A first cattery stay is the first time your cat's care passes entirely to people who have never seen her before, working in a building full of other cats, on a routine that is not hers. The conditions list you send ahead of that stay does work your home record never has to do: it introduces her, warns without alarming, and tells busy staff exactly which changes should make them pick up the phone. Updating it for check-in is therefore about presentation as much as accuracy, because a complete list that staff cannot scan in a busy morning will fail her just as surely as an incomplete one.
What the Cattery Needs, in Writing, Before Check-In
Send the list before the stay, in writing, and ask the cattery to confirm they have read it, rather than handing over pages during a noisy check-in with a carrier in your arms. Entry by entry it should give each condition in plain words, the signs that mean she needs a vet promptly, when it was last reviewed, and which practice is managing it, in language a competent staff member without a clinical background can follow. Say plainly which practice should be called for her and confirm whether the cattery uses that practice or their own, because that single point decides how fast she is seen if a sign appears at a weekend. Where a condition affects daily handling, such as a cat who must not be picked up in a particular way or who stops eating when she is stressed, put that beside the condition rather than in a separate note the staff may never connect to it. Confirm the cattery's agreed terms in writing at the same time, covering the stay itself, any extra care the list requires, and who authorizes and pays for a vet visit, so the briefing and the booking rest on the same understanding.
A First Stay Reveals What Home Life Hides
Because this is her first stay, the list is partly a prediction, and honesty about that helps the staff help her. Mark anything you are unsure how she will handle away from home, such as appetite loss in a new place or hiding for the first day, as expected behavior to monitor rather than as an emergency sign, so staff can tell settling behavior apart from the prompt signs that genuinely need a vet. Ask the cattery, when you book, how they record observations during a stay and how they will report back to you, and leave space in your own copy of the list for their notes to be added when you collect her. A short trial stay, if the cattery offers one, can test the list cheaply: what staff report afterwards tells you which entries were clear, which were vague, and which warnings you pitched at the wrong level.
Bringing the Stay Home Into the Record
Collect her notes along with the cat, and update the master list from what the cattery actually observed while the stay is fresh in everyone's mind. If she ate well, settled quickly, and showed none of the signs you warned about, record that too, because a list that only ever grows more alarming stops reflecting the real cat. If a sign did appear, note when it appeared, what staff did, and which practice saw her, and fold that experience into the entry itself rather than leaving it in a separate message thread. The next stay, at this cattery or another, then starts from experience instead of prediction. Keeping the handed-over version and the updated master together in Pet Passport, the packet KinsLe maintains for her records, means you can always show exactly what a cattery was told and when they were told it.