A cattery booking often ends with a sentence owners skim: proof of vaccination required. For her first stay, that sentence deserves a slower read, because the cattery's requirements are the standard her record will be judged against, and drop-off day is far too late to discover a shortfall. The update is a comparison exercise done weeks ahead: what this cattery asks for, set against what her record and her certificates actually show, with any problem carried to her vet while appointments are still easy to get.
Asking the Cattery What It Requires
Her vaccination record should list each vaccination with its date, what it covered, and the next booster due date, matched against her certificates. What belongs on that list for boarding is the cattery's call, and requirements vary between catteries, so confirm them directly rather than assuming last year's rules or a friend's experience apply. Ask what they need to see, in what form, and by when: at booking, before the stay, or at the door. Write their answer into your stay notes with the date you asked. Some catteries also set conditions about how recently a vaccination must have been given, so ask about timing as part of the same conversation.
Book the record check into the same week you book the cattery, not the week of the stay. Requirements confirmed early leave room for a vet appointment if one is needed, and for a replacement certificate if one has gone missing. The stay itself then starts as a pleasure rather than a paperwork scramble at the door.
Comparing the Record, Line by Line
Now set the cattery's list beside her record and her certificates. For each required vaccination, find the line that proves it: the date it was given and what it covered, agreeing with the certificate. Then study the booster due dates through the lens of the stay. A booster due after the stay is a diary entry; a booster due shortly before it is a planning problem, because whether and when it should be given is her vet's decision, and vets need notice. Equally, a vaccination the record claims but no certificate supports will not survive a careful check-in, so resolve discrepancies while they are still paperwork rather than a doorstep dispute.
If the cattery's list includes anything her record does not show, do not argue the point at the desk or shop around for a more relaxed answer in a hurry. Take the gap to her vet, whose job includes judging what her record should say before boarding, and let the cattery's requirement and the vet's view settle the matter between them.
Raising Due Dates With the Vet Well Ahead
After the stay, add a dated line to the record noting that she boarded, where, and that her vaccinations were accepted. Next year's booking then starts from evidence rather than memory, and any booster given in between slots into a history that already makes sense to whoever reads it. Keep the cattery's requirement list with that line, so the comparison can be repeated quickly.
Anything the comparison throws up goes to her vet early: a booster falling due before the stay, a gap between the record and the cattery's list, a certificate you cannot find. The record itself sets no schedule; it simply makes the questions visible in time for the vet to answer them. Once the vet has dealt with whatever needs dealing with, update the record the same day and re-check it against the certificates. On drop-off day, hand the cattery the record summary with her, so staff hold the verified version rather than a hurried retelling. Verified in KinsLe before the booking, her Pet Passport holds the vaccination record you compared, ready to show the cattery at check-in.