Good sitter instructions for a shy cat start from an honest premise: the sitter may do the job perfectly and barely see the cat at all, so the notes have to prove she is well without a single sighting.
Write Down Where She Hides
List her hiding places room by room — under the bed, behind the sofa, the wardrobe corner she has claimed — so the sitter knows where she is likely to be and, just as importantly, that her being there is normal. State the rule plainly and early: never pull her out, never reach into a hiding spot, and never move furniture to get a look at her. A sitter who understands that an unseen cat is the expected outcome will not go hunting for reassurance at the cat's expense.
Approach Rules, in Her Language
Explain how to be near her safely: come in, do the jobs, sit down quietly and let her make any first move. Approach low and sideways rather than head-on, let her sniff a hand before any touch, and treat a retreat as an answer, not a setback. Quiet presence — reading in the room, talking softly while changing the water — is the whole social programme. The goal you give the sitter is a fed, calm, unseen cat, not a new friendship.
Proving She Has Eaten Without Seeing Her Eat
Shy cats commonly eat at night, so the evidence is in the bowls, not the room. Ask the sitter to check the food bowl's level each morning against the night before, to note whether the water has gone down, and to look at the litter tray — used normally, it is the surest sign the household is running. A three-part check like that, reported daily, tells you more than any photograph of a cat who has been lured out and stressed to get it.
Her Routine and the Call-Me Signs
Include her normal routine and the signs she is coping: quiet presence in the house, eating at night, using her usual spots. Then list the signs that mean call you or the vet — food untouched for a full day, a dry litter tray, yowling, or a hiding place suddenly abandoned for somewhere stranger. Clear thresholds free the sitter from guessing which worry is worth a phone call. Keeping those notes inside her KinsLe Pet Passport means the sitter reads the shy-cat rules from the same packet that holds her vet history and records — one place, ready for this handoff and the next.