Explain Which Spaces Are Now Managed Differently
A home with a newborn runs on new door habits, and a sitter who last visited before the baby arrived will get them wrong with the best intentions. Walk through which doors now stay closed, above all the room where the baby sleeps, and explain the simple rule behind it: the cat is not shut in with the baby and is never left alone with the baby, however gentle she has always been. Show the sitter where the cat is welcome instead, including any perch, bed or warm spot she has claimed since the rearrangement, and point out equipment that is off limits, such as the pram, the changing mat and any blankets that belong to the baby. Agree what the sitter should do if they find the cat asleep somewhere she should not be: lift her out calmly and close the door, no fuss and no punishment.
Cover Hygiene in the Sitter's Actual Task Order
The sitter's cat jobs sit right next to a newborn's world, so sequence matters. Talk through the order you expect: litter tray and feeding duties first, hands washed properly afterwards, and only then anything that involves the baby, the baby's bottles or the baby's laundry. Show the sitter where the tray lives now, because many families move it when a nursery takes over a room, and where used litter goes in this house. Explain where the cat's food is prepared and that her bowls stay separate from the family's washing-up routine if that is your practice. These are small details, but they are exactly the ones a first-time sitter improvises, and improvisation is what you are briefing to avoid.
Describe How This Cat Has Coped With the Baby So Far
Every cat responds differently to a newborn, and the sitter needs this cat's story, not general reassurance. Say honestly how she has been: whether crying sends her under a bed for an hour or she sleeps through it, whether visitors make her hide or perform, whether her appetite, litter habits or night-time behaviour have shifted since the baby came home. Show the sitter her retreat, the quiet place she can always reach where nobody picks her up, and explain that a cat who has taken herself there is to be left alone, not coaxed out for company. Flag the changes worth reporting to you promptly, such as hiding far more than usual, going off her food, or toileting outside the tray, because in a house running on broken sleep those signs are easy to miss.
Agree the Sitter's Jobs and Nobody Else's
In a newborn household, tasks fall between tired people unless someone owns them, so be explicit that while the sitter is there, the cat's feeding, water, litter and daily check are the sitter's jobs, done at the times you set, not fitted around when a parent happens to surface. Write down those times realistically, allowing that feeds may have drifted since the baby arrived, and say which version is the current one. Cover the contacts as well: your vet, your backup person, and how to reach you in a way that respects that you may be asleep when a message lands. Agree what a useful update looks like, perhaps one short message a day confirming the cat has eaten and seems herself, so the sitter is not adding to the household's noise.
Setting this out in a KinsLe Care Pass gives a sitter who has never met this cat the full picture in one place: her feeding times, her retreat, and the closed-door rules that keep the baby's spaces separate.