Cat Sitting25 Days

Fifty visits across twenty-five days, and she never sees the inside of a carrier.

Use them as one long block for a month abroad, or draw them down across the year — a fortnight in December, a few days in April, the weekends away you haven't planned yet. For a cat this is the arrangement that matters most, whichever way you use it. A long cattery stay is a long stretch in a small space surrounded by other cats, and plenty of cats come back thinner, flatter and briefly unrecognisable in temperament. At home, none of it registers as an event: her territory is intact, her routine holds, and the only variable is which of us opens the food.

Over fifty visits we get to know her properly, and that's the real safety net. Cats hide illness well, and what gives it away is a small deviation from an established pattern — eating a bit less, using the tray a bit more, sleeping somewhere new. You can only spot that against a baseline, and fifty visits builds a thorough one whether they fall in a month or across a year.

Messages and pictures throughout. However long you're gone, that steady trickle of ordinary photographs of a cat asleep in the sun is worth more than people expect.

Nobody sleeps over. Most healthy adult cats manage nights alone in their own house without difficulty, including long runs of them. For a kitten, a frail elderly cat, or one on medication needing close monitoring, talk to us first.

Twenty-five days at R490 each, with 40% back — the largest return we offer on anything — valid twelve months from purchase.

Before we come

We visit twice a day. We don't stay the night. It's worth being clear about that before you book, because "pet sitting" means different things at different companies. Your animal is at home in their own house, with someone coming morning and evening — not boarded, and not supervised around the clock. For most pets that's a better arrangement than a kennel or a cattery. For some it isn't, and we'd rather you knew which yours is now than find out while you're away. Write everything down for us. Feeding times, how much, which bowl, which cupboard, what they're not allowed, where the lead lives, which door sticks, what the alarm code is, and what "normal" looks like for your animal. You know all of it without thinking; we don't know any of it. The households where sitting goes best are the ones that leave a list on the fridge. Leave us your vet's details and a number you'll actually answer. Also a second contact — a neighbour, a family member — for the times you're on a plane or out of signal. We hope never to need any of it. Tell us about the animals we might not see. The nervous cat who hides under the bed all three days, the second dog who's fine with people but not with strangers arriving, the tortoise in the garden. Nothing is too small to mention. Tell us about medication, and be specific. What it is, when, how much, how it's given, and what happens if a dose is missed. Your days don't have to be consecutive. A package is a pot of days to draw on, not one fixed booking. Use ten in a row for a holiday, or one here and one there across the year as work and life demand. Either way, book as far ahead as you can — a single day at short notice we can often manage, but a run of days over December is worth locking in early. Enough food, litter and medication for the whole booking, plus a bit spare. We'd rather not be buying your cat an unfamiliar food on day two. For a long block, stock up properly. Food and litter for the whole stretch plus spare, and tell us the brands and where to buy them. Running out on day twenty and substituting is how a settled cat stops eating. Leave a local contact with authority to decide, and tell us in writing what we can authorise at the vet without reaching you, including a rough limit. Check your insurance and ours. Somebody holding your key across a year, or through a month away, is a different arrangement from an afternoon — worth settling before the first booking rather than after. Keep an eye on the balance and the clock. Twenty-five days is a lot to place, and the package is valid twelve months from purchase. We'll tell you what's left whenever you ask.