Start with the cat herself, and the people who matter
Open the sheet with a clear photo of your cat, her name, age and a line describing her markings — the details that matter if she ever slips out and a neighbour finds her. Add her microchip number and the database it is registered with. Then list the humans: your mobile number, the dates you are away and when you will be reachable, a local backup person who can step in, and your vet practice's name, address and phone number, including how out-of-hours emergencies are handled. Finish this section with the sentence sitters are most relieved to read: that they are authorised to approve emergency treatment in your absence, and how the costs will be settled. A sitter who has to guess whether they may act will hesitate at exactly the wrong moment.
Food, water and litter, written the way she expects them
Write the feeding routine as your cat experiences it, not as you would summarise it. Name the food, state how much makes a meal and how you measure it — the scoop, the pouch, the split tin — and give the times she is fed and where her bowl sits. Say where the food is stored and what she may have as treats, including a plain 'nothing from the table' if that is your rule. Water needs its own line: where her bowls are, how often you refresh them, and any fountain that needs topping up or switching off. Litter gets the same treatment — tray locations, the litter you use, how often to scoop, when a full change falls due, where waste goes and where the spare litter lives. Routine is a cat's sense of safety; the sheet's job is to keep hers unbroken.
Health notes a sitter genuinely needs
Record any known conditions in plain words, and list regular medication with its name and times copied exactly from the vet's label, plus how it is given — hidden in food, offered after a meal, whatever method already works with this cat. Note allergies, recent vet visits and anything currently being monitored. Most valuable of all, describe her normal: typical appetite, energy, litter habits and sleeping pattern. Then give the sitter the two thresholds that remove all doubt — the changes that mean 'phone me' (off her food for a day, unusually withdrawn) and the changes that mean 'vet now, then phone me' (straining to urinate, repeated vomiting, laboured breathing, a collapse). Nobody should have to improvise those judgements in someone else's kitchen.
House rules, quirks and comforts
Close with the household as she knows it: doors and windows that must stay shut, rooms that are off-limits, and hazards worth naming — the washing machine she investigates, the plant she chews, the cupboard that latches open. List her hiding places in order, so a sitter who cannot find her checks the airing cupboard before panicking. Note her favourite spots, toys and games, how she prefers to be approached, and the things that frighten her, from the vacuum to the doorbell. Keep the finished sheet to a couple of pages and walk through it once in person before you leave. A sheet covers the week; KinsLe's Pet Passport covers everything behind it, keeping her records together in one packet the sitter — or an emergency vet — can be handed in seconds.