Ask questions that reveal the actual care system.
A sitter’s affection for cats matters, but professional reliability also depends on feline-specific judgment, insurance, medication scope, backups, records, communication, access, and emergency planning.
Ask how the sitter interprets and adapts to cats.
The provider should describe real practices rather than repeating general claims about being calm or experienced.
How is your experience specifically feline?
Ask about cats served, ages, health conditions, shy and reactive cats, multi-cat homes, medication, litter concerns, appetite changes, and how feline behavior differs from dog care.
How do you care for a cat who hides?
Look for an answer involving baseline, safe hiding, food and litter evidence, known locations, indirect observation, photographs when possible, and clear thresholds for concern—not forced pursuit for a social photo.
What do you observe beyond food and litter?
Useful answers include appetite, water, urine and stool, movement, breathing, posture, grooming, coat, medication response, social behavior, location, home safety, and changes from baseline.
How do you decide visit frequency?
The answer should consider age, health, medication, food, litter, social dependence, recovery, household risk, and safe observation gaps rather than offering one schedule for every cat.
Know who stands behind the person entering the home.
Independent care can be excellent, but the guardian should understand insurance, contracts, records, backups, scheduling, and the response when the original sitter cannot attend.
Are you bonded and insured?
Ask what the coverage applies to, whether the service is operating professionally, and who handles an incident or property concern.
What happens if you are sick?
Ask whether there is a qualified backup, how that person accesses the current care plan, and who communicates the change.
Where are care instructions stored?
A repeatable system should preserve the household, cat, veterinary, medication, emergency, and access information beyond one sitter’s memory.
How are keys and access handled?
Ask about key identification, storage, lockboxes, alarms, fobs, return, backups, and what happens after a lockout.
What does a visit include?
Clarify duration, essential tasks, optional home tasks, updates, holiday rules, parking, additional cats, and procedures requiring extra fees or time.
When is the booking confirmed?
Understand the difference among inquiry, account creation, submitted request, accepted reservation, payment, cancellation, and final instructions.
Capability includes knowing when a task should not be attempted.
A provider should define procedure-specific experience, cat-handling limits, documentation, missed-dose plans, veterinary instructions, and when another care setting is safer.
Which medication procedures do you provide?
Ask separately about oral medication, eye drops, topical treatment, injections, fluids, insulin, storage, timing, and whether a particular method requires an introductory visit or rehearsal.
What happens if medication cannot be given?
The sitter should follow a written plan, document what occurred, contact the authorized person, and avoid guessing whether to repeat or change a dose.
How do you respond to a meaningful change?
Look for a defined communication and escalation sequence, not only “I will let you know.” The sitter should know the guardian, backup, care team, veterinary destination, carrier, and transport plan.
When do you recommend boarding instead?
A trustworthy sitter should be able to say that in-home visits are not the safest setting when observation, appetite, diabetes, medication, recovery, or household conditions exceed drop-in capacity.
Cats in the City provides feline-only service with organizational support.
The model includes bonded and insured service, structured client profiles, management, backup planning, medication review, connected services, and a broader feline-care organization.