless sit. Care Pass through KinsLe presents the updated routine to the sitter within a scoped window that closes at the booking's end.